COMMUNITY

Saying a Tiger winning would be good for golf is to broad. Tiger winning is good for golf in America.

The golf industry here isn't exactly booming. More courses are closing than opening and the next generation of potential golfers have so many choices for sports and other activities, that golf in America needs a central figure to maintain relevancy. What is going to make a youth choose golf over soccer, baseball, piano lessons, Facebook or any other in a myriad of things to put their interest into. Decent yet unspectacular golf from a contingent of international players? I don't think so.

Seeing international players win is all well and good but it doesn't have near the impact that a dominant American golfer has on the sport as a whole, not just the professional game. It is a fact that with the rise of Tiger the level of interest in the game grew as well. More courses were built more equipment sold, more golf industry jobs created. Not just the pros, maintenance workers or various other course staff. Golf courses need things like sprinklers, lawnmowers, grass seed and fertilizers, all things that have to be produced/manufactured. The economy is already doing it's part to slow down or reverse these trends but without a catalyst the erosion of the sport of golf in America will happen much more quickly. There needs to be a strong American presence to to keep growing the game much like there was with Tiger winning in the late 1990's and Walter Hagen winning and performing exhibitions all across the United States in 1920's and 1930's, both periods of enormous growth for golf in the United States.

I know the common argument is golf was played before Tiger and it will be played after Tiger and thats true, but golf between the 1980's and the dawn of the Tiger era was pretty stagnant. That's why it was such a big deal when he was dominating and sparking new interest from people who never even considered golf before and maybe rekindling a lost spark from those who had. If there is no crystallizing figure, we won't see stagnation of golf we will see deterioration.

Between the cost of playing golf, the numerous choices people have for their discretionary spending and the lack of a dominant American, the demand for golf could start to go down and with it the supply. When golf courses are closed more jobs go with it from the kid who wipes down the carts to the farmer that grows the grass for seed to the manufacturer that makes the parts for the lawnmowers.

The atrophy of golf as a participation sport is not going to happen overnight, but will be a gradual process. I know the government lacks foresight ( what there is going to be a massive draw on social security when baby boomers start to retire, couldn't have seen that one coming) but that doesn't mean we as golf participants can't see this.