"The U.S. is clearly in a correctional phase."

Jon Swartz files a pretty comprehensive breakdown of the issues facing the game. There's not a lot news here for most of us, but considering this is the USA Today, it's another dent that I'm sure the folks with the power to do something will spin.

A couple of standout items.

•Private-club memberships stand at 2.1 million — 900,000 below the peak of 3 million in the early 1990s. (There are 27.1 million golfers in the U.S. now, down from 30 million in 2005, the NGF says.)

•Golf rounds played nationally to date this year are down 3%, according to Golf Datatech.

•Sales at private golf courses and country clubs — which include membership fees, equipment, merchandise and food, for example — were down 3% last year, and things are expected to be worse this year, says Sageworks, a company that tracks private businesses' sales.

Consequently, as many as 15% of the roughly 4,400 private clubs nationwide reported serious financial challenges, and at least 500 are scrambling to raise their cash flow, according to a recent survey by the NGF.
Private clubs lost an estimated 5% to 15% of their members last year, costing clubs, on average, $187,000 in annual dues, says Jim Koppenhaver, president of golf-consulting firm Pellucid.

He cautions that at least 400 — and worst case, 1,000 — private clubs will have to close, convert to public play, or be absorbed into healthier clubs before "some semblance of balance returns to the private club market," he says.

After spending a few weeks in Scotland, I remain astounded at their ability to not be offended by a semi-private model, or a private-with-outside-play approach, while in the States that seems to be an option of last resort. Are we that shallow? Vain? What is it?

The story also lists a state-by-state breakdown of play in the last year (most are down).

And there was this rosy view of the PGA Tour:

Despite its woes, the sport remains a huge draw on TV and a hit among advertisers. Only the NFL topped the PGA Tour in advertising sold on network and cable TV last year, according to Nielsen. (The PGA Tour declined to say how much.) The tour's aggregate TV audience is doing swimmingly because of more hourly coverage on ESPN, the three major networks and the Golf Channel.

What's more, prize money is slightly up this year ($275 million). The PGA Tour has added 15 title sponsors since 2009, including Travelers Insurance and Zurich Financial Services. And the tour's charitable contributions — a key indicator of its financial health — should be $116 million to $118 million in 2010, topping last year, says Ty Votaw, executive vice president of communications and international affairs for the PGA Tour.

And hey, Wells Fargo is going to associate itself with Quail Hollow, so it's all good!