Time to Stop Worrying about "Growing the Game"?

[rollin]

If people want to play golf they will find a way. There's super poor people that still smoke cigarettes for example. Smoking is more expensive than golf.

yes and is exactly why noting is wrong with golf nor does it have to be grown. People will golf if that's what they chose to do and/or decide is something they would like to do. Just as always been, is now, and will always be, most people do not want to golf.

 

[Scrap Iron]

yes and is exactly why noting is wrong with golf nor does it have to be grown. People will golf if that's what they chose to do and/or decide is something they would like to do. Just as always been, is now, and will always be, most people do not want to golf.

Out of curiosity how did you get interested in the game?

 

[dthrog00]

I try to golf fairly inexpensively and given I almost always go during twilight I can golf as much as I want after twilight (9 or 18 holes) often for $12 or $13 at my most often played courses. I'm quite a ways from Chicago and it's really reasonable cost wise to play. Conditions are what's expected for a muni -- not great and not terrible.

I also walk to try and stay in shape. Again, twilight helps for this because the temperatures go down and the sun is less intense.

Dave

 

[dthrog00]

Glad I live where I do because I would play very little golf if I had to pay $30 for 9.

I'm used to cheap golf and I sometimes read of people whose typically round is $75 or $100 and can't relate. If it costed that much I'd find something else to do. Photography is my other hobby and once you buy the gear actually taking the photos is free except for gas and computers/software.

Dave

 

[rollin]

Out of curiosity how did you get interested in the game?[/QUOTE

As a teen just took a few old golf clubs my dad had lying around the garage for like ever and a friend of mine had an idea we would go to a field near our homes and hit some balls. We use to walk to a near by course and find balls in the woods and sell shag bags along side the road which also gave us more balls to hit. I don't know when but at some point took a short lesson to learn on some idea how to hit and then eventually went to play but that was a few years later and was old enough to drive car at that time. But never really played much at all till a bit later on. Know one showed me the game nor encouraged me to play. It just seemed like fun to go and try to hit some balls in a field with clubs that were already old even at the time in the 70's.

 

[ntanygd760]

I haven't paid more than $25 with a cart all year. If there is no hot deal I walk 18 at my home course for less than $20. I did grow up in San Diego though so I never golfed more than a few times a year at a real course. Only total goat tracks were under $50 there or you had to drive inland for an hour or two.

 

[leftshot]

Over 25 million Americans played golf in 2016. I have a question, how many is 'enough'?

I offered this as a very serious question and appreciate those who attempted to engage it. Every problem solving model I have ever seen starts with describing and quantifying the problem. Until that is done and agreed upon, how will we ever know how to solve a problem we haven't defined?

 

[darthweasel]

If indeed the pundits are correct, the middle class is going the way of the dinosaur, there will be no way to grow the game. There won't be enought higher income people to keep the game expanding.

On a more positive note, a game that was born of hitting a ball with a stick in a field, will never go away.

I guess they could be right. first time for everything.


been my experience that "pundits" are "people who want to get paid for spouting inaccurate opinions". I see great examples everywhere...here is a soft one. Former players predicting outcomes of games at less than 50% accuracy. Not real sure I have seen improvement in percentage in more complicated arenas such as the highly charged and volatile one you reference...

 

[denw2o]

I've only been playing for a year and I've 'grown the game' to the extent that two of my friends now go to the driving range and play with me. I'm motivated to get people to try it, because I just want to play with friends instead of random people all the time

That said, it's hard to get people into golf. It has nothing to do with the expense, as there's no shortage of people willing to spend money on leisure. It's just a hard skill game that takes a while to learn. I think that's why millions of people try the game for the first time every year, but only a fraction of those people become 'golfers'.

 

[huhhh]

I don't think you can blame the cost of golf as an excuse. I can buy a set of clubs for $200 Canadian and play 9 holes for 30 bucks. I think there is a stigma that golf costs a lot and people want to don't want to struggle and be good right away.

Yeah, but I can buy a basketball for $12 and go to the park for free. It's all relative, but even 'cheap' golf is expensive.