Golf communities struggle as boomers scale back

[Newsjock]

Source: Reno Gazette-Journal

... Financial documents show that the D’Andrea Golf Club has lost more than $300,000 annually in five of the last eight years. Now its owners say the course is “simply unsustainable” unless it receives a cash infusion from residents.

... The woes of these Northern Nevada operations reflect a nationwide trend that has seen golfing communities struggle as golfer numbers decline due to tough economic times.

“Golf courses are part of the excess and greed of the ’90s and 2000s,” said Ron Bell, a Coldwell Banker Realtor and founder of the Reno Real Estate Investors Group. “A golf course membership used to be a status symbol that went hand in hand with Hummers … but baby boomers are scaling back now. You have many other competing sports and activities that are cheaper.”

The difficulties experienced by area golfing communities are part of a golf hangover occurring nationwide, said Lewis Goodkin, an international real estate analyst with Miami, Fla.-based Goodkin Consulting.

Read more: http://www.rgj.com/article/20120313/BIZ02/303130001/D-Andrea-Built-during-good-times-region-s-golf-communities-struggle-boomers-scale-back

[Botany]

1. < 10 inches per year annual rainfall = bad place for a golf course

n/t

[godai]

2. Good point. Buying water is a big expense.

My experience with a NOVA course is that they have irrigation ponds to store rainwater and buy water only when necessary.

[Botany]

5. I know that the golf courses in the desert s.w. bring in $ but .....

.... that does not mean that the H2O costs both in dollars and ecologically
costs are very high.

[leftyohiolib]

3. theyre an enormous waste of real estate

[Ready4Change]

4. Part of the problem is American expectations of a golf course.

I play some. I've found that many golfers, American golfers in particular, have a strict idea of what a golf course should be. What they have in mind is highly manicured, lush, and intensely green in a way that very few regions can support naturally. And yet, they proclaim golf to be a great way to get out into nature. Seriously. I find their attitude truly bizarre, alien in a way.

I play at two nearby courses. One is low budget municipal course, kept green in winter and in times of drought through intense irrigation and use of fertilizers. When playing there with other golfers I've found that I enjoy the course most when they are complaining most about the 'deplorable conditions.'

The other is a very rural course, almost literally hacked out of some farm fields. I suspect the only tending it gets is regular mowing of the fairways and greens. It gets very little business. I suspect no 'real' golfer sets foot there. And yet I LOVE the game at that place. It's very rough. You can lose your ball on the fairways. You never get a good lie. And yet, I've played my best golf, and certainly had the most fun, there.

I think golf courses should be built and tended to use native plants, regional levels of rainfall, and no fertilizers. That means, down in Arizona, you'll regret bringing your high dollar clubs, because you'll be playing off sand and gravel a lot. That means in northern climes in winter you'll be playing off dry brown grass and hard earth. Grasses, if they are present, should be 'mown' by sheep. That's how it was originally done in golfs place of origin, so nothing else can be considered authentic. Golf carts should be outlawed, or at most only allowed for the elderly or legitimately handicapped.

If these things were done I think golf would be more affordable, much less snobby, and far more sustainable. As it is, you might as well pave courses with astro-turf and put them under domes, because there is nothing natural about it.

[MADem]

6. They need to get over these hyper-groomed golf courses, IMO.

They should go to more natural terrains, get rid of the chemicals, employ hardier grasses that require less watering and cutting, and deal with a more "Original Scottish" environment.

I've golfed in some crazy places--there's a course outside of Rome that is loaded with rocks and rough, but it's a ton of fun nonetheless. I prefer the natural environments; desert, swamp, whatever--no pesticides and crap--I think they make for a more authentic experience.

Of course, I don't keep score and could give a shit about such things. I also think the hand wedge and the foot wedge are two of the best clubs in one's kit.

Some people call golf "a good walk spoiled." I approach it as a good walk with periodic releases of aggression.

I only golf with people who have my attitude--get out there, whack the ball, have fun, fuck the scorecard. Keep moving, enjoy yourself. When you return to the clubhouse, pretend you're Arnold Palmer, and pretend your friends are, too! Everyone's a winner!