 This Week at TravelGolf.com: January 03, 2006
Golf industry: Stop whining,
relying on time crunch crutch
No one has enough time to play golf these days. That's what industry analysts often rely on to explain why the number of golfers are shrinking even as the number of courses keep multiplying. There's only so much time to go around in today's fast-paced, high-stressed, BlackBerry-toting lifestyles.
Golf becomes the unfortunate victim in this argument. (Which is probably why so many golf-industry types love it.) What can they do? It's the TIME CRUNCH! Blame the darn Puritan-based work ethic, that drive to be the next Donald Trump. It cannot have anything to do with how we're running our golf courses. It's not our fault nobody brought the afternoon Siesta to America.
Sorry, I'm not buying it.
Not when the new King Kong movie's been No. 1 or No. 2 at the box office the last few weeks with a running time of three hours and seven minutes. You're telling me that people are willing to spend more than three hours in the dark, watching a computerized ape jump around, but not an extra hour and half out on a golf course in the fresh air, where the obstacles are as large as they appear?
That time crunch argument computes about as much as the government having a response ready for a giant gorilla running through Manhattan.
A time problem? Have you seen what people spend their so called fleeting time on? Forget chomping on $7 popcorns and drinking $5 bottled waters while watching Peter Jackson's overblown Kong. Check out the lines that form at 5 a.m. in the freezing cold, before a store opens, to save a few bucks on a new TV in one of those holiday sales. Speaking of that, have you seen the latest figures on the average number of hours spent watching TV?
Heck, have you ever waited for a table at The Cheesecake Factory? You could fit in a round in laid-back, why-hurry Cancun in the time it takes for that electronic gizmo to start shaking and light flashing with news of a ready table.
Apparently, a lot of people have a lot more time than they admit.
And all of them cannot posses the SUV-sized rear ends that Managing Editor Mark Nessmith observed in his stateside journey from his European castle. Some of them have to be fit enough to lift themselves off a golf cart.
If the TIME CRUNCH truly held the weight it's supposed to, you'd think that more golf courses would actually start trying to address it. Where are all the courses offering that just-play-nine-holes solution?
Doing that just might crunch the TIME CRUNCH fallback though and actually force the golf industry to confront some of the problems plaguing the game. It's easier to just blame e-mail, to lament the advent of the video game.
As always, TravelGolf.com welcomes your comments.
Southerners love to cling to their history - and even showcase it. You can drive through any number of neighborhoods in almost any Southern city or town and see antebellum architecture on display. That history is alive and well in Myrtle Beach. If you want to go back in time and get a glimpse of the old plantation days while you tee off, here are some of TravelGolf.com's favorite plantation-style golf clubs.
Full story | Also: Myrtle Beach's most underrated golf courses
Once you've tried the luxury resort thing, once you've stayed at the places where Sinatra and Bob Hope used to roam, you may just find that bargain digs such as the Palm Springs Best Western suits your purposes just fine. This is for the golf minimalist in you. And even high falutin' Palm Springs is finding there are many of you out there.
Full story | Also: Lifestyles of the cheap and savvy in Palm Springs
As much as Wigwam Resort & Golf Club covets its status as being arguably the oldest resort in Arizona, it is intent on keeping up with the times. While keeping its "Authentic Arizona" slogan and much of its longtime look, the hotel is in the midst of a $2 million renovation to upgrade rooms with state-of-the-art gear and add a 26,000-square-foot Red Door Spa.
Full story | Scottsdale Off Course: An 18-point golfer's guide
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Lemonade, Southern hospitality, history:
Looking beyond Palm Springs'
Can Grandma be hip?