Fore! NY Times plays through LIBN

In a front page story today the New York Times takes an extensive look at the suffering golf industry. The Times talked to Long Island PR veteran Dick Rocchio who is trying to organize Long Island golf club owners to address the dwindling number of rounds played here. The Island isn’t unique. Good walks being spoiled are trending downward nationwide.

It’s nice to know the Good, Gray Lady is keeping up with business trends. And also keeping a close eye on LIBN, which did the same story, using almost the exact same sources, more than a month ago.

Now, which story to quote excerpts? Oh well, we’ll go with The Times, working on the theory that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery:

“We have to change our mentality,” said Richard Rocchio, a public relations consultant.

“The problem is time,” offered Walter Hurney, a real estate developer. “There just isn’t enough time. Men won’t spend a whole day away from their family anymore.”

William A. Gatz, owner of the Long Island National Golf Club in Riverhead, said the problem was fundamental economics: too much supply, not enough demand.

The problem was not a game of golf. It was the game of golf itself.

Over the past decade, the leisure activity most closely associated with corporate success in America has been in a kind of recession.

The total number of people who play has declined or remained flat each year since 2000, dropping to about 26 million from 30 million, according to the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association.

More troubling to golf boosters, the number of people who play 25 times a year or more fell to 4.6 million in 2005 from 6.9 million in 2000, a loss of about a third.

The industry now counts its core players as those who golf eight or more times a year. That number, too, has fallen, but more slowly: to 15 million in 2006 from 17.7 million in 2000, according to the National Golf Foundation.”