The Week That Was, august 19, 2012

canada Feeling the Pinch

People aren’t vacationing in British Columbia as much as they used to, and the province’s golf courses are hurting as a result.

“I don’t know if we will ever see 2007 again,” a golf tourism executive groused to the Victoria Times Colonist.

In fact, a provincial golf marketing group has determined that British Columbia now loses 124,000 “person trips” to the United States every year. The travelers are chasing bargains. Across the border, a golf course operator told the newspaper, they’re “giving golf away.”

“If you think the golf business here is weak,” the operator said, “it’s in panic mode down there.”

united states Where’s the Panic?

Are U.S. golf course owners and operators really “in panic mode”?

The evidence doesn’t back up the claim. According to PGA PerformanceTrak, the number of rounds played at U.S. golf properties through the first six months of 2012 is up by 14.3 percent over the number posted in 2011. Such an increase doesn’t typically set off alarms.

What’s more, PerformanceTrak notes that the number of rounds played has been up for eight consecutive months and that increases are being seen at all types of facilities: public, private, municipal, and resort. And while it may not always be true in an era of deep discounting, a golf course that rings up more golfers will usually also ring up more revenue.

To be sure, some of the boost in this year’s traffic can be attributed to weather-related effects that may not persist. The first six months of 2012, the service reports, was “the warmest first half of any year on record for the contiguous United States” and also, in much of our country, “drier than average.”

And it’s important to remember that an economic high tide doesn’t necessarily lift all boats. In good times and bad, some states invariably do better than others. Courses in poorly performing states may show profits, and courses in high-flying states may show losses. Statistics don’t always tell the whole story.

So far this year, five states have showed double-digit increases: Wyoming (up by 22.8 percent), Utah (12.3 percent), Arkansas (12.2 percent), Alabama (10.5 percent), and Louisiana (10.1 percent).

The increases in those and other states have made up for the 15 states that have registered declines. The biggest drops have taken place in Florida (9.1 percent), Oregon (8.1 percent), Maine (8 percent), West Virginia (6.5 percent), and Washington (5.5 percent).

I may not be the most astute observer, but it seems to me that the U.S. golf business is in general having a pretty good year -- a year that should lead people to be optimistic, not panic-stricken. A few more years like 2012 would go a long way toward making all of us whole again.

scotland Shooting the Breeze

Donald Trump isn’t catching many breaks in Scotland these days.

Trump’s major aggravation continues to be those 11 proposed off-shore wind turbines that may emerge within sight of his new golf course in Aberdeenshire. If the wind farm is approved, Trump has vowed, he’ll abandon his plans to build a hotel, upscale houses, and a second golf course on his wonderfully wrinkled coastal property.

Despite Trump’s threats, however, the planning for the wind farm continues. And Trump’s temperature is almost certainly rising, because at least a few of the turbines may get bigger, by roughly 11 feet.

If there’s a silver lining in this cloud, it’s this: A few of the turbines -- those closest to the shore -- may shrink by roughly 16 feet.

“We intend to fight this application and defeat these horrendous proposals that will ultimately destroy Scotland,” Trump told the BBC.

Government officials will render a verdict on wind farm by the end of the year.

talking points The Space Race

Peter Thomson has turned over his design duties to Ross Perrett, but he isn’t acting like the retiring type.

The 82-year-old, Melbourne-based Australian golf star, a five-time winner of the Open Championship, believes that golf has what the Australian Financial Review calls “a space problem.”

Golf courses take up a lot of space, and a lot of countries don’t have much space to spare, Thomson recently told the paper. In India, the cost of land is the same as it is on Manhattan. I find myself more and more praising the efforts of people who can build courses on swamps or old dumps. In property developments, golf courses always get the worst land. And you need more land than ever these days, because the ball goes further than it ever did.

wild card click Do you know who said, “With enough butter, everything is good”?