talking points The Dead Zone

No question, the Great Recession has brought tremendous suffering to everyone in the U.S. golf industry. And its effects won't be short-lived. Hard times are changing the industry fundamentally, from the ground up.

Lorne Rubenstein of the Toronto Globe & Mail recently asked two long-time golf writers -- Ron Whitten of Golf Digest and Brad Klein of Golfweek to comment on the current state of golf design. What they said won't bring any cheer to architects who haven't already established a foothold in the business.

Like most everyone else, both writers believe that golf construction's high times are gone forever. Klein paints an especially dark picture of the future.

Some people see the current industry-wide malaise in course development as the down cycle of a standard “A-B” economic cycle, Klein told Rubenstein. Others, including myself, see it as a part of a long-term decline that has to do with far-reaching changes in outdoor recreation, land use, lifestyles, and the culture of golf today.

He continued:

I am convinced that what we are seeing is a part of a significant reformulation in how people play and indulge in sports. Smart owners and operators will respond by adapting fundamentally rather than just waiting out the return of some abstract “prosperity.”

If Klein is right, the handwriting is on the wall for golf course architects. An industry that doesn't build very many golf courses doesn't need very many designers.

I think we’ll get back to 30 firms or so, Whitten told Rubenstein. There never was a place for so many firms. People forget that [Donald] Ross never gave up his day job, that [Alister] Mackenzie died broke, and that [A. W.] Tillinghast had to write [to earn a living].

In other words, golf design in the future will be a nice way to moonlight, not a career move.