Golf Talk Tuesdays 2015-2020

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Was reading a comment from a local here in La Quinta Ca, which is kinda seriously golf-centric.

"golf is on the wane, we needed something else out here to help generate some income for our businesses and City. The next generation does not seem to be interested in spending hours on a golf course, or the hundreds of dollars it costs for a round...it is not the networking vehicle for the upcoming executive anymore..."

Not a golfer myself, but what are your thoughts? Are you seeing fewer golfers with real hair color - or hair at all? Is golf forever?
 
Much of it is true... golf is on the wane and many golf clubs are struggling financially as a result of dwindling membership. Our kids generation is less into physical sports and less patient and golf is a frustrating game and does take a long time to play (a good half of a day in most parts of the country considering leaving home and arriving back at home).

A friend who is a member at a nearby club at home (not my home club) said that they did a distribution graph on members ages and that a large number of members were over 60.

While I enjoy the game and it is one of my major pastimes in retirement I do have concerns for the game in the long run.... especially bundled golf communities and also for real estate adjoining golf courses. Where my Mom lives they had 6 golf courses and 20 years ago you paid a premium to have a golf course view. Then 2 of the 6 courses have closed and that premium evaporated into thin air.
 
2+ months into my EA, my official HI is at the lowest thanks to added practice & playing time. I probably should structure my golf practice time to be more efficient and effective to improve even more.

Now I can play any day, I don't feel the urge to finish all 18 holes. I have been playing 15 holes on average.
 
calmloki said:
Not a golfer myself, but what are your thoughts? Are you seeing fewer golfers with real hair color - or hair at all? Is golf forever?
Click to expand...

That's definitely the case out where I live and it's been the topic of discussion many times with fellow members. Rarely see anyone school age (college and below) out on the links. Don't think the golf courses here have felt the real pain yet but it's certainly coming unless things change.
 
We have a ton of kids on our course.

:wiseone:

HS kids get to practice there, college kids get to practice there. Kids of members get to play whenever they want as long as it's after 11 am weekends and holidays.

Most of them are play pretty quickly and know when to get out of the way when they don't.
 
calmloki said:
Was reading a comment from a local here in La Quinta Ca, which is kinda seriously golf-centric.

"golf is on the wane, we needed something else out here to help generate some income for our businesses and City. The next generation does not seem to be interested in spending hours on a golf course, or the hundreds of dollars it costs for a round...it is not the networking vehicle for the upcoming executive anymore..."

Not a golfer myself, but what are your thoughts? Are you seeing fewer golfers with real hair color - or hair at all? Is golf forever?
Click to expand...

I am Northern Ca and a few courses around my area has closed recently. Water cost due to drought has something to do with it but at the same time, I see less golfers out there. I don't think it's cost of playing golf. Golf is not attracting younger generations.
 
I love playing golf and have been a golfer for pretty much all of my 65 years. I don't think the future looks too bright due to cost, time and how difficult the game is. I don't see all that many younger folks out on the links these days. Back in my old home state of Ohio I have heard of some very nice courses closing up shop due to unprofitability.
 
I just read an article (don't have the link now) that cited data for the latest complete year (2015). It noted a 2% increase in rounds played in the US as compared to 2014; the first increase in several years. This article, from a pro-golf organization, concluded this debunks predictions of golf's demise. Not sure if that's true but, it's another view on the subject.
 
all of my friends at my club have kids that play golf, a lot, every single one of them

I'm not sure why golf popularity is going downhill


I think I need new grips - I'm partial to the lamkin crossline but like the feel of the gp tour wraps - what do you all think?
 
Big_Hitter said:
I think I need new grips - I'm partial to the lamkin crossline but like the feel of the gp tour wraps - what do you all think?
Click to expand...

Last time I regripped my irons, I got Golf Pride grips (the White/Black Tour Velvet I think) and was pleased with them. But, I do like the grip selection tool on the Lamkin website; pretty cool.
 
I went ahead and got 26 new lamkin crosslines for $99 shipped on ebay.
 
calmloki said:
Not a golfer myself, but what are your thoughts? Are you seeing fewer golfers with real hair color - or hair at all? Is golf forever?
Click to expand...

I think in many areas there was an over-supply of golf courses built in the last 20 years. So similar to the housing bubble, there was a golf course bubble. Throw in a couple crappy weather years, and the golf courses lost money.

Kids will never be able to afford golf. We only played when we could sneak on. Only rich kids or kids on the school team play. And last I checked, there are less rich kids, since the middle class is shrinking.

Golf, and especially golf at the country clubs, is very discretionary spending. It's a house of cards when the rich people aren't spending.
 
Had a funny thing happened on the 10th hole today. I teed off first on the par 5 ... I crushed my drive... perhaps one of my best drives of the year straight down the middle.

An older friend I play with often ... who is 10-15 years older than me...hits a nice drive as well but off line... it catches the paved cart path... bounces high.... hits the cart path again... bounces high... hits the cart path a third time and then rolls out onto the fairway.

We get out to the fairway and his ball is about a yard ahead of mine. :(
 
pb4uski said:
Had a funny thing happened on the 10th hole today. I teed off first on the par 5 ... I crushed my drive... perhaps one of my best drives of the year straight down the middle.

An older friend I play with often ... who is 10-15 years older than me...hits a nice drive as well but off line... it catches the paved cart path... bounces high.... hits the cart path again... bounces high... hits the cart path a third time and then rolls out onto the fairway.

We get out to the fairway and his ball is about a yard ahead of mine. :(
Click to expand...


LOL... just have to know how to hit the ball correctly....



That reminded me of a scramble I played when I first got out to college... our company had an annual event with a scramble.... they had the usual awards for longest drive, shortest drive, straightest drive and closest to the pin....


Well, the guy who won the 'straightest' drive hit it and it went very far left with a huge slice... the people who witnessed it said it was flying through the trees.... but came back and rolled about an inch from the center line on the course...

OH, and that reminds me of the 'shortest' drive.... it was on the same hole as the longest drive... the rule was you had to drive it father than the woman's tee box.... so this guy on my team who could hit the ball hard swung real hard... the ball went forward and hit a fence pole sticking up and came screaming back... we had to duck... it ended up about 50 or more yards BEHIND the tee box... we said he should have won since his drive actually did go beyond the woman's box during its flight.... no go on that one...
 
Good one... I've never had that happen but DW and I were talking about something like that the other day. About 30 years ago we were visiting her mom in Florida and went golfing. DW pushes her tee shot off the first tee ... about 30 yards out it hits a palm tree square and comes right back at us, coming to rest about a yard in front of DW's tee.

My dad was even funnier. he was out in the front yard at the lake house hitting balls into the lake one day with a 9 iron. A friend in a pontoon boat is driving by with some guests and holler out hello to him. Trying to be funny, he takes aim at the pontoon intending to plop a ball in front of the moving pontoon. He skulls this 9 iron... it hits our 2" steel pipe flagpole square and the ball comes back at dad and hits him in the groin and he drops to the ground. He was fine but everybody had a great laugh.... I wish I had been there to see it.

My golf balls sometimes take funny bounces.
 
Back about 8 yrs ago, on the second hole, a 389 yd par four, I crushed a drive but pulled it left. Ball hit the cart path a few times and ended up pin high to the left of green (maybe 12 yds off the green). Of course, I still bogeyed the hole:mad:.

Longest drive of my life !
 
Kids will never be able to afford golf. We only played when we could sneak on. Only rich kids or kids on the school team play. And last I checked, there are less rich kids, since the middle class is shrinking.

Golf, and especially golf at the country clubs, is very discretionary spending. It's a house of cards when the rich people aren't spending.[/QUOTE]

As kids we'd walk a quarter mile to play a 9 hole muni on the Flint river (didn't go in the river back then, either) for $0.60. The city had a great junior program that sometimes got you onto the private courses on Mondays.

The rich people are pretty much always spending. It's the regular guys that are getting squeezed.
 
I no longer live in the area but the muni I grew up on as a kid was $25/year for juniors (<22), it's now $99 so still affordable for most kids. Many courses offer discounts today through the 'First Tee' program for juniors that make the cost to golf reasonable, $10/round or less at many places.
 
zinger1457 said:
I no longer live in the area but the muni I grew up on as a kid was $25/year for juniors (<22), it's now $99 so still affordable for most kids. Many courses offer discounts today through the 'First Tee' program for juniors that make the cost to golf reasonable, $10/round or less at many places.
Click to expand...

When I was a teenager, my local muni offered $12/mo deals for students during the summer. One of my parents would drop me off and pick me up at dusk. What a deal.

Played golf yesterday and played pretty well. Third round in a row my team won. Playing again in about an hour. I'm afraid my luck is about to run out.....:blush:
 
one thing we do require: all juniors must pass an etiquette course before they can play by themselves
 
Big_Hitter said:
one thing we do require: all juniors must pass an etiquette course before they can play by themselves
Click to expand...

My variation to this ... if you are teaching friends or relatives/family members to play golf, you must give an etiquette lesson before the person takes to the course. :)
 
zinger1457 said:
I no longer live in the area but the muni I grew up on as a kid was $25/year for juniors (<22), it's now $99 so still affordable for most kids. Many courses offer discounts today through the 'First Tee' program for juniors that make the cost to golf reasonable, $10/round or less at many places.
Click to expand...

Good to hear there are still opportunities for kids :)
 
I played well today and my team won again. :) I'm taking the rest of the week off while I'm ahead. It's suppose to rain the rest of the week anyway.
 
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