Know Thyself

Golf courses have been struggling for over ten years. Why? Well, in 1990 the National Golf Foundation declared
that golf was about to boom and that a course a day needed to be built to keep up with the demand. So, everybody
got into the golf business. Cities and counties built their own courses for their taxpayers. Real estate developers saw
an easy way to make home lots more valuable. Resorts thought that golf would make their play-land more desirable.
And, why not turn grandma’s farm into a golf course?

The 90’s were the boom of building golf courses – sort of like the real estate boom of 2003 – 2008. And like both
booms, there was a crash. Why? Because both booms were artificial. There was no real need for more housing, and
there was no real need for more golf courses. And they both take a long time to heal up. Why? Because they’re
there… they can’t just disappear into thin air.

Ironically the weak housing market has affected the golf course oversupply. If real estate was hot, many golf courses
would be turned into housing developments.

Here’s an interesting scenario. Cities are forced to come to terms with retiring workers and their pensions. Most
cities don’t have any money, or not enough to pay their commitments. And they have golf courses that are losing
money. And those golf courses need huge infusions of money to bring them up to where they should be. Or, they
could sell the courses to a developer, get the money, and have taxable land every year to pay their bills.

Do I want that to happen? No. I love golf. Do I look at those courses as competitors whose removal would make my
life easier? No. They are not really my problem.

The main problem with golf courses is not that there are too many courses, but that there are not enough golfers. So,
all of the golf organizations have been trying to “grow the game”. Have they been successful? Not really. Why not?
I’ll tell you why not; because every golf organization is trying to make the game of golf in their image. And golf
doesn’t need to fit one image – it’s not one size fits all.

Golf needs more diversity. Not phony, trumped up diversity – it needs the real thing. Not every golf course can be
everything to every golfer. The restaurant business figured this out long ago, and the restaurants that didn’t folded
(and they still do). A restaurant needs to be a rifle shot – not scatter shot. The restaurant with a menu of French food,
and Italian, and Mexican, and steaks, and seafood is pretty scary. You know they do nothing right, and are sitting on
too much inventory. A good restaurant knows exactly who they are.

A successful golf course has to know exactly who they are. If a course tries to appeal to the scratch golfer, and the
beginner, and the senior, and the 40 year old, and the rich, and the poor, and hip, and the conservative – you have a
disaster.

But, in our age of surveys, the golf course listens to every one of those groups, a sure recipe for suicide. You can’t
make everyone happy. That’s why we have a marketplace. Imagine living in a society of no markets – just state
owned businesses, and only one of each; one restaurant, one grocery store, one clothing store, one golf course, etc.
Then, you would have to be everything to everyone. And, it would basically be one size fits all – the opposite of
diversity.

I believe in diversity. I also believe in freedom. And, they go hand-in-hand. The more that groups and organizations
try to control our lives, the less freedom and choice we have – and the less diversity.

Individual golf courses have to figure out who they are, and who their market is. No one is going to do that for them.
And no organization is going to save them. Golf will grow naturally if golf courses appeal to their natural
constituencies. As a wise man said, “Know Thyself.”