Golf Industry Tries to Grow the Game

The fact that economy is in the toilet and getting worse with each passing government bailout has not gone unnoticed by those in the golf industry. As a result, a new program was introduced earlier this week with the lofty goal of attracting 700,000 new golfers and enticing them to play 5.7 million rounds in the next five years. The ambitious program is called “Get Ready to Golf” and will enlist nearly 5,000 golf courses across the country that will offer a package of five golf lessons covering basic skills, rules and etiquette for the low price of $99. Cindy Davis, president of Nike Golf, said the program will be rolled out next spring and if successful could generate $700 million for the golf industry. The ambitious program comes at a time when the National Golf Foundation reports that rounds in the United States dropped to 26 million in 2005 compared to 30 million in 2000. The NGF estimates that 3 million people quit playing golf each year and that several hundred of the 3,000 golf courses built between 1990 and 2003 have closed. The core of the “Get Ready to Golf” program is a grass roots effort targeted at getting new golfers out on a golf course and entice them to stay with the game with lessons, golf leagues and family programs.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Tommy Nakajima.