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Fore Please. 119th US Open Walking Championship Thread.

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Chef2, May 30, 2019.

  1. poindexter

    poindexter Well-Known Member

    I've done the Vegas top golf, and the Sacramento. Fun.

    I am a huge supporter of play 9. Unless you belong to a CC, or can play Tuesday mornings, you are looking at 5 hours plus to play 18 on a Saturday at a muni. NFW.
     
  2. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    The Top Golf in my town absolutely prints money. Drove past it on Easter Sunday around noon and it was packed. I'm still not sure I see a pipeline in getting people from that to a real course, maybe I'm wrong, but it's the coolest thing going right now. Investors like Callaway were darned smart to get in on it early.
     
  3. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    ALbuquerque is so desperate for jobs they recently shelled out millions of taxpayers dollars to get a Top Golf. What a scam
     
  4. maumann

    maumann Well-Known Member

    Don't forget bowling leagues, as well. I bowled every Saturday as a kid and was on several competitive leagues as a young adult. The bowling alley in the nearest town became an electrical supply warehouse five years ago.

    Moonlight Bowling at Dave and Buster's is the equivalent of TopGolf. It has similarities to the real thing, but it's just an excuse to drink and goof off.

    There's an underlying assumption that Golf (the profession) and Golf (the recreational activity) are connected at the hip, with golf companies still riding Tiger Woods' popularity. But that momentum already is running out, even as the Tour and other major professional and high amateur golf entities are prosperous and will continue to be so.

    But a Tiger-less Tour should scare the crap out of the industry. We know the number of people playing golf for recreation is at a tipping point, just like the way recreational tennis fell off a cliff after the retirements of McEnroe, Connors, Vilas and Borg on the men's side and Evert, Goolagong, King and Navratilova on the women's.

    The elite players are still finding their way to Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows but with the notable exception of the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association and retirement communities, most of the public tennis courts built during the boom of the 1970s are either growing weeds, basketball half-courts or being converted into pickleball.

    There's no "must watch" event, no matter how good Djokovic, Nadal and Federer are. Is it partially jingoistic? Perhaps, but Sampras and the Williams sisters weren't able to turn viewers into players like the previous generation did.

    The golf courses built during the boom of the 1990s and 2000s? That's a whole different problem. You can tear up a tennis court and build something else there. A golf course, particularly one constructed in a development of homes, reverts to an overgrown mess and property values take a hit. It's almost impossible to rezone it commercial -- and unless someone with deep pockets can make it a park or nature preserve, it's going to wind up an eyesore.

    I don't know the answer. But there are a ton of great posts on here explaining why everybody's going to ride Tiger Woods until the bitter end.

    As long as I can still waste four hours with buddies and shoot something near 80 for $30, I'm happy to be heading for extinction.
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2019
  5. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    ALTA! That was huge when I was a kid growing up in Atlanta.

    Tennis was a funny game for me. I had some tennis ability as a kid but for some reason beating golf balls with zero ability had more appeal.
     
    maumann likes this.
  6. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    There are a number of reasons why tennis fell off, but the largest one of them, IMO, is simply demographics. Its peak was when us boomers were in our 20s in the 70s. By oh, 1988, the word "orthopedist" became familiar to a lot of such players. Aching knees, aching elbows and inability to reach balls one handled with ease a decade past. Golf at least doesn't have that problem of players aging out of the fun of the sport.
     
    maumann likes this.
  7. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    I swear to all of you that Jim Nantz's happiest, no, most joyous moment in any CBS broadcast is when he interviews the CEO or other executive of the tournament's sponsor who comes on to brag about charities. He is a fulfilled man in those minutes.
     
    poindexter and Webster like this.
  8. heyabbott

    heyabbott Well-Known Member

    EF11BD43-21EE-4DA3-A9FF-36EBE7021C1A.jpeg
    Jim’s backyard at Pebble Beach
    I’m not gay but $20 million is $20 million
     
  9. Webster

    Webster Well-Known Member

    Chad, the only thing more predatory than your company's lending practices is your touch around the greens.
     
    typefitter and playthrough like this.
  10. Chef2

    Chef2 Well-Known Member


    Oh great.
    Another picture of the 7th at Pebble Beach.
     
    maumann likes this.
  11. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    Nantz either has great trust in his friends or he has shatterproof windows on that side of his house.
     
  12. expendable

    expendable Well-Known Member

    But not enough to keep his cars in the garage.

    With the exception of that kids car.
     
    maumann and Chef2 like this.
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