Golf is in decline?
I had no idea. In this fascinating article on golf in The Wall Street Journal today (sub. required), I learned that golf's popularity might be waning. I thought it was expanding?
Modern golf courses, more often than not, are built and groomed to impress very good players, not help average golfers. They are often difficult. Play slows down. Golfers find themselves waiting between shots. They stew (in the electric carts the course requires them to rent) about getting no exercise. They ask themselves whether the $60 or $120 or more they paid for this five-hour ordeal was money well spent. Some conclude it wasn't. They feel vaguely fleeced. They play less -- or quit.
Nearly three million of the 26 million adult golfers in the U.S. quit each year, says the National Golf Foundation, an industry research group. Why? Health, job and family obligations, and other spare-time attractions are some of the reasons. But underlying those, dropouts say in surveys, is this: The game is too difficult, too time-consuming and too expensive.
Who would have known. I can't believe almost as many people quit each year as start. There might be a real opening in the market for lower-scale public courses that aren't so tough. Hmmmm..... (Thanks to Tamara G. for forwarding this)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 8:12 PM
