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There’s a hashtag floating around social media that should disturb you if you truly love golf:
#shrinkthegame
It reflects the sentiment of golfers who despise the current situation surrounding public golf. They want to rewind the clock to the pre-pandemic days when there were fewer people on the course and more open and affordable tee times. They loathe the influx of younger players who are bringing music, bolder outfits and more casual attitudes toward the game.
Will golf return to the pre-Covid days or are we just screwed
— Seth Raynor II (@RealSethRaynor) April 27, 2025
Recent data from the National Golf Federation (NGF) indicates that on-course golf participation in the United States is at its highest level since 2008, with more than 26 million Americans playing golf on a course in 2023, and more than 14 million others are swinging away on a simulator, range or golf entertainment facility like Topgolf.
Sometimes these newbies can struggle with etiquette and pace of play, two big issues with experienced golfers who want their rounds to be simple without outside distractions. I understand the concerns of today's golfer – nobody likes being overcharged for a six-hour round - but I also think their rejection of the present and future of the modern game is both sad and pathetic.
Let me share some perspectives from the gloom-and-doom days of golf from the Great Recession to 2020, a 12-year period (give or take) that many industry experts believed was the end of days. The consensus held that a slow, expensive, entitled sport could never keep up with modern tastes. Thankfully, those people were wrong.
Why golf pre-pandemic was so broken
The problems with public golf during that period were many:
1. Courses were closing on the regular. Hundreds of communities lost affordable public playgrounds, and sometimes even established private clubs that had faithfully served the most talented and most dedicated local players for decades succumbed.
2. Facilities that stayed open were struggling. Directors of golf and pros were overwhelmed and overworked because owners couldn’t afford proper staffing levels. They would be giving a lesson one minute, behind the counter the next and cleaning carts at the end of the day. Many were getting burned out and left the industry. Customer service was sub-par or non-existent at many marginalized courses.
3. Amenities and course conditions suffered due to a lack of capital investment. Owners and operators were just happy to break even. They didn’t have the money to fix broken bridges, cracked cart paths, aging irrigation systems, etc. Often, superintendents didn’t have the proper equipment and fertilizer to keep their courses in decent shape.
The positive side of these issues from a customer point of view were discounted green fees and empty courses. Many golfers got used to that lifestyle. If they decided Thursday night they wanted to play on Saturday, they could just book a tee time without much hassle.
It was convenient, but too many public golf facilities felt dead. There was no buzz, no energy. Courses felt like a sleepy sanctuary for the few regulars who had the time, money, dedication and talent to play. There were few golfers younger than 35 and most were much older. It was a game of exclusion, not inclusion.
Post-pandemic problems with golf
Let's compare those issues to today’s complaints.
Unfortunately decided to play the public course with my good friend @balls_bobby11. Just an absolute case of how the game needs shrunk. Pace of play horrendous. Etiquette horrendous. #shrinkthegame
— Tom Johnson, PhD, CFA, MBA, CPA, J.D, D.D.S, M.D (@JohnsonTom37) May 20, 2025
Many golfers believe the game is returning to its “only for the rich” roots. Is it too expensive for the masses? I take a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ approach on this:
First of all, I’m here to tell you that no one is getting rich in the public golf space. Owners and operators aren’t raising green fees to line their pockets. They are raising prices due to rising costs related to everything they buy, plus the growing cost of paying and retaining employees. Those costs get passed down to customers. You can blame some of the higher costs on more players but not all of it. Strike one against the argument.
Then there's simple supply and demand. If you want to play on the weekend, then yes, a round of golf will feel expensive, since the demand is highest at that time. Courses are going to charge a premium. When it actually gets to the point of being too expensive, golfers will stop showing up. That hasn’t happened yet. The same goes for seasonality. If you want to play golf in the winter, Florida and Arizona green fees will always be priced through the roof because there is excessive demand and limited supply (while the rest of the country is in a winter slumber). Strike two.
Finally, there's freedom of choice. If you feel a course is too expensive, go somewhere else. There’s a course for every budget in almost every market in America. I live in San Jose – one of the most expensive places in the world – and I can’t afford to play at the nicer courses in my area. Cinnabar Hills and the Tournament Course at Coyote Creek charge north of $100 for every round, so I stick to the local munis – Santa Teresa and Los Lagos – where I can play for $50. I’m sacrificing service, amenities, pace of play and quality of design, but that’s my decision. Strike three; this argument doesn't hold water.
Another major issue beyond cost in today’s golf climate is accessibility. This concern has some merit. If I don’t make a tee time a week out, I’m screwed out of playing or I'm forced into doing something I don’t want to do: paying more or playing at a lesser course where I’m virtually guaranteed to have pace of play and conditioning issues. Most of the new courses being built today are either high-end resort courses or exclusive private clubs. Neither will alleviate this overcrowding issue.
Finally, there's the elephant on the green: the on-course experience. Nobody wants to get stuck playing golf with a yahoo who plays slow, blasts crappy music too loudly and putts out for 10 on every other hole. I’m exaggerating, of course. In 26 years of playing golf, I’ve never met someone like that. I’ve been paired with slow players, angry players and bad players at various times along the way, but by and large, 99 percent of the strangers I’ve been paired with, or teed up behind, are like-minded people. They just want to have fun and get away from the real world for less than five hours.
Which golf industry problems are worse: Pre- or post-pandemic?
Golf's problems were much worse pre-pandemic. It's harder to get a tee time now, but it's impossible to get a tee time if your course is closed, which was bound to happen to thousands more facilities if the game had stayed on its pre-pandemic trajectory.
The post-pandemic golf boom has saved the game in every way. I don't know about you, but I have more golf buddies than I've ever had in my life. I'm turning down offers to play because everybody wants to tee it up.
Neglected facilities are now getting the investment in infrastructure they've needed for decades. I venture to guess than 40 percent of public courses have gotten some sort of upgrade or redesign within the past five years. That fact alone is worth the growing pains. Available golf courses are better than ever.
Accepting all these new players is helping golf diversify. The National Golf Foundation reports that since the start of the pandemic, there has been a net increase of 2.3 million females and 2.1 million golfers of color playing on course. Women and girls have been particularly impactful in driving the sport’s post-pandemic growth, accounting for approximately 60% of the net gain in green grass golfers since 2019. The female golfer population has now reached nearly 7.9 million – an all-time high. I guarantee, guys, you'll be playing more golf if you can get the whole family involved. My daughter came home from college and asked to go to the range for the first time. I almost fell out of my office chair.
By continuing to grow the game, we’ll have the opportunity to spread the love of golf on to our kids and grandkids. They will play because their friends do. Wouldn’t it be awesome if someday most kids thought playing golf was cool? That’s a possibility as long as a foolish few stop promoting that we should #shrinkthegame.
Golf has given so much to everybody who plays ... exercise, camaraderie, an appreciation of the outdoors, competition, life lessons. Why should only a select few get to experience such joys?
Comments (7)
This response to your question turned out to be lengthy; here is my conclusion (!):
While most of these issues seem manageable by common sense, ultimately it should be up to golf courses and clubs to use their discretion–through local rules or course policies–to penalize those who clearly violate their standards. And that is not my opinion but that of the USGA. The real question appears to be this: Are the rules concrete enough to “resolve” the cultural gap? Should their various interpretations lead to actions such as throwing players off of courses? No easy answers present themselves. Like all issues that involve equity and inclusion, the solutions will involve hard work. But this much seems obvious: growing the game of golf should be good, in the end, for almost everyone, but remaining close-minded, wanting to turn the clock back, and choosing not to care a whit about equity are all regressive attitudes that obstruct solutions to the problems.
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your comments and your question about the relationship of sports and inclusion.
I realize that the issues at hand–and your article alludes to them–are far wider than what anyone can cover here. But here is a “snapshot” of what I have learned about them, comprising ideas derived partially and indirectly through my previous professional (non-golfing) background:
In truth, every major sport–whether professional or collegiate–supports inclusion, which is the idea of supporting participation and opportunities for people of all abilities, backgrounds, and identities. The concept of one’s background and identity comprises racial or ethnic minorities, cultural, and gender components; but also may involve athletes with disabilities. The NFL has several gender, racial, cultural, and disability inclusion programs, and the NBA and MLB do much of the same kind of work to promote equity. The NCAA has at least six major programs which promote inclusion in all of these same areas.
Not only that, it’s more than notable that the sport of golf, itself—primarily through the R&A and the PGA Tour–have taken a strong stance in favor of inclusion. For example, the PGA Tour has adopted programs that encompass its own business practices, its workforce and its suppliers. The Tour also uses its connections to support minorities and representative players who are advancing diversity in the game.
So it's very safe to say that no major American sport is trying to “shrink” their numbers in any way; in fact–just the opposite is true. I also think that mainly what is at issue with the “shrinkthegame” mantra (dumb as it sounds) concerns culture, although certainly gender or ethnicity cannot be ruled out. It is the culture of preserving all of the old (and sometimes staid) traditions of the game. On the one hand, some of these do have value, such as the banishment of slow play and the promotion of general golfing etiquette. On the other, the USGA Rules of Golf are a bit nuanced on things like noise on the golf course: no specific rule prohibits the making of it. Generally, music and media sources are permitted to be used during play. There are many conditions, however, where use of these devices are strongly discouraged. Ambiguities or gray areas in rules like these create a space, so to speak, for cultural conflict.
Sorry man, I am not on the course so that you and your buddies can spend quality time together chatting and drinking and being loud. Go to a baseball game if that’s what you want to do. Golf isn’t that sport. Part of running a course is to maintain pace of play by speeding along the inconsiderates. At Cog Hill when you book your tee time, you sign a statement that you will play in 4 hours 15 minutes, and that the marshall will ask you to pick up if you are playing too slowly. Enforce the Etiquette.
Golf was better pre-pandemic. We actually had water coolers and ball washers, something most golf courses near me refuse to put out now due to laziness. The influx of new golfers also brings with it people who don't know what they're doing. Golf etiquette is worse than ever. Good looking finding someone who actually rakes a trap or fixes a divot. There's always been people with poor etiquette, but it's worse now than it was pre-pandemic. Pace of play and greens fees are worse too. Not saying golf today is bad. Some things just aren't quite as good as they once were. The pandemic ruined a lot of things though, not just golf. I think almost everything in general has been worse post-pandemic. I don't think we should shrink the game, but I also don't know why some are obsessed with growing the game. If some people aren't interested in golf, who cares. Let them stay uninterested.
Growing the game is the only way for golf to stay relevant in the future. If golf wasn't working hard to "grow", it will shrink to the point of going back to an elitist, old man's game. You need kids, minorities and women to get introduced to golf early enough so that, if they don't stick with the game right away, they are open to coming back when they are older and have more time/money to enjoy it. I'm fine with higher green fees. It generally translates to 'I'm getting a better experience'. There are ways to play golf on a budget - weekdays, offseason, twilight, more affordable courses. Let the masses most #shrinkthegame folks despise pay the higher fees on the weekends, where the slow play is the biggest issue.
Golf had mainly corrected an image problem it once had during the era when I was growing up. Thankfully, Arnold Palmer had made the game, by the sixties, more exciting for the middle classes. Later, golfers like Nicklaus, Miller, and Weiskoph kept the positive trend alive. I’m not sure how golf reached the level of ennui it did by 2015-2020, seemingly in spite of star players that included Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson,Tom Watson, Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, et al. A number of great players with talent and charisma on the LPGA Tour certainly helped the game’s popularity. So it’s always been true that role models will grow and sustain the game of golf–to a certain degree.. If anything, it may have been golf’s growing expensiveness–combined with the country club iconography that has always stuck to the game–which finally caused the downturn in overall popularity.
Why many of these Facebook geniuses–who are hardly role models–believe that the game must be “re-shrunk” appears beyond comprehension. Yet sadly, a significant part of our citizenry cannot tolerate genuine diversity, though many of them give it lip service.This intolerance appears to be what is mostly behind this “shrinkthegame” nonsense.
I’m not saying that we should ignore such opinions. It does seem more important, as you suggest, to look at the optimistic side of things: women are more involved in the game; young people are adopting it; the numbers have rebounded; public golf is growing again.
As Melinda Gates has said, “If we want to include everyone, we have to help everyone develop their talents and use their gifts for the good of the community. That’s what inclusion means– everyone contributes.”
Always appreciate your thoughts, Tom. Do other sports - baseball, football, etc. - try to deter people from learning to participate in their sports? This #shrinkthegame thing makes no sense.