A great New Normal piece, Golf Market Stuck in Bunker as Thousands Leave the Sport:
Once the go-to activity for corporate bonding, the sport is suffering from an exodus of players, a lack of interest among millennials and the mass closure of courses. ... About 400,000 players left the sport last year ... 'It’s a pretty high-price sport, and leisure time is getting crunched.' ... [Callaway] hasn’t reported an annual profit since 2008. ... 200,000 players under 35 abandoned the game last year. ... Only 14 new courses were built in the U.S. last year, while almost 160 shut down. ... 'Everybody’s hooked up to their handhelds, so it’s social networking instead of sports ... It’s something that’s associated with boom times. Most of society’s not moving up, and golf is associated with moving up.'
The great leveling ... standard of living on the decline in the US as it rises in Asia.