The $6 million par 3 course
Only in Palm Beach, right? Where else could you possibly spend $6 million on a 39-acre par 3 course? Such is the case as the Town of Palm Beach attempts to pick up the additional $1.5 million that they have yet to raise to get to the $6 million it “needs” to redo the Palm [...]
Economy Takes Toll on Golf Courses
The faltering economy is sparing nobody – and golf courses, which were taking it on the chin in the good times – continue to fall. The National Golf Foundation expects less than 85 courses to open in 2008, the lowest in 20 years. It also expects around 100 golf courses to close. That’s the third [...]
More courses closed in 2007 than opened
The National Golf Foundation reported that more golf courses closed in 2007 than opened, a copy of what happened in 2006. Below is their press release.
CLOSURES OUTPACE OPENINGS IN 2007
NGF has identified 113 golf courses, in 18-hole equivalents, that opened for business in the U.S. in 2007. During the same period, there were 121.5 golf [...]
Orchard Hills Golf Course will become soccer complex
Orchard Hills Golf Course in Waukegan, Illinois will soon trade its flying golf balls for flying soccer balls after the Park District’s board voted 4-1 to close the course and redevelop it as a sports complex.
District officials spent nearly $1 million studying whether the soccer, baseball and softball fields could be built on a lakefront [...]
We knew it was coming – the 8,000+ yard tournament course
It was only a matter of time, and it happened at a course that is getting serious consideration for a U.S. Open. Erin Hills in Erin, Wisconsin held a tournament over the weekend for a group of 38 club pros and amateurs with the course set at 8,400 yards. Now, it was for 19 holes [...]
TPC Scottsdale’s Stadium Course shuts down
This is an interesting environmental note. The course had been using gray water to irrigate its fairways.
Sales and marketing director Tiffany Nelson said the root structure on the course has deteriorated since 2000, when it stopped irrigating with Central Arizona Project water and switched to reclaimed water.
The reclaimed water has high salt content, which [...]
Is Great Britain becoming hostile to golf?
The home of golf is becoming not so sweet for both existing and proposed golf courses. A new golf course and proposed junior golf facility were rejected in Cumbrian, which is in northwest England.
Mr Cullingford said there was “no demonstrable deficiency in the provision of golf courses either in the Lake District National Park or [...]
Shocking: Golf market in trouble
Ray Tennenbaum writes an interesting article for Golf Business Magazine on the sorry state of the golf industry, which has joined the residential real estate industry in the toilet. (Welcome – the water’s @&$#!) In any event, the article is an interesting one and spurred a great discussion at GolfClubAtlas.com on the subject. (There’s too [...]
Brandt Snedeker goes back in time – with 80s golf equipment
USA Today with PGA Tour rookie Brandt Snedeker conducted something of a test – Snedeker played consecutive rounds with equipment from the 1980s and modern equipment at Sea Island, Georgia.
He shot 80 with the 1980s era equipment and 75 with modern equipment.
Snedeker broke out in laughter when he saw an age-worn short iron that had [...]
“The Nonconforming Driver”
I admit that I love that headline. Geoff Shackelford has been covering this story at length on Walter Driver’s tenure as USGA president, but I want to throw it in here just for the sake of completeness to my own disgruntled feelings for the USGA’s continued lack of sensible technology control and absurd US Open [...]
