Is Golf Dying?

I recently received my Callaway catalog in the mail and one of the lead stories was by George Fellows the CEO on how golf was a dying sport. According to Fellows, golf is dying because it's not growing. He goes on to site lower rounds played, lower viewing audiences and fewer new people taking up the game.

Fellows blames, in part, the discrimination by many clubs against women and juniors with regards to tee time availability. The apparent industry logic that when a male hits 50 or 60 he will automatically wake up one morning and decide that he'll become a golfer is another of Fellow's concerns.

To counter this trend, Fellows wants to see more effort in recruiting youth into the sport. Father son, Mom daughter, or even family team tournaments should be encouraged to get the game going again. In other words, new blood, and more importantly to Callaway, new customers are needed to keep the game viable.

I'm not real sure I know who George has been talking to or what clubs he has been visiting. If he's talking about private courses he probably is correct. However, a glance at any public course in Southern California would seem to counter his observations. Ladies' clubs have popped up that are often times larger than the men's clubs at public courses. Kids? There are so many blue shirted players with chopped down clubs you begin to wonder if there any left to play soccer.

Young adults? Probably the most annoying of all when viewed thru my old eyes. Or maybe I'm just jealous. There is one group of pub crawlers that hold a Triathlon at our course every year. The three sports involved are bowling, golf and pool and they are all played in the same day. By the time they finish their bowling tournament (which starts at 6:00 AM) and get to the course they are well lubricated. Usually they can get around with no major injuries and then pile into their charter bus and head to their final venue, a bar, to play their pool tournament. Bastards never invited me.

A bigger threat to golf is the price of land even in these troubled times. Golf courses that are not part of a development, are not nearly as profitable as say a Mac Mansion development. Fewer courses drives competition for tee times up which drives greens fees up. Add to this mix an increasing practice of municipalities to add additional taxes and fees in an effort to raise money where it can, and you start to price out the very people you need to keep the game alive. In essence you have a recipe for turning the game of golf back to the elitist activity it was 50 years ago.

So is golf dying or is it just being priced out of reach? I still don't understand families that shell out $300 to see a Dodgers' game so maybe I'm not on track here. All I can report is golf seems very much alive (and crowded) in So Cal.