Posted on 08/21/2010 11:28:16 AM PDT by Willie Green
MAMARONECK, N.Y. — A few weeds have popped up on the fairways, and summer's heat has scorched the grass here and there, but the golf course at the Hampshire Country Club is still tidy and scenic, its little waterfall still burbling through the rocks.
Not that there's anyone around to notice. The Hampshire's 18-hole course on Long Island Sound, along with its tennis courts, pool and restaurant, is closed this year. Members cited rising costs upwards of $25,000 a year for a membership as the roster fell from several hundred at its peak to about 100.
"There was a lot of talk last year about the increasing costs, people not sure what they could pay, the assessments always going up," said Barbara Mines, a member for 15 years who lives in a house on the Hampshire course. "I wasn't really surprised when it closed."
The same thing has happened in recent years at hundreds of other courses nationwide — even in the golf meccas of Florida, Arizona and California — as the economic meltdown and changes in family dynamics combine to threaten club life. Whether it's a $45,000 initiation fee for a private club or a $5 increase in the cost of a round at a public course, the price of a golf habit is giving some duffers pause.
"It's definitely connected to the economic conditions and the ability of potential private club members to pay the fairly significant initiation fees and annual dues," said Jay Mottola, executive director of the Metropolitan Golf Association, representing 120,000 golfers and 500 golf courses in the New York region.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
It would appear his ball is just off the green and he’s carrying one club to chip with and his putter. I do it all the time (especially since I’m not doing well hitting greens lately...).
“even in the golf meccas of Florida, Arizona and California...”
Don’t say “Meccas.”
That’s racist.
As the article states, five hours to play a round of golf doesn't fit with today's lifestyles.
As the article states, five hours to play a round of golf doesn't fit with today's lifestyles.
Seems like all those dormant golf courses, with all that open space and all those holes, could profitably be turned into prairie dog shooting ranges.
Today’s lack of lifestyle?
Here in Central Florida supposedly a Golf Mecca I can’t find driving ranges and the country clubs have $5000 initiation fees and I think its about $430 a month for a membership. I would say they are doing fine since they are not sending me coupons.
This article says golf courses are closing, and another I read said restaurants were going out of business.
I wonder if there is some connection, I wonder what it could be? Hmmmmmmmmmm
Sorry to hear that you don’t enjoy it anymore. I never caught the bug myself, so I won’t miss it.
Seems like all those dormant golf courses, with all that open space and all those holes, could profitably be turned into prairie dog shooting ranges.
I was thinking that some of those fairways would make a very scenic right-of-way for the local mass transit system. Maybe put out some picnic tables and a few barbecue pits around the other holes, it would make a nice place for urban families to go on a outing. Maybe let the family dog run loose for a while as well!
I enjoy the game....but don’t miss my old club back north..and I’m also happily training for my first triathlon..I’ve found a “new” water hazzard..LOL
Nope, The vacant courses will be bought up by developers for pennies and low cost housing will be built. Thought you were gonna’ have that golf course view forever? Think again.....
Recreation? There’s no time for recreation. Work hard, generate money for taxes so that we may feed Obama’s unions, bureaucrats, and welfare queens.
Better get working.
Well, that was my comment. If you have a caddy, you walk over, access the situation and then ask for a club. The caddy may or may not help with the decision.
Uh...I think they were talking about playing golf, not watching it on the tube. Golf is a great participation sport which one can enjoy virtually his whole life. I knew a guy who shot an 80 on his eightieth birthday. You'd a thought he'd died and gone to heaven already.
The cost and the time it takes to play are becoming too precious for the regular duffer. As for people who have been paying a 25K per year membership fee, who knows what their problem is.
Many, many golfers have migrated to the shooting sports especially Sporting Clays. I am one of them. The cost to golf in time and cash has simply become too much to continue.
I highly recommend Sporting Clays and Trap and Skeet to my friends who have decide to play fewer or no rounds this year.
If cost is a concern, you can reload for much less money than retail. It is safe and quite easy to do. I reload for about .14 cents per round. The retail cost (a very big round) is 2.00 to 4.00 per round. This is representative of reloading overall.
At our local range, and I think this is true of most ranges, the ticket you buy in the morning is good for all day. You can shoot in the morning, go home and do the lawn, take the wife shopping, deliver the kids to the ball park, and on the way home get in another hour or so of shooting and then go pick up the kids. Runs about ten bucks a day and you don’t have to listen to a hostess drone on for 45 minutes about golf etiquette and how to play the holes.
Shooting sports are ideal for the modern fast paced lifestyle.
Many of them will become commercial property. Hotels and strip malls.
“Nope, The vacant courses will be bought up by developers for pennies and low cost housing will be built. Thought you were gonna’ have that golf course view forever? Think again.....”
This is happening all over the US. The golf course is actually commercial property and can be redeveloped for any commercial use. One of the subdivision golf courses in Houston is being redeveloped into a convention center and a boutique shopping mall. This is what is beginning to happen all over.
I tell my clients (I am a realtor) to not buy into the golf course subdivisions as there is a very good chance that their back yard will be looking out on a parking lot and a strip mall in the future. Some take the advice seriously, some do not.
Golf is losing a lot of players through retirement and through economics. The boom days of golf appear to have ended.
I think his “ball is always landing off the green!”
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