Area golfers feeling crunch

By Brian Hunsicker

Published: May 10, 2008

In normal years, the approaching summer would be cause for relief for golf courses; after the winter cold rendered courses unusable, the summer warmth would surely bring back golfers who claimed tee times from dawn ’til dusk.
But this is no normal year. The U.S. economy has bordered on recessionary for several months; each day seems to bring a new record price for crude oil; rapidly rising food costs hit our pocketbook, though we have yet to see the riots that some countries have experienced.
When the cost of essential goods intrudes into discretionary spending, leisure items are among the first to be cut. And that includes golf.
“You just have to weather the storm,” said Chip Hierlihy, the director of golf for the Prince William County Park Authority; he oversees the county’s four public golf courses.
“The industry will right itself,” he added, “just not in 2008.”
But others don’t have such a gloomy view. Joseph Goodrich, a vice president for Vienna-based Billy Casper Golf, said memberships at the courses that Casper Golf manages — including The Osprey’s in Woodbridge and Virginia Oaks in Gainesville — have been strong, even above expectations.
The first quarter of this year was “very strong,” according to Virginia State Golf Association Executive Director Jamie Conkling. The VSGA makes its money through tournaments held around the state and through its VIP card, which provides discounted rates at a number courses around the state. But he added that golf’s growth hasn’t increased in some time.
“For many of our member clubs, golf has been flat for several years,” he said. “People are so busy and it takes time to play.”
Both Goodrich and Conkling said it’s too early in the season to make any determinations about its success.
But no matter their outlook, the economy remains a concern.
High gas prices affect not only a course’s potential customers; much of its maintenance equipment is run by gas engines. At hillier courses where electric carts can’t navigate the terrain, gas carts fit the bill, though their consumption is usually relatively small, Conkling said. Rising food prices may make golfers think twice about buying a snack on the golf course.
Both factors may also play into decisions not to patronize facilities’ non-golf amenities, like restaurants and banquet halls.
Despite the current conditions, Hierlihy sees a measure of hope.
“If someone from Prince William County makes an annual trip to Myrtle Beach, maybe they’ll not make that trip this year” and opt to play locally, he said. “If they do, then the economy will have a mitigating effect.”
But if there’s one number that means more than anything, it’s unemployment. Hierlihy, Goodrich and Conkling all said that rising unemployment would be a source of considerable worry. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ April summary, released on May 2, claimed unemployment was flat at 5.0 percent.
“If you have higher unemployment, that’s less people working and it means two things,” Goodrich said. “People that are normally customers, if they don’t have a job, they pull back [their spending].
“[And] psychologically, mentally, a lot of people would like to keep their job, so they’re less likely to take a Thursday afternoon or a Friday afternoon and go play golf.”
Golf, in that respect, is no different than many other leisure activities: It’s a difficult business to be in at the moment. Conkling said that in 2006 and 2007, more golf courses closed than opened in the U.S. But he said that may be a correction of the flood of courses built in the late 1990s, when the economy was far better.
If the cycle is nearing its low point, then the economy figures to be more conducive to golf late in the season, or at least in time for 2009.
To get golf out of its doldrums, “we’d need a little less pressure in discretionary income, which is probably different for everyone,” Hierlihy said.
“A little less on the gas prices, a little less on the food prices and electricity and energy, that would bode well for golf.”