Economy has affected state of golf

Over the last few years, the Desert Sun has written several articles about the woes of golf courses in the desert, whether private, resort or public.

Courses in the area have filed for bankruptcy, suffered foreclosures, closed only to re-open under new ownership and generally lived life on the edge.

All of those financial matters are fact. But just as true is that each time The Desert Sun writes about the struggles of local courses, we get hit with several e-mails and telephone calls from general managers of clubs who insist that their clubs are doing just fine, thank you very much, and we shouldn’t be painting such a bleak picture of the golf business.

Here’s how the folks at clubs that say they are doing well craft their legitimate argument. Sure, the golf business is tough these days, tough for everyone in the country. But many of the problems the public sees at some courses are self-inflicted wounds.

Public courses and private clubs that have made bad decisions on pricing or financing of golf courses or overreaching on building new facilities ought to suffer from those bad decisions.

But clubs that have made smarter decisions, that treat customers and members fairly and that keep the emphasis on the golf experience are doing better than courses that have simply been mismanaged.

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