where will golf be in 10 years ?

[Pepperturbo]

I live in CA and frequent three other states for golf. Recently read a very positive article about the future of golf, it confirmed what were seeing. Weekend tee sheets are, for the most part, booked. Sure weekday play is down but that's always the case; honest hard working people are at work. Recently read another article about a company buying up equity clubs. They expect to revitalize the clubs, maintain charter rules and expect profits and value to come from the addition of new members, including young people. Their model seems to be working too.

 

Yep, I read where some people poo-poo golf's future. It's mostly skeptics and or people in suburban or remote maybe low-to-moderate-income demo-geographics or destination courses that have to cope with the cost of gas, and all the travel and vacation options nowadays.

 

It's not a stretch to see golf and places like Disneyland are doing fine in the ebb and flow of life's activities. Remember, golf in America made it through the Great Depression (I am not talking about the 80's hiccup) making it tougher and older than most of Golfwrx's readers. Furthermore, there are a great many people like myself, including friends that pay for two or more people nearly every time we play, and we play 3-4 times per week not including multiple golf vacations each year that last 1 to 3 weeks where we play nearly every day; do the math.

 

In ten years golf will be better then it is today.

[bullsfan]

> @tanker44 said:

> I can assure you that ClupCorp will be much closer to destroying hundreds more private golf clubs and golfing communities.

 

Actually that's not the case where I am from, thanks to them (ClubCorp) the club they've owned since I was a kid is still vibrant and stable. A great mix of young and old and a far cry from other courses in my area where they are closing for development. People who purchased their dream homes on a golf course that was thought to be stable and has a deep history are facing this, ClubCorp courses in my area have resisted this for the good of the game and the almighty dollar too. I don't see this changing anytime soon.

[larrybud]

Since when have private clubs been "young"? I worked at a private club 30 years ago in high school, and I remember the "young" guys as in their mid-30s, where most of the guys were 45+.

 

The vast majority of 20-somethings can't afford 10 grand plus a year, never have, never will.

 

I played a local private club (Birmingham CC), 3 weeks ago, and this is essentially the off-season here with football and all, and that place was hopping busy. I thought they had some special event there, and nope, typical day I'm told.

[Jack Pearsall]

Early morning old guys can be slow as can possibly be.

He cannot imagine them being any faster in ten years...

 

[vbb]

Unless any of us have access to industry data, we're basing our thoughts on anecdotal evidence that we gather from our own experiences.

 

I'm 40, so at the young end of Gen-X and just older than the oldest millennials. Not too long ago, a guy in his early 40s was 15-20 years into an established career with teenaged kids that played high school sports and a homemaker or part time worker wife. Now my peers now have younger children, wives who also work career based jobs outside of the home, less seniority in their careers because people into their 70s haven't yet retired to make space, and their kids have year-round sports schedules that dominate a lot of the family time even at 6 and 7 years old. As a result, I know very few people my age or younger that regularly play golf. My same age buddies that I used to play with are almost all just the "a few rounds a year and some charity tournament" types now, so having a regular game is non existent. Im lucky in that my work schedule allows me to play during the week sometimes while everyone else is at school or work, so I snag many of my rounds during the week, playing 9 holes in about 90 minutes as a solo or paired up with random retirees. I'd love a regular game with my same aged golf buddies, but it isn't happening, at least not at this point in our lives.

 

I don't see this trend slowing down much. I see people coming in to the game later because everything else is happening later...kids, decent earning careers, homeownership and retirement. Golf isn't dying...it just is slowing down and aging along with everything else

 

 

[Man_O_War]

the new mid engine vette takes care of muscle cars :)

 

computer game golf will rule golf eventually. The real thing is too expensive, snooty...the kinds of money being spent at country clubs i have visited isn't for the faint hearted. Then you have public course golf. I wonder where the motivation would come from to play 6 hour rounds or wake up at 5am to get to course at 6am to make it a 4 hour round.

 

Golfers though owe it to the game to pass on to the next generation. That's how the game is moved forward in Scotland, Ireland..feels much less commercial than England. Of course in America it is commercial on steroids.

 

[JoeDaPro]

on water so get your floaters out

[Dpavs]

One thing time has taught me is that things progress slower than you anticipate they might. I am not going to say there will not be better options for simulated play, because there likely will be, and there will likely be much more tech in use on the course but the physical course is not going away anytime soon.

[MountainGoat]

In 10 years the game could be emerging from the doldrums. I'm seeing a huge volume of 8-10 year olds who have taken an interest in the game as a result of the drive, chip and putt competition.