"It needs to be cooler for young people, and more accessible for children, to become a truly multi-generational game”
BBC News' Bill Wilson looks at the tepid state of the international golf industry and it gives analysts an opportunity to talk inventory, capacity and over-leveraging. Thanks to reader penneraj for this, which includes a portion about the United States:
"Golf in the US has also been hit by the economic downturn, and before then it was not growing," says Mr Alexander, who is also a member of the Golf Writers Association of America.
"It is a fully saturated market and there is unused capacity on golf courses, where there has been overbuilding.
He said in terms of basic household economics, golf has also been hit.
"Golf is expensive, hard to learn, and cannot be played unsupervised by children in the US," adds Mr Alexander.He also said that whereas a soccer ball would set a family back about $12, a full set of golf clubs costs thousands of dollars.
"In addition, the US consumer was over-leveraged coming out of 2007, and discretionary spending was cut back by households when economic trouble hit."
Friday, April 1, 2011 at 09:59 PM
Reader Comments (46)
Golf needn't be cooler. There's nothing cooler than figuring out how the heck to execute.
Sets can be had for pennies on the dollar at garage sales. Balls can be found.
Industrious kids caddie.
Paul Ryan, Wisconsin - U.S. House of Representatives (Guest poster today for Wisconsin Reader)
Simply stated cost does not have to be a barrier to entry here in the US. The Brits think it's so expensive and exclusive in the States and that simply is there own fabrication of grandeur!
Let's start a muni movement...
We've simply got to find more children who can handle supervisory positions.
As a kid, I had a Jr. Membership at a public course in Central PA. It cost $50 for the year and $1 every time I stepped on the course. Some friends got them as well and all summer long one of our parents could drop us off and we could play all day and eat lunch for $5, then phone for a ride home. No set aside tee times, no restrictions, we mixed in with the rest of the golfers and figured out how to play. That course let kids renew those membership until they were 19. This was in the late 80s/early 90s
Been in Orlando for more than a decade now, and I rarely see kids/teens on the local courses. Expense is one part, another is the ubiquitous cart requirement. If you're not 16, you can't play without an adult. That said, parents might still not let their kids play. There's plenty in our sub-division who won't let their kids walk to the school bus stop alone. There'll be 2 dozen kids and a dozen parents clogging traffic at the gate each morning.
In regards to accessibility, we've lived in three cities, all of which have low-cost, kid-friendly programs and courses where scholarships and free clubs are readily available. And smacking reduced-flight practice balls in the park to the shade of a tree is equally entertaining for the kids and their friends.
But the most ridiculous part of the quote is: "to become a truly multi-generational game." So enduring more than 500 years isn't long enough for the game to be considered multi-generational?
Wow, u b genius. Great post.
I wasn't speaking of formal caddie shacks. There's no law says a kid can't hawk a job at the local muni. (Although I wouldn't be surprised if there was a law knowing how low some will sink to protect their turf) I use to. And when I returned to that course as an adult, there were kids hanging around, doing the exact same thing. I did. Sure, the fee went up from .50 cents to $5, but who cares? Not often you get to be a sport for less than a sawbuck.
Caddies that get paid in excess of $10/hr. need to be a bit more than a bag toter. They'd better know the game and the course, or provide something other than a lazy attitude.
Neither he nor his father owns a shirt with three buttons, white shoes or belts, or plaid pants. That might be too uncool to be true, though I don't think the kid bears any prejudice against others he sees so attired on courses they play.
In the early days my brother rented clubs for him, and I think he has since inherited some of the hand-me-downs. My brother has my father's clubs, among others, but I know E-Bay and garage sales and craigslist have certainly been in the picture.
"It's a different world today. If any parents I knew dropped their 12-year-old off at the local muni, I'd call the police on them. That's if the course didn't call them first. "
"From my experience, the Caddyshack scenario did not connote to real life. Be that as it may, as we chart a course for the game going forward, It is vital to realize those days aren't coming back."
"I haven's seen a skinny, runny-nosed young caddie in ages. The last time I had one, I almost hoped he's steal a sleeve of balls out of my bag, just so he could afford to do it again."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/9434091.stm
Unlike Del, I have played 150 rounds in the past three years and have had one caddy. He was at least 35. Nice young man, former Callaway employee of some sort and we had several mutual acquaintances. Small world. Knew the game. Told me that if I hit it in the bunker on the right on the second hole at Somerset Hills it would be tough to get up and down. Of course, anyone with a handicap of 20 or less could have seen that from the tee. And he was right, but the advice wasn't worth $70 (he carried double for $140). If a local teenager had carried just my bag for $32 ($8 per hour) that would have been a better way to spend the money and I could have paid him twice, once in the morning and once after lunch.
Have you ever noticed how much money and time is spent in other games, soccer, baseball, softball, etc. ?
Ever notice all the camps, and now the special schools for hitting, pitching (baseball for example) ?
All these 'many' advanced leagues with many trips out of town ?? and some distance away ???
I think the parents' money is there. The kids want to play something other than golf.
GBL, your theory about Tiger's problems taking the air out of the golf-is-cool theme is complete bullshit. First, it doesn't happen that fast. Second, most 6 to 10 year old kids aren't really cognizant of what's really happened with Tiger. I go out of my way to ask mothers with young kids about this and that's the answer I get. I regularly ride the subway in NYC with clubs in tow and often young inner-city kids come up and ask questions about the clubs, etc...that's continued to be the case. There's one and only one reason they are asking...
I don't believe that kids inherently think golf is uncool, I do think access is the main problem. Complete guess on my part but I think 93% of new golfers under the age of 14 come from the private club environment, 5% are children of avid public course players, and the other 2% are kids that seek it out on their own.
I was the ONLY student in my grade school that played EITHER. At the club my dad worked at, we had roughly 14-16 kids that played regularly in a 12-18 year old age group. There were tons of other kids that were members, but only a small group that played.
Most high schools that had golf teams, rarely had trouts, other than some of the private schools. There were simply very few junior golfers.
Now, there are all kinds of kids playing tournaments, taking lessons, and participating in high school golf. Access is an issue, and agree, the first tee money could have created accessible facilities for kids. BUT, IMO even as a kid who was caddying, the majority of golfers come to the game later, when age and responsibilities take them from other sports, they then turn to golf.
Grow the game should be about cheap/free clinics for "new or returning" golfers. Our course is doing this, and response is pretty good. We also provide instructors for a few grade schools in our area to provide golf clinics as part of the PE program. As some of these kids get older, golf will grab them too, but we also need to help new.older golfers get comfortable with playing, or attemting to play
Just because someone from the BBC says something don't make the error of suggesting that this typifies a nation's whole attitude in the same way as we wouldn't take something that,say, Bill O'Reilly says as being representative of all Americans. Some of us Brits do our own thinking thanks.
The Queen is the only secular progressive piece on the board. The King is supreme? What's with that? And instead of a bishop or a horse head, how about a stripper?
Casey Alexander is a golf industry expert at golf analysts Gilford Securities in New Jersey. "Golf is expensive, hard to learn, and cannot be played unsupervised by children in the US," adds Mr Alexander.
So it wasn't a Brit "fabrication of grandeur".
Lacrosse, now there's a growing sport.
Here's a question for you...
Let's say you have a group of 100 kids, all 15 years old and have been playing golf for at least 3 years. Assume this sample accurately represents the total pool of 15 year old golfers with 3 years exxperience in the country.
Your job is to assign each of the 100 kids to one of these three groups:
1. kids who accessed golf in the private golf/country club environment.
2. kids who started at a public facility because a parent/s was into golf.
3. kids who just sought it out with zero influence from any adult.
How would you assign the 100 kids to those 3 categories?
PS...by definition, are you saying that Fred Couples is uncool?
1. 99
2. 1
3. 0
However, I do think Tiger changed that for a time, especially among African-Americans. He hosted camps and things of that nature for people who don't necessarily play golf regularly. It had to be Tiger because he was famous enough outside the world of golf for people to care enough to show up. If Phil (or anyone else) hosted camps and lessons, the only people who would show up would be regular golfers. Hegemonic golf is good for reaching to new people. And I think it can speak to your and others' earlier points about access.