July 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 21

golf players. There were 6.8 million fewer golfers in
2018 compared to 2003 - a loss of 22 percent. This
resulted in a net reduction of 1,243 18-HEQ courses
between 2005 and 2018. The decline is a function of
the high cost of playing, difficulty of courses, and the
game's incompatibility with contemporary lifestyles.

Restore Property Values of Failed Golf Courses
In a typical year, approximately 200 courses fail.
When a course fails, homeowners who have paid a
premium to locate adjacent to it lose a substantial
portion of their equity. The challenge is exacerbated
by many failing courses being built on land that is
proscribed from development either by local zoning
ordinances seeking to preserve open space or by deed
restrictions intended to protect owners who paid a
premium to live near a golf course.
Changes are contingent on winning approval from
homeowners associations or local governments, involve
compromise and, inevitably, are politically and socially
contentious. Strategies for retaining value include converting courses to parks or aesthetically appealing open
spaces and reconfiguring courses by processes, such as
downsizing.

of courses with natural areas is consistent with society's
growing interest in protecting the environment.

Reconﬁgure Courses
Reconfiguration of a failing course is likely to involve
downsizing it from 18 to nine holes. The process will
likely involve development of additional home sites on
some of the area. This generates the money needed to
reconfigure, renovate and update the course, as well as
transform some of the land into a park or open space.
There is often tremendous political and emotional resistance to removing a golf course completely. A partial
conversion may circumvent that resistance because it
results in the improvement of the residual golf component, creates accessible public open space and provides
some benefit to all the stakeholders.
John L. Crompton, Ph.D., is a University Distinguished Professor,
Regents Professor and Presidential Professor for Teaching
Excellence in the Department of Recreation, Park and Tourism
Sciences at Texas A&M University and an elected Councilmember
for the City of College Station (jcrompton@tamu.edu).

Convert Courses to Appealing Open Spaces
The proportion of golfing households in a golf community has been variously reported as ranging from 10
percent to 30 percent. The appeal to the majority of
residents is not golf - instead, open space, beauty/aesthetics and exclusivity are the defining attractors. For
the 70 to 90 percent of residents, developers are not
selling a golf course, rather they are selling a view and
ambience.
If the course is converted to a park or appealing
open space, the lot premiums will be akin to those of
a passive park and lower than those associated with a
viable manicured golf course. However, they will be
higher than if no intentional redesign is undertaken,
so the abandoned course is neglected and becomes a
vacuum of unsightly open space. Conversion to public open space substantially reduces owners' adverse
impact on equity.
Further, there is growing acknowledgment of the damage golf courses can inflict by changing existing open
space ecology; denigrating wetlands, sensitive aquifers
or habitat; or contributing to runoff carrying pesticides,
fungicides, herbicides and fertilizers. The replacement

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July 2020 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of July 2020 - Parks & Recreation