Golf clubs suffer in recession as membership dwindles

[RamboLiberal]

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Recession-battered golf courses aren't just coping with lighter crowds. Some are edging perilously close to bankruptcy. Courses from Florida to Arizona, where golfing was once a daily exercise, face major cutbacks or foreclosure.

Myrtle Beach, S.C., a once-booming 70-mile strip of beachfront property nicknamed "Golftown, USA," has been hit especially hard: Where there were about 125 golf courses in 2006, there are now around 100.

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The root of the problem is stark: Most people just can't afford the luxury of a $100 to $400 round of golf, nor do they have the time — several hours — to complete an 18-hole round. Businesses are cutting back on golf-related expenses for executives. Travelers who once plunked down gobs of cash to golf in exotic locales are passing up golf vacations.

The cumulative effect has squeezed revenue at private golf courses and country clubs.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2010-08-03-golf03_CV_N.htm

[AngryAmish]

1. Well if the expensing of membership dues was allowed that should solve the problem.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

20. bidniz expense, Right?

heh.

[zipplewrath]

2. Over supply

There was a large spate of building golf courses as part of housing developments. The people who bought into the developments didn't play golf. The resultant was an over supply of golf courses all competing for the same golfers. Even before the economic down turn, there were problems. The over supply drove down prices, and the wide availability made private clubs unnecessary and expensive. Then the economic collapse came and it drove a stake through its heart. It could be a couple of decades before it all settles out, but there are going to be alot fewer courses when its all over.

[CoffeeCat]

3. This is true for so many goods/services!

Hello...corporate America! If you want to screw us seven ways to Sunday--cut our jobs, outsource our
jobs, cut our pay, cut our benefits and healthcare plans--then we no longer have money to blow on your
golf courses or at Pottery Barn, or at the movies or in your restaurants.

If you screw over the middle class and the upper middle class--who is going to patronize your businesses????

Didn't these greedy bastards think of this before they dreamed up their ridiculous plan to enrich themselves
by screwing us?

Clowns.

[Lost4words]

4. B I N G O

[bullwinkle428]

7. +1000 : the ultimate illustration of the EPIC FAIL mentality of

Ayn Randist economic theory!

[KansDem]

8. "Didn't these greedy bastards think of this...?"

No, I don't think so. I'm beginning to believe that "the best and the brightest" that made up the upper echelons of our business leaders had no regard whatsoever in the welfare of the American people. All they wanted was more and more wealth.

I imagine when Reagan "theorized" that giving these folks more wealth in the form of "trickle down," these greedy bastards rubbed their hands and licked their chops while thinking, "Go, Ronnie, go!!! Make up shit about how we're going to 'reinvest' in America! Make up shit that will placate the rubes while we rob them blind!"

Well, the wealthy got their tax cuts, and they used their swag to outsource US jobs and invest in foreign companies and countries where the workers are paid pennies. And what they didn't "invest" they put into offshore tax havens...

Whatever made us think that a small, powerful group of CEOs acting in secret for the benefit of investors would have the best interests of this country at heart?

[laureloak]

9. But only spending by the wealthy impacts the economy! Not.

[area51]

15. +1 (n/t)

[L0oniX]

5. Good. I hope they all go out of business.

[spanone]

10. yea, that would be 10's of thousands unemployed...good thought

[L0oniX]

13. Yes ..let's keep dumping nitrates into our water system and yea let's keep throwing away water too.

:crazy:

[jdlh8894]

17. Golf courses are self sufficiant

They have their own ponds,wells, pumps(to reuse CAPTURED water) Ever heard of a watershed? Thought not. Courses come under STRICT control of the SCS(Soil Conservation Service) Plus ,the EPA for any chemicals that might be used.

[jdlh8894]

12. And put ?? million people out of work?

[L0oniX]

Yea ...our whole economy will go down the tubes because we need golf.

:crazy:

[jdlh8894]

18. On Edit

Please,don't tell our President how you feel.

[jdlh8894]

6. Tiger Woods Syndrome? n/t

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. (Picks up microscope) (Picks up tweezers)

:nopity:

[LostinVA]

14. Good -- MB and NMB needs about a zillion less golf courses

I also think they are horrible for the environment, especially down there.

[Joanne98]

16. OH NO! NOT THAT!

:cry:

[blindpig]

19. Geez, that's heartbreaking

Country clubs, golf courses and golf communities have gone a long way in the ruination of the SC coast. Good riddens, golf courses are ecological nightmares, a cesspool of herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers, a wretched use of land and a bourgeois affectation.

[jdlh8894]

21. Guess you didn't read Post #17

If you do, you might learn something!

[blindpig]

24. Sure I did...

just don't believe it for a moment.

The issue is not so much water supply, though it can be, but the outflow, which is immense. If you got faith in the regulation of capitalist enterprise then I've got a bridge to sell ya.

What a horrid use of land, particularly in coastal SC where developers routinely fill wetlands and then pay the fine, just the cost of doing business to them. And for what, the amusement of the few?

Fuck golf.

[jdlh8894]

26. Would you rather they put highrises on them?

That will consume a LOT more water,electric,with all the waste going into public sewers instead of being recycled on the premises? Or would you rather have GREEN SPACE that is self-supporting that some people might enjoy?

[blindpig]

27. No

I would rather have the wetlands left the fuck alone.

Why must every damn thing on the planet be used to feed the maw of capitalism?


This is 'green space'.

[jdlh8894]

28. Little late for that,don't you think?

Let's all go back to the 1600's.

[blindpig]

29. Actually the 1970's would do.

Cleaned out, those 'water hazards' would make good nurseries for restoration....

[KamaAina]

22. Time to bring back that classic George Carlin routine

"Golf Courses For The Homeless".

[Erose999]

23. I found a golf bag & full set of clubs in a dumpster yesterday. If the other half can afford to

just dumpster perfectly good stuff then they are obviously not feeling the recession too bad.

I might actually try the game myself now that I have the necessary gear.

[Dappleganger]

25. Golf course are the biggest waste of water.

And we live in golf course heaven. :(