The report details the symptoms and causes of the game’s decline, citing the loss of golf’s greatest salesman, its exclusivity, overbuilding of golf courses and bloated prices. Topgolf, which offers facilities described as “more nightclub than country club,” is highlighted as a glimmer of hope for the industry.
A report in Men’s Journal magazine titled “The Death of Golf” explores the symptoms and causes of the game’s decline, and offers a glimmer of hope for its future.
Participation in the game is way off, from a high of 30.6 million golfers in 2003 to 24.7 million in 2014, according to the National Golf Foundation (NGF). The number of golfers ages 18 to 34 show a 30 percent decline over the last 20 years, Men’s Journal reported.
“I look forward to a time when we’ve got the wind at our back, but that’s not what we’re expecting,” said Oliver “Chip” Brewer, president and CEO of Callaway. “This is a demographic challenge.”
Tiger Woods’ fall from grace is often cited as a partial reason for the sport’s decline. The most common answer given by golf industry types when asked what would return the game to its former popularity is “Find another Tiger,” Men’s Journal reported.
But the challenges golf faces are myriad, from millennials lacking the requisite attention span for a five-hour round, to an increasingly environmentally conscious public that’s reluctant to take up a resource-intensive game, to the recent economic crisis that curtailed spending, Men’s Journal reported.
The game’s exclusivity is also a deterrent to newcomers, Men’s Journal reported. Augusta National, home of the Masters and perhaps the most famous golf club in the world, didn’t accept black members until 1990 and women until 2012. “One of the major reasons golf hasn’t been growing is because historically, it has not been welcoming enough,” said Greg Nathan, senior vice president of the NGF. “We need to make people feel more comfortable.”
During the Tiger boom, everything about the game seemed to expand, from the length of the putters to the size of driver heads to the scale of the courses themselves, Men’s Journal reported. “When I won the U.S. Open at Bellerive in 1965, the course measured 7,191 yards. It was a monster,” said Gary Player. “Now, 7,500-yard courses are everywhere.”
Lake Las Vegas could be the poster development for an entire era of American excess—the real estate boom, the subprime mortgage crisis, and the exuberant over-investment in golf courses as bait to sell property. The 3,600-acre community built around a 320-acre artificial lake in Henderson, Nev., featured two Jack Nicklaus–designed golf courses and one Tom Weiskopf course, the primary selling points for homes ranging from $500,000 to $5 million. Ritz-Carlton opened a resort on the lake, which was declared a “Hot Spot” in 2004 by the Washington Post.
One of those three golf courses has since closed, the Ritz-Carlton is now a Hilton, and some of the luxury houses have hit the market for as little as $150,000. According to the NGF, a golf course in America closes roughly every two days, while just 11 courses were opened in 2014.
Ron Gorski, 59, was the manager of the Escondido Country Club when it closed down in 2013. San Luis Rey Downs, a couple miles north, closed in August 2014, and Carmel Highland, just down the highway, hosted its last round in March.
“It was a damn shame,” Gorski said, “but we tried everything under the sun. Lowering greens fees. Kids play free. Two for one. The owners were doing all kinds of Groupon deals, and the remaining members didn’t like it.” By the time Escondido Country Club closed, there were only 120 members, most paying $300 a month. “That didn’t even cover our water bill.”
Before it was shuttered last fall, the Malibu Golf Club decided to cut down drastically on its exorbitant water bill. “They were only watering the tee boxes and the greens,” said former club pro Gene Hori. The man who currently oversees the course, Tom Hix, 61, is a co-managing member of Malibu Associates, which bought the course near the peak of the golf boom, in 2006, and then filed for Chapter 11 last March. Hix has been developing golf courses for 30 years, as president of real estate and golf course developer Hix Rubenstein, and will not let his clubhouse be scavenged for scraps.
Instead, he has a vision: cutting down the seven-figure water bill by reducing water consumption and introducing a water-saving sewage-treatment facility that will satisfy 10 percent of the course’s water needs. And then turn the Malibu Golf Club into a health-and-wellness center that just happens to include a golf course, Men’s Journal reported.
“The days of private golf clubs are numbered, and you have to have something different,” Hix said. That means building 40 four-bedroom villas, spa facilities, several restaurants, conference centers, and screening rooms, all housed in LEED-certified buildings and largely powered by solar panels.
“By the time we’re done, golf will be really ancillary.” He’s reassuring potential investors that only 20 percent of the revenue from the club will come from golf; the rest will be from locally sourced produce, barre-method fitness classes, and spa treatments, Men’s Journal reported.
There have been a number of initiatives and innovations designed to lure younger players onto the course—most of them attempts to speed up the game. There is also FootGolf, essentially golf played with a soccer ball, and Big Hole Golf, where the game is played with cups as wide as 15 inches, and, of course, Frisbee golf. The PGA and USGA have introduced Tee It Forward, which encourages players to set their tees well ahead of their normal tees, Men’s Journal reported.
“Maybe Topgolf is our Tiger,” said Callaway’s Brewer, which owns just under 20 percent of the company.
Topgolf has devised a simulated version of the game by putting microchips into balls at high-tech driving ranges. Players hit into the target area as a computer screen keeps score based on how accurate the shots are. In between drinking, eating, and listening to the house DJs, they stand on an Astroturf mat and play 20 balls. It’s golf’s version of bowling. The company was formed in the U.K. but was acquired by a U.S. investment group in 2005. Topgolf has 13 locations in the U.S., and will have 20 by the end of the year and as many as 50 by the end of 2017, including a 105,000-sq. ft. facility adjacent to the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. And the company is booming, with revenue far exceeding $100 million this year. Most important for the golf industry, 54 percent of its 4 million visitors last year were between the ages of 18 and 34, Men’s Journal reported.
“We’re not in the golf business, or, OK, we are, but we’re really in the hospitality business,” said Ken May, 54, the Topgolf CEO. He was the chief executive who presided over the merger of FedEx and Kinko’s and joined Topgolf in 2013.
The atmosphere on a typical Friday or Saturday night is more nightclub than country club. The formula is working, with four-hour waits for hitting bays—the patrons killing time at a fully stocked sports bar with dozens of screens. It’s the opposite of a stuffy country club or even a posh public course, where arranging a tee time, or even finding the starter’s window, can be intimidating for a novice golfer, Men’s Journal reported.
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