When do you think the golf boom will end?

[GolfGuitarsCars]

Food, gas or golf?   

[Greenie]

10 minutes ago, nsxguy said:

My understanding of the golf boom really had little to do with people working at home. After all, what's the difference working in the office and working at home - you still can't get out and play golf if you're working.

 

The boom happened mainly due to Covid. Golf was the one(?) activity where people could get out in the fresh air, DO something while still (somewhat) spending a little time with someone other than immediate family.

 

Now that these people can mostly resume their previous lives I'm thinking golf will go back to "taking up too much time".

 

I never understood some of the Covid rules. In my area you could go and play golf with your buddies.

 

You were not allowed to go fishing by yourself or with someone. What would be safer then going to the river by yourself and do some fishing.

 

You weren't suppose to walk your dog in the park.

 

Golfing? perfectly ok.

 

I've met quite a few new golfers on the course. I usually get the comment they started playing because it was one of the few things you could do. Some made the comment of being out of work or working from home so they have the time to play. 

 

I still see new golfers out there playing but it isn't like it use to be in recent times. Some courses I have no problems getting on in a moments notice. Some courses are still hard to get on.

[golfandfishing]

13 hours ago, jmudo said:

Depends on the economy in my opinion. 

Yup. It won’t be long and folks will quit paying the inflated prices we’ve seen the last 2 years. Workers will return to offices and lose their flexibility, others will become unemployed and employers will be regaining the control they gave up.  Tee times free up, courses begin to eat each other again on golfnow and course owners start cutting costs quickly. This one is going to hurt, because very few courses invested the windfall into course conditions, carts, etc.  So now budgets will shrink and the pull back starts from an already disadvantaged point. 

[nsxguy]

1 hour ago, Greenie said:

I never understood some of the Covid rules. In my area you could go and play golf with your buddies.

 

You were not allowed to go fishing by yourself or with someone. What would be safer then going to the river by yourself and do some fishing.

 

You weren't suppose to walk your dog in the park.

 

Golfing? perfectly ok.

 

I've met quite a few new golfers on the course. I usually get the comment they started playing because it was one of the few things you could do. Some made the comment of being out of work or working from home so they have the time to play. 

 

I still see new golfers out there playing but it isn't like it use to be in recent times. Some courses I have no problems getting on in a moments notice. Some courses are still hard to get on.

 

It's off season now here in South Florida and summer pricing is back and the course(s) are empty during the week and weekends are much busier - so it looks like things are normalizing after a pretty full winter.

 

It's funny but I checked the prices at my old public course (NYC) and the prices, right now, IN season, are pretty much where they were when I last played there - 9 years ago in 2013 !!!

[caniac6]

I was just down in Hilton Head, and they had full tee sheets at Harbour Town at $440. Doesn’t look to be slowing down. The tee sheet at our course is pretty full, too.

[monty09]

2 hours ago, caniac6 said:

I was just down in Hilton Head, and they had full tee sheets at Harbour Town at $440. Doesn’t look to be slowing down. The tee sheet at our course is pretty full, too.

 

 

Harbor Town is a top 100 course pre covid - its always full.   What's shocking is when the crap muni we never play across town is now 50% more to play and every tee time is full on weekends.

[Roody]

20 hours ago, lowndes said:

 

Can't speak for industries I don't work in.  But for what I do people are not nearly as effective working from home.  And it is pretty easy to judge as we operate on the billable hour.  It's also pretty easy to see that quality of work has gone down. Not to mention that for people starting out it is really not possible to effectively learn what we do remotely.  I know a lot of people feel similarly who I interact with but that doesn't mean every industry/profession is setup the same way.  A lot of folks didn't work from an office prior to Covid so my comment had nothing to do with that setup.

I work in the software engineering industry, and I can say working from home has increased productivity. If anything, it seems as though many of us are working longer hours. I suppose you can argue that longer hours doesn't necessarily always equal greater productivity though. 

I will also say that while attempting to hire new software engineers, most job seekers won't bother with your company unless work from home is an option. Especially when there are 50 other companies looking for help and offering WFH. 

[Warrior42111]

4 hours ago, Roody said:

I work in the software engineering industry, and I can say working from home has increased productivity. If anything, it seems as though many of us are working longer hours. I suppose you can argue that longer hours doesn't necessarily always equal greater productivity though. 

I will also say that while attempting to hire new software engineers, most job seekers won't bother with your company unless work from home is an option. Especially when there are 50 other companies looking for help and offering WFH. 

Same here in engineering (aerospace), especially where I live, literally called the space coast. With all the competition, if you want a good worker and not a warm body you're paying (either with money, benefits, etc.) Overall, productivity went up. Were there some people who performed worse from home? Yes, but they were not the best employees anyways in general.

 

One thing COVID taught us is that there are many, not all jobs, that can be done from home, or in a hybrid setting by a good worker. Hopefully smart companies realize this as the workers have, and offer options to compete and get the good employees. 

 

This is why I think while golf will decline from the boom, I don't think it will be as drastic as previous fall offs.

[PhilsFanDrew]

4 hours ago, Roody said:

I work in the software engineering industry, and I can say working from home has increased productivity. If anything, it seems as though many of us are working longer hours. I suppose you can argue that longer hours doesn't necessarily always equal greater productivity though. 

I will also say that while attempting to hire new software engineers, most job seekers won't bother with your company unless work from home is an option. Especially when there are 50 other companies looking for help and offering WFH. 

 

I work in IT as an Infrastructure support manager and this has 100% been my experience as well.  Our CEO is more old school and wants people back in the office but the reality is you aren't going to get the cream of crop unless at the very minimum you offer a hybrid schedule if not an outright WFH.  Prospective employees know they have all the leverage right now and they are taking advantage of it.

[Bonneville85308]

1 minute ago, PhilsFanDrew said:

 

I work in IT as an Infrastructure support manager and this has 100% been my experience as well.  Our CEO is more old school and wants people back in the office but the reality is you aren't going to get the cream of crop unless at the very minimum you offer a hybrid schedule if not an outright WFH.  Prospective employees know they have all the leverage right now and they are taking advantage of it.

 

Even with allowing full-time WFH, my employer has lost a significant portion of our IT folks over the past 2 years simply because it is an IT department in a non-tech company and the pay scales are weak compared to what similar roles pay in other companies. Offering WFH is great, but if you can get a different WFH job paying $30k more for similar hours, especially if your current employer just gave you a lame 3% annual raise in a year of 8% inflation, you are going to take it.

[Double Mocha Man]

 

It's a double-edged sword.  While I'm enjoying a less crowded course than during the pandemic I also understand course revenue is going down.  That uptick in revenue during the pandemic saw courses flush with cash spending more on maintenance, outfitting the pro shops with more gear and hiring additional staff to make the golf experience more pleasant. 

 

Also, just as the pandemic hit courses were closing at a rapid pace.  I would not like to see that happening again.

[Carl Spackler3]

When people decide( if ever) to go back to work

[Double Mocha Man]

5 minutes ago, Carl Spackler3 said:

When people decide( if ever) to go back to work

Or... when businesses decide employees need to return to the workplace.  Though, for a lot of workers, the work from home model works fine.  I work from home most of the time and it's great!