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A decade ago, when the golf course was a de facto playground for the professional set and a young Californian named Tiger Woods was the world's best player, golf looked like an unassailable national undertaking, and corporate players were champing at the bit to get in.
But the business behind one of America's most slow-going, expensive and old-fashioned pastimes has rapidly begun to fall apart. TaylorMade-Adidas Golf, the world's biggest maker of golf clubs and clothes, saw sales nosedive 28 percent last year, its parent company Adidas said Thursday.
I assumed it's because it's boring as hell. The only thing more boring than playing it is watching other people play it. If I want to go for a 3-hour walk, I'll do it in the woods, and not waste my time chasing a ball around and whacking it all over the place.
Maybe because Europeans are starting to dominate? Just like in tennis?
Maybe. But IMO, many of the enhancements to equipment coincided with Woods' ascendancy - bigger club heads, balls that fit one's game, etc. etc. People wanted to have Tiger's length. But Tiger hasn't been top 10 in driving distance since 2007, so it's not all Tiger.
Bubba Watson averaged 323 yards off the tee in 2007. Nobody else has topped 318 since, so there simply hasn't been an improvement in technology that effects distance in recent years. Therefore, why upgrade?
But IMO, as someone who used to play regularly and now only plays occasionally or in leagues, the big problem is slow play. Too many hackers who can only hit 180 yards waiting around at 225 yards from the green for the green to clear, making it impossible for those on the tee box to hit their balls. Plus people taking waaaaaayyyy too long to putt.
I like what Scottish courses do - the goal is a 3 hour round, not 4.5.
Golf is too slow for today's upcoming society. It's too expensive and time consuming for get new people to try it out. The sport itself is not great TV. The only time people watch en masse is when the popular figure of the day is in contention.
Their loss, I guess. Golf is a great game, both to watch & play. Golf becoming unpopular in this increasingly bizarre & hurried society is perhaps just to be expected. People don't understand it, can't relate to it, etc. All the finer aspects of life, sports, & the arts are giving way to an incredibly trashy popular culture that is totally alien to me. We're really headed down the tubes, if you ask me.
A good economy in the 90's + Tiger = a huge boom.
Golf courses and equipment makers went all out.
Fast forward 15 years....
Then the economy tanked + no one to follow Tiger's footsteps = an over expanded industry with no new customer to sell their products/services to.
Personally - I sort of like this adjustment. The time required to play a round has decreased in the last few years. And I don't have to put up with inebriated a-holes that feel like they need to eye their putts from 8 different angles like they see on TV.
Now, if the courses would lower their green fees a bit...
Even though slow play is a chief concern for golfers, I do not believe that it is the reason for golf's declining participation. I also do not believe that younger generations dislike it because it takes too much work to get good at it. I honestly think it's the cost that drove people out. Greens fees are disgusting during the summer (in my area) and equipment is also expensive. Some of the comments mentioned the baby boomer generation aging out of golf, and that's a good point too. The truth is that young people today just don't have the disposable income that young people had 20-30 years ago.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to bash the marketing behemoths. They have created a ridiculous and frustrating golf culture and I believe they are also at fault. The market has been so oversaturated with so much BS that it pushes people away.
Even though slow play is a chief concern for golfers, I do not believe that it is the reason for golf's declining participation. I also do not believe that younger generations dislike it because it takes too much work to get good at it. I honestly think it's the cost that drove people out. Greens fees are disgusting during the summer (in my area) and equipment is also expensive. Some of the comments mentioned the baby boomer generation aging out of golf, and that's a good point too. The truth is that young people today just don't have the disposable income that young people had 20-30 years ago.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to bash the marketing behemoths. They have created a ridiculous and frustrating golf culture and I believe they are also at fault. The market has been so oversaturated with so much BS that it pushes people away.
It's not just the younger generation that has less disposable income. The COL has gone up much faster than the income for almost all but the top 20% of earners. I used to consider myself upper middle class, but now I consider myself lower middles class. My income had been stagnant the last eight years while the COL here in MD has gone into overdrive, mostly due to the MD Dems increasing the taxes and fees.
Sport and activities do seem to go in cycles... Cycling was huge back in the 70's due to 10 speed racing bikes... Tennis and racquetball in the 1980s... Now golf... Some of it has to do with the baby boomers here in the US. They have tended to set the tone for interests... Now, we are seeing the younger generation setting it...
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