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Missing Links
Lack of facilities dampens
state's golf boomlet
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Business New Haven
5/4/1999
By: Betsy Guertin Regan
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Once the sport of upper-class gentlemen, the game of golf is attracting a whole new audience. But while men, women, children and senior citizens from all cultural and economic backgrounds are teeing up, Connecticut's golf industry leaders are wondering if the industry will be allowed to thrive in the state.
“We're seeing not only more people, but a more economically diverse group of people,” says Al Pascale, golf professional at Harbour Ridge (formerly Pilgrim's Harbor) in Wallingford. “We're seeing more of everybody: kids, seniors, women, minorities - you name it,”
Carl Swanson, club manager at Sleeping Giant in Hamden, agrees, noting that his facility's beginner lessons and clinics are filling up with women, children and seniors. He attributes the change in the golfing community to exposure in the media.
Media phenoms like Tiger Woods and Casey Martin are putting golf in the headlines, and not just of the sports section. Martin is a promising young golfer who suffers from a debilitating blood disorder that makes it difficult for him to walk for extended lengths of time. He won a landmark lawsuit against the PGA Tour earlier this year and as a result will be granted permission under the Americans with Disabilities Act to use a motorized cart to move from tee to green.
Last year Woods became the first African-American and Asian-American, as well as the youngest player, to wear the green jacket of the Masters tournament champion at fabled Augusta National.
“He excites people, especially a lot of the younger kids,” Swanson says. “We have a lot of Tigers out there.”
Like many trends of the 1990s, the growing number of beginner golfers can also be traced to the aging baby boomers. Dick Bierken, head professional at Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, reports more new adult golfers, particularly women.
Where women's golf was once relegated to the least desirable tee times, an executive women's golf club at Lyman now gets many of the prime times after work and on weekends.
“For baby boomers, golf is a sport that they can play into retirement,” Bierken says. “Softball gets tougher as you get older.” Noting that many of his contemporaries who razzed him as a kid for taking up golf are now looking to him for lessons.
Private golf clubs are experiencing the same growing interest as veteran players get crowded off the public courses. Oronoque Country Club in Trumbull has gone from 250 members to 400 since January 1997, when it came under the management umbrella of Arnold Palmer Golf.
“Part of that is Palmer's name, but a lot has to do with the industry,” notes Guest Services Manager John D'Amico.
More people with more discretionary income are looking for opportunities to play. In particular, says D'Amico, women and children are helping to make golf into a family activity.
D'Amico believes that Tiger Woods' success is not so much the starting point of a new trend but, in fact, is an indication of the years of effort by club professionals to encourage youth in the game. Oronoque will host this year's World Junior Amateur Championship in July. About 150 young golfers from throughout the U.S., Asia, Europe and New Zealand are expected.
But will there be room on the course for all these juniors and all these baby boomers in the coming years?
Connecticut's golf professionals are concerned that, despite the growing interest, this area cannot support the new players without increasing the number of golf courses - no simple task in this state.
The National Golf Foundation (NGF) reports that nationwide there have been about two million new players a year for the last several years. About 25 million people played more than 475 million rounds last year, helping to make golf a $15 billion industry nationwide.
Statistics kept by the Connecticut section of the PGA and by the Connecticut State Golf Association are loose, but according to state PGA Executive Director Tom Hantke, they do not indicate a substantial increase in players, which he believes may mean the courses are maxed out. “Most golf courses in communities are providing access as much as they can,” Hantke says. “But it's not enough. The game needs to provide more access.”
For example, women represent the largest growth demographic - but distaff duffers are exiting the game as quickly as they are coming in. Hantke surmises that this is because women have not found the design of many older golf courses very welcoming.
Newer built golf courses are in general more gender-equitable. Where older courses made provisions for women by simply adding a set of tees that are closer to the green, newer courses are built with men and women in mind. Length of the hole, placement of hazards and other features are now designed with some cognizance that women and men may reach the green in different ways.
Connecticut, however, is not building new golf courses at the same rate as other states. According to the NGF, four construction projects were completed last year: two 18-hole courses north of Hartford, a nine-hole course in Milford and a nine-hole expansion at Putnam Country Club.
By comparison, more than 20 new courses each were opened in Florida, California and North Carolina. No surprises there, since these are tourist destinations for golfers. What may be surprising are the 20 new courses in Indiana, 19 in Wisconsin and 34 in Michigan.
Currently, there are about 20 courses in the design and/or permitting process in Connecticut, including a nine-hole expansion at Harbour Ridge and the restoration of the nine-hole Guilford Lakes. Many of the projects currently in design are destined to be rejected as controversy about environmental issues and open space reigns.
Hantke believes Connecticut's commitment to local control of land use issues hampers the development of golf courses. Indeed, developers of a proposed 18-hole golf course combined with 44 homes in Branford are facing their second go-around, having withdrawn plans last year to revise them and lessen the environmental impact.
A recent public hearing pitted neighbor against neighbor. Golfers attended the session to laud the value of the game and the public course where residents of Branford would be given a discount. Environmentalists, dressed in green, demanded their well water be kept safe and the countless species of wildlife that currently occupy the undeveloped land be protected. A similar scene is played out across Connecticut as golf course projects are debated.
Despite the growing interest in the support, golf is not a growing employment opportunity because of the lack of new courses and new job openings. Ideally, Hantke says, he'd like to see more top-shelf public courses built in Connecticut for residents as well as tourists.
Consider that the Mashantucket Pequot tribe recently crafted agreements with three courses in Rhode Island, and golfing tourists will be pouring their money into our neighbor. Hantke points to states like South Carolina, home to the golfing Meccas of Myrtle Beach and Hilton Head Island, as the ideal use of golf to improve the state's appeal. A recent study by the state of South Carolina found that golf and its related businesses generate $660 million in annual tax revenue alone for the state.
“Connecticut has an opportunity on the shoreline where it could be helping to improve the tourist trade,” Hantke observes. “It would help the economy to make an effort to welcome golf development.”
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