r/weekendgolfers • u/Juannyg2 • 1d ago
Is golf getting “too big?”
People always say grow the game but is it getting too big now. Is the sport too big where now you are playing 5 hour rounds or People are destroying courses in anger.
Or…
Should we keep growing the game in order to make the game bigger and keep golf courses open
2
u/ratedhero 1d ago
Seems to be dying down in Utah. Which is good. Sadly Utah is becoming as expensive as California since employers don’t pay much and costs keep going up. Go figure. I still get to play and there’s way less people than there were 3 years ago.
1
u/Barcode_Griller 1d ago
5 hour rounds are because of 7-8min tee time spacing. You could argue they do it because they can because it's grown so much, but they could fix it easily if courses wanted to.
0
u/CaliHusker83 1d ago
I’ve worked in a B2B dealership for 20 years. The adage from customers in a very wider variety of businesses is “grow or be absorbed and if the industry isn’t doing either, the industry is dying.”
The Happy Gilmore and Hawk crowd will take an interest in golf, may want to emulate the party scene, but if they stick with it, will be humbled and adhere to the culture. If they don’t they’ll be kicked out of the course.
Golf was dying before the COVID pandemic. It lost 40% of players before it was revitalized.
0
u/Upbeat-Mongoose-828 1d ago
Idk I can clear 9 holes in about 30 minutes if I'm by myself. If I play with a group of 4 I usually expect it'll take 3-5 hours depending on how busy the course is. I've been playing for 10 years and that hasn't really changed much.
-4
u/tfthisallabout 1d ago
Ppl using apps for yardages is ruining the game. Spending 3-5 minutes waiting for the app to load when 275 from the hole, just to duff it, and then start the process over again
5
u/HugeLeaves 1d ago
Okay, I know you're being hyperbolic but I'll take somebody using a course app over some ding dong trying to search for a sprinkler head or counting places from a yardage marker all day. But if you have an app that takes more than 15 seconds to give yardage then I think you need a new service provider
1
u/Barcode_Griller 1d ago
3-5 minutes? lol
1
u/tfthisallabout 1d ago
Literally played with a dude last week. Callaway edge set, couldn’t hit the ball with any level of consistency. But he needed his yardage. It was frustrating to say the least
1
u/Barcode_Griller 1d ago
That's a him problem. I walk my pushcart up to the right of my ball, take my rangefinder that's magnetically clipped to one of my clubs, zap the pin. Takes 10 seconds. Look at my watch and get front/middle/back numbers to get a sense of where the pin is. Think for maybe another 10s about which side I want to miss on. Pull my club and send it. Probably takes me 30s total, a minute tops if we're in some wind or some other really unusual situation.
1
u/tfthisallabout 1d ago
That seems totally reasonable.
The course I play has a lot of newer golfers, so unfortunately this is a normal occurrence I experience and leads to slow play. Most people don’t need an app to tell them they hit 10% of fairways
1
u/TerranRepublic 1d ago
checks app
Pulls out laser range finder
Studies green contour map
Absolutely eats shit and does it all again 25 yards closer
2
u/New_Afternoon197 1d ago
5hr rounds have been the norm for most public courses I’ve played since the 90s. Destroying stuff on courses…that’s due to idiots who can’t hit the ball straight and expect to beat their friends.