Never mind that industry analysts project a net loss this year of as many as 100 18-hole equivalents and a staggering number of players walking away from the game - again. Never mind that such losses have occurred every year for nearly a decade and likely will result in the fewest number of rounds played in 20 years.Despite a steady downturn in many of the game's leading economic indicators, the National Golf Foundation says the biggest story of the year is "The Media Coverage of Golf's Supposed Demise."
In a game of "blame the messenger" NGF says in its December newsletter: "Unfortunately, 2014 was also the year when the relationship between the media and golf took a turn for the worse. Press coverage took on a sharply negative narrative about the recreational game and business of golf. Hundreds of non-golf media outlets decided that the so-called ?demise of golf' was a popular story worthy of their airtime, ink and pixels."
NGF cites Dick's Sporting Goods CEO Ed Stack for causing a furor when he said in May "We don't feel we've found the bottom yet in the golf sales number." That came after the company, which is the country's largest off-course retailer of golf equipment, reported its golf division missed projected fiscal 2012 sales by $34 million. The Pittsburgh-based sporting goods retailer followed by laying off nearly 500 in-store golf pros around the country. NGF went on to accuse news outlets such as ESPN, which was among the first to report the story, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, MSNBC, Bloomberg, CBS Marketwatch, HBO Sports and Fortune of piling on for simply reporting the happenings at Dick's as part of their overall financial news coverage.
They all have it wrong ? despite NGF's own industry data.
Since 2006, golf has experienced a net loss of 643 18-hole equivalents, including a net 143.5 in 2013. Projected losses for this year are between 50 and 100. Another 1,000 or so courses, many in the industry say, must close before supply-demand equilibrium is met.
The problems facing golf, however, are much deeper than an overbuilt market stemming from the real estate boom and bust. Nearly 6 million players (net) have shelved their clubs since 2001, including 400,000 in 2013, have shelved their clubs for good. Although the numbers for 2014 are not out yet (they should be available by next month's PGA Merchandise Show), there will almost assuredly be another six-figure (or worse) player attrition rate this year, according to industry estimates.
Forbes cites the game's inability to attract millennials for its decline, but the problem is larger than that. It fails to mention why 650,000 men (the game's bread and butter) quit the game last year. It fails to address changing demographics and the inability to attract growing minority populations. Forbes only digs back as far as the recession that began in 2008, when in fact golf's woes were an indicator of coming economic problems as least as early as 2006.
And, just to prove it's not all doom and gloom, many covering the game in 2014 neglected to mention how golf attracted 250,000 new female players in 2013. The real story in golf could be that after a decade of initiatives, no one has answered the $64,000 question of how to grow the game. Perhaps it's time to ask some of the quarter-million women who were drawn in last year.
Forbes and some other mainstream media outlets might be guilty of incomplete reporting, but guilty of piling on they are not.