Dear Golf Industry Professional:
The fourth and final major of the year is now in the books and the world waits breathlessly(?)...for the FedEx Cup (to remove all minor irritants from the football season).  The northern climates are now in full stride for the final month of the "core season" and all facilities are competing with the late summer, final family vacation  for discretionary time leading up to Labor Day.  There's still plenty of golf to be played though so don't stop that marketing machine just yet if you're an owner/operator out there in the trenches.

This month's lead story calls attention to the slow and cantankerous unwinding of the real estate golf boom as a number of the "centerpiece" facilities for real estate developments in the '90s are now being considered for best-and-highest use which is being contested by subdivision homeowners and residents of communities adjacent to the distressed golf properties.  In the stand-off, it appears for the moment that the developers have the upper hand because they can declare the property "not economically viable" (usually true) and then just let it go to seed and wait out the homeowners' as the situation depresses their resale value and stymies buyers due to the vacant real estate situation uncertainty.  For Jim K's take, read the current issue:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/pellucid/perspective_201808/

In addition, the August issue covers the following topics, none of which you'll find in any other industry trade publication, guaranteed:

• Guest contributor, industry veteran and sage Craig Kessler of the Southern CA Golf Assoc., scratches his head along with the collective majority of the industry in asking, "What does the total number of municipal golf courses in operation have to do with the relative health of that sector?"  He offers this up after NGF's latest assertion that the fact that municipal golf is actually increasing in share of facilities means it's in the pink of health. Craig wraps his opinion piece around the concept of getting an accurate but irrelevant answer by asking the wrong question.
• Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay offers two observations in this month's issue.  The first around the fact that we can do a better job, as core golfers who are emotionally invested in the fun and camaraderie of  (even when not played particularly well), of reaching out to those on the margin of the game and encouraging them to put more than a toe in the water.  Ancillary to that is his article on the fact that the industry and various associations continue to make learning the game of golf to a basic level of enjoyment, much more complicated and harder than it needs to be and, hence, scare off the folks we're supposed to be nurturing.  It's Manuel de la Torre vs. Tom Shea; two sides of the same coin which is helping people get better and enjoy the game without all the "good body crap" (Billy Bean/Brad Pitt, Moneyball)
• Editor-in-Chief Jim Dunlap is back from post-surgery in recovery and, with the experience of one back surgery behind him, has a respectful ode to Tiger Woods' 2nd place PGA Championship finish after multiple back surgeries.  Until you've walked a mile in someone's shoes, you have no idea how hard, frustrating and fickle the recovery and re-learning process can be.
• Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including the July weather impact results (flat again) and the June YtD Utilization (up! rounds decline not as severe as weather deficit).  We also chart the monthly timeseries for the year of Golf Playable Hours and Utilization while our Market Focus continues with the profile of Minneapolis MN as this month’s Market Focus which registers as the 22nd healthiest of the Top 25 US Golf Markets in our annual ranking.