The Perceptions and Politics of Golf

The Wall Street Journal today has featured the We Are Golf Coalition, as well as the work of former LA Laker’s star Jerry West, in its quest to highlight “the positive economic impact golf has on local communities.”  It cites last year’s Northern Trust Open as a tournament that was unfairly criticized by the celebrity gossip blog TMZ under the headline “Bailout Bank Blows Millions Partying in L.A.”

“People read the headlines and said, ‘Oh, that’s terrible’, but when they peeled back the layers of the onion and started asking the right questions, they saw how this thing benefits business and how it benefits the community,” said Kelly Mannard, Northern Trust’s chief marketing officer.  The tournament attracted millions in new business.  The article notes that Northern Trust repaid the TARP loan last summer and provided taxpayers a profit of $133 million.

“Emotions were running high because of the economic situation. In the heat of the moment statements were made that brought back old stereotypes of golf as an elitist undertaking, but nothing could be farther from the truth,” said [Joe Steranka, CEO of The PGA of America].

In fact, 70% of golf rounds played in the United States are on public courses and the median cost per round in 2008 was $28.  ”Most golfers don’t wear fancy pants.”

The We Are Golf initiative’s central point is that golf is responsible for roughly two million jobs in the U.S. paying $61 billion in wages. Most of those jobs are working-class. PGA-certified professionals at golf course typically earn in the high five-figures, Mr. Steranka said, but the 40 or so other employees at a typical course — the maintenance workers, the shop assistants, the cooks and waitresses in the grill room — earn much less. Then there are the local small businesses that provide goods and services to golf courses: the painters and plumbers, the beer truck drivers, the florists, vending-machine operators, the golf-cart repairmen.

Source: The Wall Street Journal