Is Snowboarding Killing Golf?

As a cultural artifact, snowboarding gets credited, or blamed, for many things that it isn’t, including the game of golf.

Since I plan to play a round this weekend (far from the Midwest!), an article in The Independent (UK) entitled The Decline of Golf caught my attention.

The article discusses the extent of the decline, offers some reasons for it, and mentions what a few people are trying to do about it.

The golf industry does have reasons to be concerned: the number of golfers in the U.S. has declined from 30 million a decade ago to 26 million today. But why has this happened? You might blame the fact that some golfers find it hard to ever improve (count me in with this one), making it difficult to justify ongoing expenses.

But some folks blame snowboarding

Mike May of the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, which tracks US citizens’ participation in sports and leisure activities, has another theory for golf’s decline over the course of this decade. “We now track 114 sporting activities in the US,” he says. “A few decades ago, golf would have been one of say 20 major activities, but there is more going on today to capture people’s time and attention, and there are still only seven days in the week and 24 hours in the day.

“Americans are choosing snowboarding, skateboarding and other things on top of traditional sports such as tennis and basketball and, of course, there has also been a surge in the numbers going to gyms and health clubs to work out.

In sheer numbers, of course, golf holds the upper hand. Golfers outnumber riders by a ratio of 5 to 1, and even if you add in skiers, golfing still dominates. One reason may be that even though it’s harder to become an expert golfer than an expert snowboarder, the perception of danger (attracting some people, repelling far more) just isn’t there in golf. If you can walk, you can golf.

To finish on a note of the obvious: there are very few days in the year in which a person must choose between golf and snow sports on a given day.

But for one of those days, see this photo from the Grays on Trays discussion board.

UPDATE: Welcome, readers of the Golf Blogger. I’m a much worse golfer than I am a snowboarder, but I enjoy writing about both. I’m working on another post that covers similar ground to this one. See also this tag of golf-related posts.