Broken Tees, Broken Dreams
by Ryan Collins
The golf course building boom of the 1990s
is a distant memory, and the industrys suffering a major hangover
caused by too many courses and too few golfers. Now, thousands of
acres of fairways and greens are being plowed under. What happened?
. Photograph by Samuel Solomon.
It's early April in
Florida, the perfect time of year to get in a few rounds of golf.
But Ron Baker is too busy to think about playing golf right now.
Instead of filling out his scorecard, the general manager of
Raintree Golf Resort in Pembroke Pines is printing out his résumé.
After more than two decades of providing golf for thousands of
patrons every month, Raintree is a few weeks away from being
reduced to a pile of rubble.
"I've had a lot of good memories here," Baker says. "I haven't
landed anywhere yet, and our regulars are very disappointed that
we're closing, but that's how it is in this industry."
Last year, Raintree was rezoned for development. What once was a
clubhouse will soon be commercial
real estate. What once was 123
acres of golf course will soon be a residential neighborhood.
And what once was a thriving golf community is now part of a
sobering trend in the industry: There are more courses closing than
there are opening.
"We used to have anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 golfers a month,"
says Baker, who's been with Raintree for 17 years. "But those
numbers have been down about 15 percent over the last 10 years
because of the increase in golf courses. Our owners saw an
opportunity to get out and increase their dollar amount five times
by selling the land. It was the smart thing to do."
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