Once in awhile someone comes along with a message that really resonates. For some of us, though, some things take longer than others to stick.
It was nearly 15 years ago when Henry DeLozier, then an executive with Pulte Homes' golf division, made a statement likening people who work in the golf industry to those who earn a living peddling narcotics.
OK, on the surface, that sounds like a pretty abrasive comparison, but context is everything.
"People who work in the golf business are like drug dealers: We only sell it, we don't use it," he said. "We wear it like a badge; like we're proud that we don't play more."
In 2004, the golf business still was chugging along, so DeLozier's comment did more to generate laughter than it did deep thought. In retrospect, it was prophetic. People in golf don't play enough golf. We didn't then, and we don't now.
Although rounds played have nudged up the past two years, there were 60 million fewer rounds played in 2015 than in 2000; about 9 million fewer people are playing the game today than in 2002; and we're doing it on about 1,000 fewer courses than there were dotting the landscape in 2005.
Ask people who work in the business what they are most concerned about, and the answers are pretty consistent across the board: water, labor, budget and are there enough players to keep the game moving along and cash running through the register.
Generally speaking, the last item can fix just about any problem facing the industry, except access to water.
If everyone whose job is affected or influenced by the game of golf paid to play just five rounds every year at a daily fee facility, the results would be dramatic.
There are superintendents, assistants, technicians and those who write about golf who don't play the game, or at least don't play as often as they should. When pressed on the matter, the objections are pretty similar to those expressed by the general consumer public: it takes too long, and it's too hard if you don't have a lot of time to devote to it.
Playing golf on Saturday morning means time away from the family, and that's a problem for those who have children who have a seemingly endless choice of travel league sports of their own that demand our time on weekends.
Phrases like "necessary market correction" became en vogue throughout the industry as course closures outpaced openings during the past decade. There is no question that, barring an influx of new players, more courses will close than open in coming years so the market can reach supply-demand equilibrium. That said, raise your hand if you want to be the next necessary market correction.
Every course that closes is much more than just a piece of land that goes to seed or is converted to housing or retail. It's jobs that affect real people. It's one less course that will buy product. It's one less course to join a turf industry web site
As an industry, what are those who work in golf doing to help themselves? The unscientific answer is: probably not enough.
The one objection the public often cites as a barrier to playing more golf, but one that is not usually voiced by those in the golf industry is "it is too expensive." That's because many people in the golf world play for free. And playing for free doesn't really help anyone other than the person who is playing, not to mention there is a financial cost associated with playing golf, even free golf. Traffic, divots, ball marks and spike marks all hasten the threat of disease without the benefit of money coming in the door to help offset those costs.
It's disingenuous to grouse about the state of affairs in the industry when we all hold the power to effect change at the grassroots level but we choose not to do it. This isn't a call for the end of free golf. Heaven forbid. But if everyone in the business coughed up a couple hundred dollars to play five more times each year, the cumulative results would be hundreds of thousands of rounds and millions in new revenue spread throughout the industry annually.
Everyone can find that kind of time and that kind of money.