Iceland is a mostly desolate, treeless, lava field where absolutely nothing is growing. Other parts are a little more physically hospitable, but mostly, it’s Mars. But here is the shocker: Golf is the number-one sport in Iceland.
A Dutch company recently announced a plan to colonize Mars. Selected astronauts (I don’t know what to call them—’Marsonauts’ just doesn’t seem right) will make the one-way trip, set up a colony and, after a while, die. They have no plans to come back. Having just been to what is the closest place on Earth to Mars—Iceland—I suggest they take their golf clubs.
I have long been fascinated by the pictures beamed back from the “red planet” by the two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. I still marvel at the fact that we have put two robots on Mars that can move around and take the most amazing pictures. My fondest dream is that one day the rovers will come over a hill and find some ruined buildings of an ancient civilization.
It’s about a 45-minute drive from Iceland’s Keflavík International Airport to that country’s capital city, Reykjavík, and the only way I can describe the vistas is that it looks exactly like the rover pictures of Mars, lacking only the red tint (Mars is rusting). Iceland is a mostly desolate, treeless, lava field where absolutely nothing is growing. Other parts are a little more physically hospitable, but mostly, it’s Mars.
But here is the shocker: Golf is the number-one sport in Iceland, and they have 150 golf courses on an island of less than 400,000 people—that is one golf course for every 2,666 people. If we had the same ratio of golf courses to population that Iceland does, we would have 11,815,453 golf courses in the United States. Can you imagine what kind of market this would be?
One of the more charming images is that you can book a midnight tee time in the short summer, and play a round in time for breakfast. Fees are inexpensive, with lots of tee times available, and the sport is growing with the younger population, male and female alike. I don’t have any lessons for our market here, but it sure is interesting, and speaks to the universal attractions of golf.
On another subject…
This issue of Club & Resort Business marks the 10th anniversary of the publication. During the summer of 2004, Dan Ramella, Joe Barks and I were looking for a publishing idea, and the club market seemed to be in need of a serious magazine, touching on the business and managing issues facing it at the time. We chose to write it in a non-commercial style, staying focused on the major disciplines of a club—clubhouse management, member retention and marketing, the golf course and grounds, food and beverage, design and renovation, and any other issues that impacted daily club operations.
Ten years later, you have told us that this was the right combination by your consistent and, I would say, enthusiastic response to the magazine. None of us expected the events of 2008, but the club market weathered the storm and, as in all adversarial environments, emerged even stronger and better-managed than we were before.
The media world is changing (for better or worse), with endless digital publishing platforms available, and countless voices contributing their opinions. But you can count on the fact that C&RB will continue to provide you with content—however you want to receive it—that is fresh, relevant and cutting-edge. In short, we will continue to “tell it like it is.”
Thank you for being with us for 10 years, and we are looking forward to the next 10.
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