"Do we ever go back to the way things were?"

John Garrity files a lengthy Golf Magazine story titled "The Gilded age of golf design is dead." The piece is mostly quite productive and focused on talking to productive, interesting folks like Bobby Weed and Chris Monti who are trying to reimagine how the golf course will fit into a future with increased energy and water demands. And then there's Tom Fazio.

Tom Fazio, for one, sees the impending period of frugality and downsizing as a logical correction after decades of free-spending by developers. But he's not sold on the idea that golf must become leaner and meaner to survive. "You can buy a Kia for seven or eight thousand dollars," he observed on our scenic drive between two of his Carolina courses. "But how many people buy them? How many people want them? Do we ever go back to the way things were?" He also dismissed the idea that future courses will be as brown and bouncy as a rural landing strip. "Back in the seventies we had this same discussion. There was a recession and costs were going up, so there was an article in a golf magazine: ‘Let Your Course Grow Shaggy!' So we did that for a while." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "But all of a sudden we had growth and development, and everybody forgot about it."

Yes and you got rich while the game benefited how exactly?