Between baby boomers and junior programs , relief’s in sight for the golf industry

The golf business measured by numbers of players, rounds played, and equipment sold could be generously described as flat. Why the slowdown in the game’s growth and where is it headed? First of all, the good news… “Baby Boomers” and junior golf programs. Just ask the Social Security System if you want to know how many people are turning 62 years of age (the first opportunity to collect benefits) and you will find that it is happening next year, and there are a lot of them and plenty more coming. That means retirement and more leisure time for golf for a huge group. Golf could be their major leisure activity. Add to that possibility the emerging junior interest and you have cause for optimism. The First Tee , an instructional program aimed at offering youth a chance to learn the game, now has 202 sites and is aiming at offering golf in the public schools with the goal of reaching 3 1/2 million youngsters in 10 years. It is only one example of many programs aimed at the younger population. That’s the good news. So what’s not to celebrate at the moment? Declining interest, in my view, centers around four challenges. 1. The increase in the cost of playing golf. Building longer courses to combat the increased length that TOUR PLAYERS hit the ball means more money for land, equipment and staff to maintain it, time to play it (meaning fewer starting spaces available for a green fee), and taxes to own it. 2. The time it takes to play is not only a factor for public facilities (higher green fees) but a huge barrier at the private and resort courses as well. In our fast moving world where the demands on everyone in business have increased means there isn’t as much discretionary leisure even for those wishing to play. 3. The competition from other youth activities impacts not only the kids who are potential future players but it also impacts their parents as well. When you have two children who are in youth sports (baseball, softball, soccer, etc.) and they are playing 90 games a year on a traveling team with mom and dad attending the games rather than out playing golf, you have some real competition. 4. The game of golf is not easy, and when you play it poorly you get discouraged from continuing. Too many courses have been built recently that seem to be trying to get in the Top 100 Most Difficult in America. Getting “beat up” every time you play one of them is not fun. My interpretation of a game requires that it have some element of enjoyability, in other words fun. So hang in there while we get over this bump-in-the-road until we work harder on making the game more enjoyable for people, whether they be the “Boomers,” “the kids,” or both.

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Between baby boomers and junior programs , relief’s in sight for the golf industry

Love it or hate it, golf remains the greatest game ever played

Isn’t golf a captivating enigma? It is a puzzle, a seductive siren, a fickle mistress. One has golfing moments when the spirit is riding on Mt. Everest, only to be followed by moments in the depths of Death Valley. There are fleeting spells when it seems so simple, so easy, then periods when you are sure it is next to impossible. Have you noticed some unusual phenomena associated with the game? The hole size seems to change depending upon the importance of the putt. The presence of a pro while one is teeing off can turn fluid muscles into stone. Balls disappear that were thought by all to have come to a safe rest. What worked perfectly on the range last evening at 7:30 p.m. just completely disappeared by the next morning at 7:30 a.m. prior to teeing off. Your opponent ball hits a cart path and bounces over the trap on the green, while yours hits one and caroms out of bounds. (just think Sergio Garcia) Play on all the outgoing holes is into the wind, but when you turn around the wind direction changes and you are into it again. After a good warm up of your putting stroke on the practice green you find that it is either twice as fast or twice as slow as the greens actually are on the course. There are guys on the driving range who seldom gets their score under three digits yet still think they can tell you what’s wrong with your swing. Golf can become a love/hate relationship that can both flatter your ego or break your heart. But in the last analysis, test and trial though it seems, it nevertheless remains a game. A game that if completely fair and only mildly challenging wouldn’t grab you by the throat and say, “Try me again, maybe you will get it.” That’s what makes it the greatest game ever played. Now go out and have fun, even when the game bites you, because games are meant to be enjoyed. – Gary Wiren

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Love it or hate it, golf remains the greatest game ever played

Explaining golf’s fickle nature (and wisdom from past Masters winner Larry Mize)

Why is golf such a fickle mistress? I mean, how in the world can you be so good one day and so bad the next? Where does it go? How does seeming competency at one moment turn into “I don’t have a clue” in the next? Remember the time you were on the practice tee on Friday evening at 6:30 p.m. working on your swing, trying to find something that would save you in tomorrow’s tournament? And then it happened…a little move, maybe just adjusting your left wrist at the top of the swing. You took some cup out and flattened it just a bit more. Voila ! You’ve got it! The answer. Now the ball is literally flying off the face and zeroing in on your target. Then comes Saturday. It is twenty minutes before your tee time and you are warming up. You put your “new move” into play, but all you get is a sharp pulled hook. You try it again and then again. You start to panic. The magic from last evening has disappeared. You scramble to figure out how to get out of these left to left shots. An adjustment has to be made. Lets try this… yeah, it seems to work with the seven iron, but how about the driver? NO…nuts…I am pushing them all to the right! Five minutes to go…better hit some putts. But what swing am I going to use now? Sound familiar? I often get the “Why does this happen?” question from students. Hey, I wonder about it myself. I can’t answer where it goes but I can speculate on why. First is the physiological. We are just not the same physically every day. We may be a little weaker, or stronger, tighter or more flexible, more rested or tired, more healthy or more sick. These physical differences may not seem great but they can be disastrous when applied to a game of golf. The margin of error in striking a perfect shot is very small. A driver swung at 100 mph (distance of about 240 yds.) with the club head traveling on the correct path but a 4 degree open club face will slice into the rough if not in the woods. Four degrees isn’t very much. Yet a stiff back, a sore wrist, a low energy level, a head cold, you name it, can produce it. I won’t even touch on the psychological, which can be just as damaging. The point is, golf is an exacting activity that is quite hard to predict and impossible to perfect. We all get our share of “come-up-ences” especially when we think we have figured it out. So don’t despair when you experience the great “Friday to Saturday” transformation. Its just golf. In the words of past Masters champion Larry Mize, “If you play the game you are going to experience a certain amount of disappointment and frustration…but misery is a choice.” So when those unexplainable days appear, find some other part of your golf experience to celebrate other than your score. If you do, you can still be a winner.

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Explaining golf’s fickle nature (and wisdom from past Masters winner Larry Mize)