New U.S. course openings declined to the lowest total in many decades in 2008, according to year-end tabulations by the National Golf Foundation.
Only 72 new courses, measured in 18-hole equivalents, opened in ’08, marking eight consecutive years of decline in openings from the all-time record high of 518 new 18-hole equivalents in 2000.
And for the third year in a row, course closures outnumbered openings, with 106 18-hole equivalents shuttering the doors in 2008 according to NGF totals.
“[Openings] may go even lower next year just because there are currently so many projects on hold,” predicted NGF CEO Joe Beditz. “It seems like just yesterday we were opening 300 to 400 new golf courses annually, but in the last five years, it’s been in the low 100s or less.”
He said that over the past half-decade, there has been only a net gain of about 50 golf courses in the U.S.
“Unfortunately there hasn’t been an increase in rounds or players in recent years,” Beditz said. “Both supply and demand have kind of been moving sideways, but given all the [economic] turmoil, maybe it’s not a bad thing to be stable these days.”
Course closures did decline last year from 2007 totals. Ironically, the smaller number of closures, mostly involving 9-hole, executive or alternative courses, according to Beditz, is attributable to the same pressures which are slowing new course development. While a course may want to sell out to a residential or commercial developer, those potential buyers are having difficulty finding financing for the purchase.
“Some people continue to see course closures as failures,” Beditz said. “They assume they’re all Chapter 7s or Chapter 11s, but that’s not necessarily the case. Many of those are business failures (primarily related to residential golf communities), not necessarily golf failures.”