Future Obstacles to Golf?

After cleaning up my computer, I dug up an old article - a survey about growing the game, which talked about preferred course length, driving distance, reasons why people play golf, and so on. The survey was done in 2005 from golfers all around the world. Which brings me to my question - what do people here on the forum think is the greatest obstacle to the future of golf?

My personal gripe is slow play.

Slow play, in my opinion, precipitates a whole host of other problems, indeed, many of the problems we face today in the game. Playing too slowly can cause golf to conflict with family obligations, as well as crowd up the course, raise greens fees due to reduced traffic flow, as well as irritate and agitate other golfers, creating a more unfriendly environment. I have no idea how well any of these are correlated (I can't do my own research), but that's my two cents out there.

(How can I attach a file larger than 128k? I have the report, but it's 150k.)

Edit: Here is the report

http://www.mediafire.com/?batzd19ca23

I don't think any of these things are NOT problems (except maybe disparity between tour and regular). I do not look forward to the time when I finish law school (a few months now) and I have to fight for tee times around 4:00 or 5:00 after work. Hopefully I can eventually have my own practice (sooner rather than later) and play some mornings before work. I voted family obligations, but would says it's OTHER obligations, not necessarily family but a combination of family, work, and other hobbies/sports.

Bottom line... I will put up with all the other crap, but if I don't have time to play... well I don't have time to play.

Here in New York when average courses are 50.00 to walk I think it is getting out of hand.Thank god for Bethpage still the best bargain in America

I voted for "Too Expensive" but I think "Slow Play" is a close second.

I put slow play.

I went out last Sunday with a buddy of mine and I insisted with the starter that he put us with another pair so that we would be a foursome since there were an hour of fours in front of us. The first nine was a little slow, but then in a tricky part of the back it was getting backed up. I called the pro-shop to have a ranger come out and try to help a foursome that was two holes ahead of us that was backing everyone up. They had at least two-three open holes in front of them. I was watching on an adjacent fairway as grandpa would hit, dad would swing, and the two teenagers would hit. The one teenager was about 250 out and really taking his time only to top the ball three times in a row. And to see them eyeing their putts on the green, you would think they were in the US Open. Are you feeling my pain now? You get the idea. Someone with a little ettiquette would have been playing ready golf and maybe suggested to pick up once you have doubled par especially if you are holding the joint up!

Now there is another course I play at where they promise you that you will play in four hours or less. It is a little farther and a bit more money, but they will keep you moving. The rangers are not jerky, they are more like ambassadors and keep it flowing. We were talking to one of the guys coming up to one of the trickier holes and he asked us if we had played there before. Since it had been a while, he reminded us of the shortish fairway (he gave exact yardage to the water) and the best angle to the hole. Even though the course was packed, our foursome finished just under four hours and we never felt rushed or delayed. Every course should play like this as you always have a nice paced round.

I was watching the Mercedes tournament yesterday and Stephen Ames was being interviewed about what was the benefits of playing by yourself. He said that it was great to play in three hours. Maybe they need rangers on tour.

It's really too bad people don't have COMMON SENSE....

The summer before last is when my wife started golfing. She took a series of 4 lessons from a guy who happened to be a high school girls golf coach. Still after only four lessons she was wildly inconsistent as most beginers are, so she went to the range a few more times with me. After a couple range sessions it was time to play. I told her that she was out here to HAVE FUN, if she's not having fun let me know and we'll do something about it. She still doesn't keep score (although now she will for most of the round). The way we played depended on how busy the course was. I took my time with her and told her all of the course etiquite before playing and while on the course she was pretty good at keeping track of everything. At first we tried to hit up weekdays (she usually has one day off work) and twilight on the weekend. When playing a busy course she would just hit a tee shot and if it was a poor shot she would pick up and just hit an approach shot at a comfortable distance, then hit a chip or sand shot near the green and putt. This way she got to play every shot to some extent and trying to have a score wasn't even a thought. We always made sure that we were playing our approach shots as soon as greens vacated and we always stayed on the group in front. Eventually we were forced to pair up with people and of course she was nervous as hell. But, she did great... never walked in lines, stayed out of periphial vision during swings, played ready golf, and pulled pins, etc. She truly had learned all the proper little things very quicky... I was beeming with pride. On a golf trip last summer she was excited when we got paired with another couple and we had a great time. She absolutely loves golf because I introduced it too her properly and furthermore she now notices when others are doing stupid things like topping 24 shots straight to get to a par 5, or giving their wife a lesson in sand play on a busy Saturday morning, or not raking a bunker, or looking for a ball in Egypt for 15 minutes. It really is too bad some of these nimrods don't have enough COMMON SENSE to keep things moving and keep the game enjoyable for everyone on the course.

Great post!

Like others I could have choosen a couple different ones I choose "Other". The thing that keeps me off the course is life. Things don't always work out to where I can get out and play. I have been wanting to play a certain course that is close to me. It's a $45/18 course. One of the more expensive ones close to me. I had a coupon to play it for half price. Well it was buy one get one greens fee. So it was pretty much half price. Well I made plans to play with my cousin, brother, and grandpa. Well it got closer to time to play and everyone had something come up that we weren't able to play.

For me I chose too expensive but I could also have gone with other.

I want to have fun and golf is certaintly challenging. Thats the problem it takes so much time and money off the course to be able to have fun on the course. No one wants to go out and shoot 124, lose 9 balls, and a sunburn every day.

You would atleast have a nice tan by the end of the summer though.

I know what you mean though. I usually count on losing atleast 3 golf balls while I'm out. Sometimes I'm lucky and only lose 1. One of these days I'll be more consistant and I won't lose any while I'm out.

For me as a student I have to go with too expensive, the average nice course around here is around 50 bucks a pop so I don't play a lot outside of the course I work at.

I'm not sure what to vote.


Slow Play is obviously a problem, but I think this can be fixed by players being conscious of it and rangers actually doing something. I really think, at least at the courses I play, that the fix is by having a sign on the par-5s at the halfway point from the tips saying "if you drove it past here, you may go for the green. Otherwise, you must lay up." I also think a handicap check to play from the tips would help. My home course is 6800 yards from the tips (I don't play from the tips), and I see people playing from the tips all the time that have no business doing so. A handicap check up front would do wonders, even if it's just "do you have a handicap?"

I don't have family obligations, and I can certainly see playing golf as a great way to get away from the family, if one has one. And I don't see family obligations being an issue to keep people away from golf in the future as opposed to now , even if we got the average round down to 3 hours.

I'm past the point of being embarrassed to play. I put in my time on executive courses to get comfortable with playing. A publicized "handicap suggestion" and men's rating to forward tees will go a long way to solving this, and I'm seeing these happening more and more, since it will be more acceptable for a man to say "I'm playing from the white tees." I occasionally am told I should play from the tips because I consistently hit the ball.

The courses are crowded, but then again, I play low-end public courses. I wonder if the courses would be less crowded if we had ten minute tee time increments instead? I read something about that, but I can't remember where.

I've only had one unfriendly golfing partner, and I've been randomly paired up with three others for most of the 30+ rounds I've played so far. The environment gets unfriendly sometimes, with goose droppings on the greens and heavy wind moving my ball all over, but that can either be avoided by playing in fair-weather circumstances or just recognize it as part of the game. And I believe it is part of the game, so it doesn't bug me. And you can remove the droppings from the green.

I don't find it too expensive. Sure, if I want to play some high-end courses, I have to cough up some more money, but when I finish school and have a full-time job, this won't be an issue (and I will be playing higher-end courses). Seeing as how I got an offer already, but it would've required leaving school to accept, I'm not too worried about finding a job when I'm done or the salary range (the offer was low six figures). If money's a problem, there are plenty of inexpensive courses.

As for disparity, I really don't care. I'm never going to be Tiger Woods. I realize that. But I think the disparity makes it more fun. I was once in a fairway bunker on the 18th hole and hit a 6-iron that drew into the green. Sure, it was 130 yards and not 200+, and not over water, but damn if I didn't feel like Tiger for a moment. The disparity helps.

Personaly, all of the poll options apply to me, but i chose unfriendly golfers, as some of the juniors in my section just mess around too much.

Here is the report I was talking about :

http://www.mediafire.com/?batzd19ca23

I usually do not have a problem with slow play since I make tee times as soon as the sun rises (on weekends). My concern is how expensive it is to play. I have a pretty good job (scientist) and I have a passion for the game and yet I will never have enough money to be a member of a nice club or even play all of the courses I want to. It is unfortunate that in the United States golf is still a rich man's game while in other places it is an everyman's sport.

This is a tough one because many of those can combine.

I voted for family obligations simply because my wife likes to turn my weekends into "work" ends. Thats when slow play comes into the picture. If I could knock out a round in a couple hours, she wouldn't get nearly as upset as if it does when it takes 4-6 hours.

Price is always a factor. The par-3 courses around here are only $10, so I can go several times a month without breaking the bank. The larger $40-$60 courses I have to reserve for birthdays and when someone special is in town.

I've only met one "A-hole" on the golf course. He was only mad because I picked up his ball by mistake. (both were out of bounds, hit to the same spot from different holes) I thought he was going to jump out of his cart and start a fight until the other three guys in my forsome showed up and he suddenly backed down.

It's gotta be slow play for me. It's annoying, and it kills my concentration. And it seems that as I (slowly) get to be a better golfer, it affects me more. Last weekend, I was on pace to break 90 for the first time, until the 13th hole when the group of teenagers in front of me decided to start screwing around. All the standing around made me starting thinking about how tired I was, and I didn't do better than a double bogey on any of the last 5 holes.

Expense is another huge factor. My financial situation is pretty dismal as far as spare money goes, and while I haven't yet been faced with the choice between golf and food for the week, it's gonna get worse before it gets better. But it's going to get better once my girlfriend graduates and moves in, which leads to...

"Family" obligations. My girlfriend hates golf, and gets very contrary when I suggest she take it up so we have an outdoor activity to do together.

But, we persevere, and even if I'm not on the course or at the range, I can still have a blast walking to the local park and hitting practice balls for an hour or two. Don't cost nothing!

That's not so much slow play as inattentive marshal. I started carrying my cell phone after hearing of things like this. Especially if you're on 13, the marshal should be able to get out there quickly enough.