U.S. Golfers Dwindling in Numbers

I play at an inexpensive, Marshall-free, “anything goes” 9-hole course just on the outskirts of downtown Atlanta at least once a week .
More accurately, I should say that I work on my game there. I’m an impatient fellow. And since the nubby track known fondly to locals as “The Course of Champions” is often outrageously overcrowded, it’s not uncommon for me to save 30 or 45 minutes by walking off after the steep, par-4 seventh hole.
Every course I play inside the perimeter, in fact, seems packed beyond proper pace of play capacity.
That’s why I was surprised by the recently released National Golf Foundation report that says active participation among recreational golfers remains in a slow but steady decline.
According to the report by the Jupiter, Fla.-based NGF (founded in 1936 to promote the game), ”The slight downward trend in the number of golfers in the U.S. continued in 2008, falling 3%, from 29.5 million in 2007 to 28.6 million in 2008”.
The study, conducted by Chicago-based Synovate counted anyone age 6 or over who played at least one round per year as a “golfer”, and 42,000 Americans were surveyed.
The numbers were tweaked in numerous ways to uncover the bitter and sweet truths: The NGF reached a conclusion that “negative growth in golfers is corroborated by a drop in rounds played volume of 1.8% in 2008 vs. 2007. No doubt the economic recession was a factor in the decline of both measures.”
And NGF president and CEO Joe Beditz summarized that, “The challenge for the industry is to slow the loss of existing golfers while increasing the retention rate of those who come in each year."
But, as I said, there’s no apparent shortage of hackers in my neck of the woods. Just (un)lucky I guess. How about you?