The Week That Was, october 14, 2012

brazil In Rio, Uncertainty Reigns

We’re already midway through October, the month when construction was supposed to begin on the golf course for the 2016 Olympics. So far, though, nothing is happening.

And it doesn’t appear that ground will be broken on Gil Hanse’s golf course anytime soon. A dispatch from the Associated Press says that the land dispute that’s already caused so many headaches still hasn’t been settled and that the legal case “likely will drag on for several more months.”

In other words, no progress has been made since this spring, when word of potential problems with land ownership first surfaced.

The people in charge of the course construction insist that they aren’t worried. Ty Votaw of the International Golf Federation told the AP that the land dispute is “not a concern at this time,” and in a prepared statement Rio de Janeiro’s Olympic committee said that it’s “confident that all deadlines for the golf course construction will be met.”

All this happy talk aside, one major fact remains: This situation should have been resolved by now.

Yes, there’s still plenty of time to build the golf course and have it ready for world-class competition by August 2016. But right now the land dispute -- the key to the course’s fate -- rests in the hands of courts and judges, and there’s no predicting how they’ll rule or even when they’ll rule.

If this is the nature of golf development in Brazil, good luck.

united states In Aspen, a Rocky Mountain High

Things are looking up for the municipally owned golf course in Aspen, Colorado, which had what a local newspaper calls a “stellar” season.

Through early October, the number of rounds played at Aspen Golf Club had increased by 28 percent, from 23,027 in 2011 to 29,467 in 2012. The Aspen Times reports that the number of rounds played this year is “the highest in many years, even swamping the pre-recession tallies of 26,302 rounds in 2007 and 27,312 rounds in 2008.”

Of course, at least part of this increase can be attributed to a mild winter that brought an early spring to the Rockies. What’s more, the Times’ story says next to nothing about revenues. But right now I’m not in the mood to poke any holes in the numbers. Over the past few years, good news like this has been hard to find. Let’s enjoy it.

Regarding the course’s revenues: The city has already decided to make across-the-board rate increases for the 2013 season. The area’s golfers may not agree, but I think this is also good news.

talking points Thumbs Glued To Smart Phones

In an interview with Advertising Week, the social media director of a major U.S. corporation has implicitly predicted the demise of golf as a medium for doing business.

“Social media,” he said, “is the new golf course.”

This is a frightening thought, one that distills one of golf’s major problems: Young people have the highest regard for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other interactive social channels but almost none for an afternoon of golf. Too many young people believe golf is mostly a waste of time. They don’t think it’s an effective way to win friends and influence people.

I don’t share this view. I don’t think a virtual encounter can measure up to a face-to-face encounter, especially one that can last five hours or more. Then again, maybe I’m part of a shrinking minority.

I do know this, however: If our industry can’t wean the nation’s twenty- and thirty-somethings off their smart phones for just a few hours a week, we’re going to lose them forever.

wild card click Who’s there? Who’s not there? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.