I chanced across this book, its description and its reviews on Amazon.com this morning. It actually provides interesting commentary on the game of golf, golfers …and today’s current situation in ArrowCreek. You, too, might find it interesting – especially the comments about golf in the reviews. Some samples are here but check out Amazon!

Golf is Dying. Does Anybody Care?

“The 600-year-old sport of golf was once considered a metaphor for culture, sportsmanship, and accomplishment in America. So why has participation declined so much in recent years?

The answer, according to author Pat Gallagher, is the sport’s resistance to productive change. While other sports have embraced new technology and innovation with open arms, traditionalists strive to protect the game of golf and keep it exactly as they love it—even in the face of suffering courses and shrinking audiences. …”

Comment 1
*****
I care…..
By Mike Riley on December 24, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Been in the golf business over 40 years and have witnessed it slowly but surely coming full circle……. once again becoming a sport for the wealthier among us. This book is a refreshing look at what ails the business of golf and the challenges folks in the industry face to stay relevant in an ever changing world. Unfortunately it doesn’t look good short or long term. While the shakeout continues with more courses closing each season it will take perhaps a generation before the supply versus demand imbalance corrects itself, especially as demand continues to drop off. Couple that issue with the fact that not only were too many golf courses built during the boom years, way too many of the wrong kind were built. We needed beginner level, affordable golf courses to feed the business long term to grow the population of golfers…..instead we saw each and every golf course constructed being bigger, better, more costly than the last….and then we wonder why a sufficient number of people haven’t gone out and spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on clubs and accessories and aren’t willing to plop down 50 bucks or more several times a week to do something that will take at least 5 or 6 hours each time they do. It takes years to grow a core golfer that is willing to play 20 or more times a year and quite an investment in time and money on their part to do so. Not so many are willing and able to do that these days. But then again…from the vantage point of over 4 decades in the business one sometimes has to wonder whether golf was ever really meant to be a viable business model capable of standing on it’s two feet with no subsidy from the local municipality, or as value-added feature to a residential development or an annual assessment from the remaining club members with the means to do so. This book discusses at length how equipment (technology) might be a piece of the puzzle to make golf more fun for the masses. I doubt it. I think the problems run much deeper than that and relaxing dress codes, changing the rules to accommodate today’s golfers may be more or less bandaids on a more serious cultural shift in what people choose to do with their time and money.

Comment 2
*****
Golf on life support
By Addison Smith on February 16, 2014
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I am in the Golf business and I care! Gallagher hits the nail on the head. It takes somebody (like Gallagher and his Palo Alto buddies) from outside the golf business to explain what is going on IN the golf business.

This is a must read for anybody who wants to know why golf in the US is disapearing.

Rob O’Loughlin

Comment 3
**
Doesn’t Address The Real Issue IMHO
By Douglas W. Freeman on April 22, 2014
Format: Paperback
For the average Joe, golf has always been primarily for older folks – it’s slow, tedious, time consuming, and a bit expensive. Baseball, being slow, tedious, and time consuming, has also been on the decline for about 30 years. The pro golfers do not hold the spotlight in society like they used to either. Funny, no one seems to mention the economic destruction that began in ’07 as a reason for golf’s current low participation. Golf will come back over the next 5 years as the economy does, but its glory years of the ’80’s won’t return, because it’s slow, tedious, time consuming, and a bit expensive, and to change the game to address these issues creates something new that isn’t golf.

For about 5 years in my mid 20’s, I played a lot of golf. I quit due to back problems. I was consumed by the challenge of it, but when I lost the ability to play, I didn’t miss it. I realized how much time and money were going into it, and how I enjoyed other activities more. I could return to play now but I won’t, because it’s slow, tedious, time consuming, and I have many other activities I enjoy more. Golf and baseball – not very bright futures. The ruling bodies won’t change the games enough to get past their problems, because they really can’t – they wouldn’t be the same games. A troubling paradox for two of history’s greatest games.