In the 1990s, more golf courses were going up than were shopping malls. As popularity for the game grew in a time when the economy was soaring, a new market emerged in the industry. No longer was golf exclusive, available only to the executive making half a million dollars a year. The sport, as Golf.com Top 100 instructor Mike Adams explains, took on a new image: Golf was considered cool.

"Everyone wanted to be like Tiger Woods, just like everyone wanted to be like Michael Jordan," he says. "Plus, you had celebrities like Jordan and Steven Tyler playing golf, and that brought a whole new feel to the game."

In 1996, the year that Tiger Woods made the leap from amateur to professional, participation among junior golfers (ages 12 to 17) jumped from 1.8 million to 2.4 million. Furthermore, the number of adults playing golf increased by nearly two million people from 1990 to 2000.

Eric Affeldt, president and CEO of Club- Corp, one of the largest private golf club developers in the world, believes retiring baby boomers also played a vital role in the barrage of golf courses in the 1990s. Statistics at the time suggested that retirees were inclined to play more golf as their work lives slowed down. In response to those stats, builders increased the development of realestate- related courses.

"It's hard not to argue that a home around a golf course is prettier than a home not around a golf course," Affeldt says. "If you've got the land, it tends to enhance the value of the home. Thus, you had a lot of people building homes on golf courses, not specifically for golf but to enhance residential real estate."