I’ll sound like an arrogant jerk in this article. And, well, haters have a valuable point there.
Regardless, I will make ahead with my argument:
I miss me for pre-landing golf.
Before you start starting 9-iron through my apartment window, let me admit that this is a nuanced discussion.
Of course I am excited that the golf industry, in general, has increased in recent years. MygolfSspy benefits from that increased interest. Meanwhile, a range of leadership, club manufacturers and many others are on the beneficiary list.
I am also excited so many people have revealed the joy of this great game. This is something to celebrate.
However, this increase in popularity has come with some harsh realities such as courses in the gills, increasing costs across the board and certain destinations that reach a point of persecution nearly one or two years in advance planning to secure your country.
In one sense, it is a golden era for golf. In another sense, there is little structure about this growth and the consequences are disappointing.
Let’s talk about it.
Courses are blocked and clientels have changed
This is the area that I am personally affected by the most.
Is it just me or has the experience of golf game worsened?
And with mediocre golf determination that once loaded $ 35 for a small part of years ago, they are now loading $ 65. As soon as I paid $ 72 on a local course here and the air conditioning was so bad that I wouldn’t have paid $ 22 if I had known in advance.
And I get the reasons for that price price are not all specific to golf, but the courses certainly have a hammer when it comes to prices.
While the exact measures are difficult to sit because so many courses have dynamic prices, some ratings set the green tariff jump at about 29 percent compared to pre-landmark times.
That’s because popularity has exploded.
According to the National Golf Foundation, a record of 532 million rounds was played in 2024, which is approximately 10 percent over the balance of supply.
After many years of closing golf courses and talk about the request low To match the excessive number of facilities now the demand is Very wonderful For the number of courses available.
One report suggested that, if this current request continued, 1,000 more and more would have to be built around the world in order to accommodate everyone properly.
The constant growth has been very confused in the golf industry that have long been waiting for a cooling period after the 2020-2022 Covid-inspired acceleration. It is inevitable that a landing happens at one point, but we have not arrived there yet.
The net result is that it is more difficult (and more expensive) to take a whole time.
I live in Nashville and almost every course in the area is completely complete – not only on weekends but also on weekdays. It is forced many people to drive well outside the city to take time.
Playing like a single has changed drastically. If you do not drive a minimum of 45 minutes outside the city, you are guaranteed to pair with someone and undergo a long round of golf.
Golf has become increasingly directed to four.
And perhaps the biggest disappointment in all this is that there is a growing number of players who do not respect the game. They are using golf as an excuse to be drunk, to ignite music and to destroy the course. They do not have any concept of basic labels (AKA not to be asshole).
And, hey, I don’t care to spend a good time on the course. Not every round should be a proper round of golf. And I’m cute with music at good levels.
I’m just saying that players have to show a fundamental respect for everyone around them.
The courses do not police this behavior at all. It is going completely uncontrolled, based on my experiences.
This is anecdotal evidence, but I almost never see a ranger course roaming the course these days. Barely sees at first. No one applies the pace of the game or the basic standards that every golf player must meet.
This is not anti-beginner. I like it when someone new tries the game.
But I also think there should be more education for beginners. Start at PAR 3 courses or catch your ball after you have reached a certain number of shooting. You do not need to play blue tee in a fix of adjustment.
Bad golf is usually a slow golf, but it should not be the case.
The overall cost of golf is coming out of the hand
I wrote about this last yearSo I won’t spend a lot of time in this part.
After all is that everything is more expensive, and players are mostly not getting the value of the extra money they are paid.
I will bring an example that is indicative of the issue that the players face.
There is a very popular range of direction in Nashville. This is a great property. It is constantly busy and can easily handle about 100+ players players considering the wide space of tee boxes.
This is not a special place. Basically it is a spill on the side of a street, a large field, a green that places, a shredded area and a small par-3 course. Interesting in mediocre but useful form. You can hit the grass most of the year, but the grass is not excellent.
The range of range balls are a mixture of chopped balls and relatively young balls. There are more crazy balls than good balls. I’m talking about the type of mutated balls where you can see the flight to change suddenly after the impact.
You pay up $ 20 for a bucket here. If you want to hit only 45 balls, this will be $ 10 (cheaper price). And if you want to chip, you have to pay an additional $ 5 to get a shag bag, throwing those chopped balls into the greens that do not react as regular greens.
They are PRINTING money while making a little investment in the facility. And wouldn’t you do the same? They do not have an incentive to get better balls or invest money in the facility. You can give people Balatas and they would still pack that verse.
And then you mean to go elsewhere – but if it’s not a private club, you will hit a salary of similar radius balls, all for a similar cost. And, in my case, I would go farther to do it.
You can get that concept in green tariffs, equipment, accessories, dresses and more.
Continuous demand has given some of the Golf industry licenses to do everything they want with prices and lack of investment.
Some golf trips require a professional event planner
For this part, I will direct your attention to a reddish post about the tips for booking a golf trip to Gang dunes.
“Start checking almost every day to see when the booking window opens or see how long they are booking,” said one commenter. “I spent 2+ hours waiting to book our housing and the first time 19 months ago.”
Now, the bandon has added a lottery system since then. That’s good. It removes some of the internet -hypervigilance quarrels.
But if you wanted to enter that lottery to play potentially in the bandon in the fall of 2026 – about 18 months from now – you have already lost the deadline. Sorry for that.
This is nothing against bandon. They do a lot to help players, including reproduction rates by half the cost.
I’m just commenting on how many of the main golf destinations are so filled with people you have to plan a year and a half in advance just to play.
Many life happens at that time. And prices in these countries are steadily rising.
Golf boom is a blessing and a curse
All this feels like the “favorite group” cliché.
You find a group you like to play in a bar. You are listening to incredible music in an intimate environment without crazy crowds.
And then other people like the group. They play some larger places. Then they have a hit on the radio. Then the base of the fan grows.
A few years later, they are suddenly on a tournament in the arena.
You are happy for them, but even anxious you cannot return to the same bar and hear the same music in relative peace.
I feel the same way for golf.
I am happy for golf and extremely grateful to everyone who comes to MGS because they love golf – but my personal experience as golf player It is worse due to historical levels of demand.
I don’t know if there are excellent solutions. It would be good if there were certain courses directed towards the most ardent players (such as searching for some handicaps) and other courses taken care of for beginners, but this is as likely as the airports that divide the safety lines between those who know how to sail TSA and those who apparently have never traveled before.
Tell me if I’m nuts, but I miss the pre-daydream days. It was cheaper, less crowded and had a higher percentage of real dead players.
Golf boom – is a blessing and a curse.
office Does anyone else want golf to return in pre-boot times? first appeared in MygolfSSS.
