"If the numbers are correct, how could the average Chinese person go out and spend $2,000 on a new set of Nike clubs, then spend $80+ for every 18 hole round?"
With this Reuters report making the rounds suggesting only one in 20 golf courses in Beijing having been developed legally, what better time than to debate China's horrible human rights track record the idea of exporting the failed American model for golf.
Reader Justin emailed awhile back after reading The Future of Golf and asked:
The old business model (building "championship" courses by Tom Fazio and Jack Nicklaus, charging out the nose for the latest-and-greatest equipment) no longer works here in the States- those in the know have made that perfectly clear. However, instead of changing the model, all it seems like they're doing is moving that model to China. For a country that averages nearly $5,000/year wages (per a 2006 survey), there doesn't seem to be a way for that to work.
The likes of Jack Nicklaus, among others, pushed so hard for golf to be an Olympic sport. What is they're fascination with golf in China (and India) other than to continue the growing of their bank accounts? If the numbers are correct, how could the average Chinese person go out and spend $2,000 on a new set of Nike clubs, then spend $80+ for every 18 hole round? I am far from omniscient, but it still doesn't make any sense to me.
Me neither. Anyone out there that's traveled to China who sees the dying American model working in China?
Sunday, March 7, 2010 at 10:10 PM
Reader Comments (31)
It's time the golfing press and industry call these whoring pigs out...the B.S. con is over. Look to the marvelous utility of the land use practices of the past...focus on quality and realistic fees, give back to golf some beyond just the money that Uncle Sam would get anyway.. and ya might just help the game keep from becoming a constant sore spot and easy target for global society to disparage.
Nobody gives a rats ass about the Scottish model of community golf. Nobody can make any money off it. When it happens and you find it (read: Quechee VT), enjoy it and fight for it
Hell even GM is relatively successful flogging their crappy cars over here.
DM
The Scottish community golf model is the most successful there's ever been in terms of generating genuine, man in the street, interest in and love of the game of golf. I know this may be totally unbelievable to you but the game there is not seen, in the community, as a vehicle for money making. The model seeks to generate enough cash flow to pay for the running expenses of the club and no more. More affluent communities can usually afford slightly better courses; be that as it may, Scotland is full of great courses, wealthy community or not, few (strike that - none) of which have lavished on them a fraction of the funding spent on the US private (and even many public) courses. At the golf club, even the more up-market ones (with one or two exceptions, Muirfield springing to mind immediately), PhD mixes with taxi-driver, miner with school teacher, lawyer with bartender (even on the course!). The golf club is a place of social interaction and integration and a few hours of good craik, as our similarly- minded Irish brothers say. That's all anyone wants of it.
The professional game is a different thing entirely. The Scots are as willing as anyone to take stupid amounts of money from whomever wishes to play the St Andrews courses or Turnberry or Dornoch etc. but that's gravy. I assure you the locals don't, and wouldn't, and most likely couldn't, pay 150 pounds for a round at the Old Course and its like. For that sum you could play on 5 to 10 of hundreds of very decent "no-name" layouts - some truly great.
To put it in perspective - my annual subscription for my (great!) Scottish course is less than $300; that would not buy a visitor 27 holes of golf on the highly-publicized, PGA-tournament hosting, "name" architect, multi-million dollar resort course I'm a member of on the Western side of the Atlantic. The Scottish course is far more interesting (and, tellingly, better kept), with few "strategically-placed" bunkers, no false-fronted greens, no 200-yard carries to dart board greens - the run-up is always an option - and the clubhouse itself, though lacking the plush shower rooms, smoking rooms and card rooms of its American counterpart, is a much more friendly and socially active place.
Obviously there's a place for people who want to make money out of golf, and a bunch of mugs (I include myself) who provide a ready market for them. But please don't excoriate or dismiss the community golf model for its not being something it doesn't want, or claim to, be.
As for China, and golf in the Olympics - for the two have been strongly, if tenuously, linked, the only explanation is the greed of those who charge fees upfront for designing and building new courses. I fancy the chances of the clubs being successful, either financially or in spreading the love of the game among the bourgeoisie, are minimal to none.
I agree totally the business model for golf no longer works. And, it is not solely, maybe not even mostly, the economy. Our Gen X'ers & Y'ers are different cats than us boomers. They demand value. $150 per round is not value. $600+ per month at a private club is not value. New clubs every season is not value.
Adjust the model to fit the family, the men, the women and the kids so it is convenient to THEM, not the 60+ old guys (like me) sitting on the board or making daily fee club decisions. The target has changed and is constantly moving.
TaylorMade R&D head says if you have a pre-2007 driver, your equipment is obsolete.
(Well, of course, he said this because his job is to sell product...but did Digest have to print it without a note of skepticism. Of course it did, because nobody runs ads for old golf equipment.)
To elaborate briefly; my committee member friends over there tell me it's becoming more and more difficult to attract members, or even players, not because of the cost of membership of clubs per se, but rather because of the time it takes to play the game. Even in Scotland, more and more courses are being forced to allow foursomes to play at busy times - the twosome used to be the order of the day there - and as a result a round has gone from 2.5 hours to 4 or even more. The disease of slow play is spreading everywhere due to the televising of tournament golf. The pre-middle-aged family man / woman simply hasn't the time any more to participate. Obviously the next decision is to drop membership because the few rounds played are not worth the cost (even at the generally very inexpensive membership fees readily available). Thus fees rise to meet the fixed costs of running the course and the cycle of decline continues.
On another point, while I agree that golf will never be the pastime of the masses, I suggest that you could go into any bar in Scotland or Ireland and have a satisfying, knowledgeable, in-depth conversation on golf issues - particularly if you're buying the drinks.
Cheers.
As a resident in the Triangle area, I have to ask where you're getting that $9/12 round on a course that's decent to play. Very curious to hear.
btw- Hasentree was just bought by Toll Brothers, so it will be interesting to see what happens to the development around that Fazio track. A fiasco of a project from the start. Their management is horrendous and ever so self-entitled, too. Dealt with them last year when trying to set up a tournament for my company. Much better places to play than the "name brands", especially here in NC.
Annual subs are 1000 bucks and we make 10% profit on turnover.(even in a severe recession)
We have Lords and Ladies who are members as well as school janitors and refuse collectors.
The model can-and does - work and we do give a rats ass about it.
$9 for Cedar Grove, north of Hillsborough. It's a modernish layout, can run fast because I doubt they ever water. The greens sometimes can be partially missing from disease, and there are a lot of hunter's gunshots close by, but hey, it's $9.
$12 for Sourwood Forest, near Snow Camp. I think it's a charming place, with some nifty holes on the back nine. I played 9 holes with an escaped pig there once--it just wanted company and followed me around everywhere. Hard to have more fun than that.
Farmingdale ..."Mandatory Caddies" are a choice that ownership/membership makes. One shouldn't generally feel the need to "force" anything on anyone. That said, many facilities that wish to preserve the greatest source of the game's champions and differencemakers knows that many skinflints with the money to afford a caddie....won't take one if they can get away with it.
I'm all for personal choice...but if you"really love the game and wish to support it's vitality and strength into the future...enabling folks, particularly youth of modest means...the chance to find, earn and learn the game is a cause worth backing. While only a fraction of the total rounds played worldwide will ever be caddie rounds...the impact the caddie has made...in continuing to define the game... has, is and should forever be huge! Golf will be the loser if it is not.
Need proof? Defending Master's Champion....former caddie, Mr. Cabrera. 2008 PGA Tour Rookie of the Year...Andres Romero, former caddie. Both from Argentina. What do think there's something in the water down there?! They are talented AND hungry...and got the chance to find the game.
For centuries, countless club pros, golf teachers...administrators, hell David Fay, head of the USGA caddied as a youngster...all can point to their caddie roots as pivotal to finding the game.
From Old Tom to Ben Hogan to young professionals coming out of the caddie ranks worldwide from emerging golf nations such as India...the proof is irrefutable. Want to help grow the game...support caddie golf!
Even if you can't afford to take one...you can't deny the facts. So embrace the real lifeblood of the game you claim to love and recognize that were it not for the Scottish caddie turned professionals that brought and taught the game to the rest of the world...there's a good chance you wouldn't be playing it!
Chico, can I move to Scotland? I'd willingly tolerate the low-light winters for membership in your golf club. I might even qualify because I was a janitor/lifeguard at an Elks Lodge (don't ask) when I was in high school.
Cant guarantee a pig to follow you round(although some of the local ladies bear a passing resemblance!)-but you could easily spot a deer or red squirrel.
sir real, I understand every single point of your thesis, and tend to agree on most...but it's been over 5 years since I've had a caddie under the age of 35...that was a nice 14yr son of a member at CC of Darien. I take that back, had one kid last summer who had recently graduated from Virginia but was unable to find a "real job". Caddie programs in this area are in no way focused on the young people... (except CC of Darien that is)