This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline raises a good question:  Golf is on the rise in the U.S. and the world, but its future is murky, at least at the professional level.

More regular people are playing the game, thanks in part to off-course facilities such as driving ranges and Topgolf.  There are reasons to believe the upswing might last.

But reasons do not mean assurance.

Here is how the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) put it:

“The saying goes that golf is a great game but a lousy business.  It makes sense if you consider how the golf industry is like family farming:  Weather-dependent, labor-intensive, taking up vast real estate that could be used for other things, and dependent upon the market choices of consumers who often have more loyalty to price than to brand.

‘But, today, golf is in the middle of a rare boom.  The number of rounds played has been growing nationwide.  There’s an uptick in new golf-course development after more than a decade of shrinking inventory.  And private clubs have waiting lists for memberships — something many haven’t seen in two decades.

“The way people experience golf has changed in recent years, thanks to a combination of technology, the flexibility of golf-course managers, and lessons learned during the early phases of the Covid pandemic in 2020 and 2021. 

“How flush is the industry?  According to the National Golf Foundation, an independent data-gathering and consulting firm in Jupiter, Florida, the number of golf rounds played in the U.S. reached a record 531 million last year, a 10 per cent increase from 2020 and surpassing the 518 million rounds played during the heyday of the Tiger Woods boom years of 1999-2000.

“Course participation (measured in terms of anyone who plays a round of golf) has more than bounced back after declining 9 per cent in the seven years after the 2007-09 recession.  Since 2017, participation has grown 12 per cent, reaching 26.3 million people in 2023.  The U.S. golf population is also more diverse than ever demographically, thanks to gains by women, people of color and junior golfers in the overall share of the golfing populace.

“Demand for tee times has surged, partly because the overall inventory of tee times nationally has shrunk.  Fifteen years ago, there were too many courses and uneven demand for golf rounds; the industry has since shed 12 per cent of its supply of golf courses.  Shrinking supply and increased demand have enhanced competition for tee times, which in some markets has translated into higher green fees.”

The bad news is that professional golf is still marked by dissension and disagreement, a reality that, most of the time, has resulted in declining TV viewership. 

The upstart LIV Golf Tour and the long-standing PGA Tour were supposed to have reached agreement by now about how to work together.  But tough issues remain, one of which is how golfers who defected to the LIV Tour could play again the PGA Tour – or at least what the penalties would be to do so.

Lurking in the background of all are a few general issues.

Among them, the WSJ reports:  The overall state of the economy, inflation, the cost of borrowing, the cost and availability of labor, continued access to water (especially in the U.S. West and Southwest), weather patterns and climate change, and the rapidly escalating cost of maintenance.

So, all in all, golf is in the midst of uncertainty.  On one hand, good news is that golf participation is growing by members of the general public.  The uncertain news is that it will be tough to maintain the trajectory unless pro golf gets its act together.