Is The Global Game Of Golf On The Downswing?

Used to be the preferred leisure activity of the economic savvy, has the game of golf been on a global decline during the past 28 years?

By: Ringo Bones  

During a recent survey taken during the first week of 2018, it was found out that there are one-third less Americans playing golf compared a decade ago – this was despite of the recent inclusion of golf by the International Olympic Committee during the 2016 Rio Olympics. The recent findings could scare the global golf industry which is currently worth 70-billion US dollars a year - and yet globally, golf has been in decline during the past 28 years. Should golf equipment manufacturers start to worry? 

The decline in the global game of golf was first noticed back in 1990 and, ironically, it was first noted in Japan – a country well known for its obsession of golf where even insurance companies there issues a so-called “hole-in-one-insurance” for serious golfers. Even the rise of Tiger Woods during the 1990s only raised a brief anomalous peak of new golfers – but only in the United States. But why are many leaving the game of golf and why did it failed to raise new recruits?

Since the late 1980s “Lincoln Savings And Loan Scandal” broke, the game of golf – which unfortunately most of its enthusiasts work in the top-tier world of finance – acquired a perception of a game only for rich old folks, as in “elitists”. And most importantly, a typical golf course wastes more water than a high-end gated community in the middle of the Nevada desert; which probably makes golf an easy target during times of class warfare by environmentalists. Add to that the climate change denial stance of Donald J. Trump and his ilk, it seems like every left-leaning intellectual had been abhorring golf not just for reasons Mark Twain quoting: “Golf is a good walk spoiled.”