Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2009 - 42

Hope That Springeth Green
Spring brings not just a promise of green grass and golf,
but also hope for a brighter, more bountiful season.
By Jon Roe
A
pril to a golfer means The
Masters. So let's start the
upcoming Minnesota golf
season with a Masters memory.
Seating assignments in the media
center at The Masters seldom change
from year to year. For more than 20
years, the good fortune of this golf
writer from Minneapolis was to be
seated among the journalistic fl owers
of Britain, Scotland and Ireland.
One of those scribes was Collom Smith, an affable soul from
Dublin who frequently brought his wife, Margaret, to Augusta
National Golf Club. Margaret spent Masters Week watching golf
and enjoying the town while her husband sent his words back
to readers in Ireland.
" We've already had to fi nd ways
to do business. We've had to fi nd
ways to hold down costs and still
give golfers a good product. We'll
fi nd ways to do that this year, too.
-Curt Walker, executive director,
Midwest Golf Course Owners Association
One Sunday morning of breathtaking beauty, my working
partner Patrick Reusse and I were getting out of our car in the
media parking lot when another car pulled alongside ours.
Margaret Smith was the driver.
" Patrick, " I said, " I'd like you to meet Margaret Smith, who is
from Dublin. "
Reusse, who was raised Catholic while growing up in Fulda,
greeted Margaret, and then his religious background kicked in.
" So Margaret, did you go to Mass this glorious morning? "
Reusse inquired.
40
MINNESOTAGOLFER April/May 2009
Margaret's answer, delivered in soothing lilt, came quickly.
" No, " she said, " but God will forgive me 'cause He knows I'm at
The Masters. "
I'm not sure the golf gods will treat us here on the prairie
with such forgiveness in 2009. Numerous stories already abound
about the pro tours-PGA, LPGA and Champions-as title
sponsors and presenting sponsors withdraw support for purses
and other tournament functions.
And the fi nancial pinch will be felt in Minnesota, too. Memberships
in private clubs are being vacated or at least suspended.
One club, according to an insider, has had as many as 50 members
leave. " A club can expect a member to spend an average of
$8,000 a year in dues, fees and other expenses, " says the insider.
" That would be as much as $400,000 or more in revenue lost for
this particular club. " Other clubs also have experienced diminishing
membership, although to a lesser degree.
Jon Tollette, executive director of the Minnesota section of the
PGA, says the section has " lost a couple of sponsors " for 2009
tournaments and pro-ams. " A lot of the support we get comes
from a trickle-down from the PGA of America, " he says. " So if
national sponsors are going to reduce their input, eventually
we're going to feel it in our section. "
Just how the economic slowdown will affect golfers who
play daily-fee courses in the state is open to speculation. But
even at the end of last year, the number of rounds played was
beginning to slip (down about 6 percent for September and
October, but down only 1.6 percent for 2008 overall).
Weather is always a big factor here, especially in the season's
opening months, but Curt Walker, executive director of the Midwest
Golf Course Owners Association, doesn't sound like someone
who has a black cloud over his head. " Hey, there's been a golf
recession for the last three or four years, " he says. " The members
of our association have had to make a lot of adjustments. "
Walker's association has course owners in Minnesota, Iowa,
Nebraska and North and South Dakota. And in each state, expensive
gas, increased costs for equipment and chemical supplies,
and increased marketing pressures have forced association
members to be creative or face extinction.
" We've already had to fi nd ways to do business, " Walker says.
" We've had to fi nd ways to hold down costs and still give golfers
a good product. We'll fi nd ways to do that this year, too. "
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Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2009

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