Search For a Tee Time May Lead To Tokyo

From an L.A. Times business section story on the semi-revival of Japan's golf industry:

Golf is booming in South Korea, trickling down from the elite to a new generation of golfers in their 20s and 30s who are flooding the country's courses — all 147 of them. Problem is, it does not take long in a country of 50 million people to flood that many courses. Teeing off, especially on weekends, has become a challenge for all but the best-connected businessmen and government officials.

Fortunately for golfers such as Sung, there are plenty of good-quality and relatively empty courses just an hour or so away. By air. In Japan.

Japan is bursting with golf courses, 2,458 to be exact, and they're becoming alternative links for South Korean golfers desperate enough to fly abroad for a chance to drive. Sung has made the hop by plane to Tokyo from Seoul three times in the last two years, visiting Japan for a couple of days to play several rounds and take advantage of nearby hot springs.

In the last five years, Dallas-based Lone Star Funds and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been scooping up financially troubled Japanese golf courses, almost 200 between them. The firms are now the top two golf course owners in Japan, where golf is a $10-billion-a-year business.

Both set up management subsidiaries that aim to turn a profit by buying supplies such as sand and fertilizer in bulk, and employing American-style management techniques — slicker pro shops and carts instead of caddies to move golfers around the fairways faster. Clubs are reporting that the number of rounds played is rising, and both Goldman Sachs and Lone Star have filed applications with the Tokyo Stock Exchange to take their Japanese golf subsidiaries public in the next few months.

The new American management is also democratizing Japanese golf. The two companies have lowered greens fees and let nonmembers onto once-private courses, have encouraged more women to play and have persuaded the Japanese to start rounds at once unheard-of early-morning hours.

Paper of Fluff

So is it me, or does this read like something from one of those glossy giveaway rags loaded with cigar ads and stories on $500 golf shoes:

Golfing on business trips, that sweet escape from the frustrations of the road, can be full of surprises. It also may be on the increase. Exactly how many executives golf on business trips is not tracked, according to the National Golf Foundation in Jupiter, Fla., but Rand Jerris, director of the United States Golf Association Museum and Archives in Far Hills, N.J., said the numbers had swelled in recent years, a trend he attributes in part to the proliferation of "best" lists in trade magazines and books.

"The same competitive spirit that drives business spills over" to golf, Dr. Jerris said. Hotels are also making it easier for guests to sneak off to the links. Several years ago, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts introduced the use of free TaylorMade clubs at many of their properties to members of their frequent-guest club.

This swell article is from the New York Times. The paper of record says there is an increase in golf travel among businessmen, with not a single number offered to back up the claim.

Ah, but the sourcing was impeccable.

Even exclusive private clubs have seen an increase in business travelers. "I see many more people flying in for the day to do business deals," said Michael R. Yamaki, the corporate officer of the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. With the boom in private-jet travel, he said, the portion of membership applications from outside the local area has surged to about 35 percent today from about 3 percent 15 years ago.

The story goes on to tell golf trip war stories and leaves you saying, ah, this is why they say a once great paper has lost its way.

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