FORE Magazine

Top Menu

  • About Me
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Home

Main Menu

  • Current Issue
  • Profiles
  • Travel
  • Equipment
  • 19th Hole
  • Classic Course
  • FORE Her
  • More
    • Know the Rules
    • Handicap Hints
    • SCGA Junior
    • Where Are They Now?
    • News
    • Governmental Affairs
  • scga.org
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login

logo

FORE Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Profiles
  • Travel
  • Equipment
  • 19th Hole
  • Classic Course
  • FORE Her
  • More
    • Know the Rules
    • Handicap Hints
    • SCGA Junior
    • Where Are They Now?
    • News
    • Governmental Affairs
  • scga.org
Governmental AffairsSpring 2019
Home›Governmental Affairs›A Class Unto Itself: California’s Coachella Valley

A Class Unto Itself: California’s Coachella Valley

By Craig Kessler
April 26, 2019
1333
0
Share:

Sui generis — Latin for “a class unto itself.” Desert — there are lots of them in California, but only one when the subject is golf. Put them together and you have the Coachella Valley, the place where everything is different from everywhere else.

There is nowhere else where the golf economy is the chief driver of the local economy, nowhere else where so much of the region’s water is dedicated to maintaining golf courses, nowhere else where such a small percentage of the population supports such a high concentration of golf courses, nowhere else where Mother Nature provides so little water from the sky, nowhere else where it takes so much irrigation to sustain turf, and nowhere else where the fortunes of the game affect the fortunes of so many.

In short, the greatest concentration of golf courses is located in one of the hemisphere’s harshest deserts in a state beset by recurring droughts, a diminishing snowpack, a contracting golf industry, and rapidly rising water, energy and labor costs.
Despite all of that, the Coachella Valley is home to only 3.9 percent fewer golf holes in 2019 than it was when the nation’s markets were in free fall in 2008; water is still as plentiful and affordable as ever. Not exactly the story in the rest of California, where there are palpable pockets of decline and the price of water continues to escalate at many multiples of the Consumer Price Index; that is, when it’s available.

WHAT GIVES?

The story of golf in the Coachella Valley parallels the story of golf in the United States, except more so. From 1946 through 2005 there were more golf courses in the nation on December 31 of each and every year than there had been on January 1. Through wars, recessions, political crises, gas lines, stagflations and a whole host of dislocations, the game grew — faster during flush times to be sure, but it grew no matter what happened.

From 1944, when Tom O’Donnell organized O’Donnell GC as the Coachella Valley’s first golf club, through 2005, the growth was even more explosive in the desert — from one to 126.

An economist might call that a situation screaming for a market correction. And when markets that haven’t corrected for six decades start to correct, the correction can be steep. That hasn’t been the case on the national level, where the correction has been more of a long one than a steep one. But in the Coachella Valley, the correction has been almost imperceptible. Yesterday’s explosive growth has been replaced by stasis, and golf clubs and their companion HOAs have had to reconfigure some of their internal dynamics. But the kinds of closures and repurposes seen in places like North San Diego County and the Inland Empire have been absent.

An anomaly? Shouldn’t the greatest concentration of golf in the nation be more affected by a market correction than areas with a much lower supply to population ratio?

All things being equal, the answer would be yes. But not all things are equal when it comes to the desert golf market. The truth that those in the golf business understand is that golf’s fortunes have never been higher among two key demographics that practically define the desert golf market: persons between the ages of 55 and 74 and the affluent.

While golf has suffered among those under a certain age, the hard fact is that there are more golfers in the 55 to 74 age bracket today than there were in 2005 — considerably more according to most studies. And while golf has suffered among those in the middle quintiles of the income population, it has continued to grow among those in the top 20 percent.


WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE?

Golf may consume only 0.73 percent of the potable water consumed in the State of California, but it uses 24 percent of the water consumed in the Coachella Valley. Given the need to bring the state’s aquifers into balance and reduce overall water consumption, shouldn’t that statistic be cause for alarm?

Again, all things being equal, the answer would be a resounding yes. But also again, not all things are equal in the Coachella Valley, which sports one of the deepest and richest aquifers in the world and has access to a very generous Colorado River allocation per the terms of various federal compacts. The access and cost squeeze that dominates all discussion of golf’s sustainability virtually everywhere else in California just doesn’t exist in the Coachella Valley.

However, there are two things already baked into the desert’s cake guaranteed to inject a bit of what ails the rest of the state sometime in the 2020s: the full flowering of the regulatory scheme mandated by the 2014 Groundwater Sustainability Act, and reductions in Colorado River allocations made necessary by a drying Colorado River Basin that is already badly over-allocated.

The Coachella Valley golf community will continue to be a class unto itself no matter how much of what ails the rest of the state seeps into its environs, that much is certain. But as the rest of the state’s ailments do creep in and today’s 55- to 74-year-olds are replaced by a generation of 55- to 74-year-olds who don’t play golf in the same numbers, what is not yet certain is whether the Coachella Valley golf community can use the unique advantages it now enjoys to translate today’s stasis into a platform for tomorrow’s growth.

Previous Article

The Equipment Nerd: Bombs Away

Next Article

All In The Family: The Stars Just ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Craig Kessler

Craig came to the SCGA via the merger with the Public Links Golf Association (PLGA), where he served as Executive Director for 11 years and pioneered the development of the nation’s most active and accomplished advocacy component. He has been tasked with doing the same for the SCGA as its first Director of Governmental Affairs, albeit on a much larger stage. In addition to his current and previous job responsibilities, Craig has served as a USGA Committeemen continuously for 15 years, Chair of the Los Angeles Golf Advisory Commission, Chair of the Los Angeles County Golf Advisory Committee, Member of the City of Los Angeles’ Griffith Park Master Plan Board, Member of the Ventura Golf Advisory Group, Member of the Los Angeles County Junior Golf Foundation Board of Directors and Chair of the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce First Tee of Los Angeles Advisory Committee. In 2008 Craig was inducted into the Long Beach Golf Hall of Fame.

Related articles More from author

  • Spring 2019

    Golden Drive: Jumping Frogs or Making Birdies, California’s Golf Country Is a Gem

    April 26, 2019
    By Robert Kaufman
  • Governmental AffairsSpring 2020

    Governmental Affairs: Whither Municipal Golf

    April 23, 2020
    By Craig Kessler
  • Fall 2016Governmental Affairs

    Lessons from the Drought “Emergency”: A funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypse.

    October 24, 2016
    By Craig Kessler
  • Governmental Affairs

    Golf Celebrates the Fruits of Research at UC Riverside Turfgrass Field Day

    September 17, 2018
    By Craig Kessler
  • Governmental Affairs

    It’s All About The Water

    October 1, 2014
    By Craig Kessler
  • Spring 2019

    Growing Up Mickelson

    April 30, 2019
    By Tina Mickelson

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts

  • Fall 2020FeaturedProfiles

    Strong Game: Haley Moore

  • FeaturedWinter 2021

    The Rising Star of Gabi Ruffels

  • FeaturedThe PodiumWinter 2021

    Ely’s Gift to Golf

  • FeaturedTravelWinter 2021

    Western Waltz: 18 Fave Holes From the Rockies to the Pacific

  • FeaturedKnow the RulesSpring 2019

    Rules Mailbag: Our Rules Czars Answer Your Questions

FeaturedTravelWinter 2021

Western Waltz: 18 Fave Holes From the Rockies to the Pacific

Packing a passport and jumping on an overseas flight doesn’t appear to be in the cards anytime soon. That’s OK. There are plenty of public-access trophy courses and hidden gems in ...
  • Eternal Sportsman: The Dual Passions of Bode Miller

    By Judd Spicer
    January 18, 2021
  • Enchanted Valley: San Gabriel CC

    By Joe Passov
    January 17, 2021
  • The Rising Star of Gabi Ruffels

    By Matt McKay
    January 16, 2021
  • A Look Back in Time: The LACC’s Hope-Ware Collection

    By Judd Spicer
    January 16, 2021
© 2016 FORE Magazine About Us | Contact Us | Advertise