Fore --- not!

But we digress.

The upshot of The Times story is that golf, over the past decade, has been in a recession. Citing (named) sources from the National Golf Foundation and the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, the number of people who play the game has declined or remained flat since 2000. It is estimated about three million golfers quit playing the game each year. Less than that pick up the sport.

Isn't that what Waukegan Park District commissioners and staff have contended all along? That the numbers aren't there and too many courses are chasing too few players? That is why the district wants to convert venerable Orchard Hills into a soccer field complex.

Of course, this has drawn the ire of aging golfers. One of the chief reasons cited by The Times for the declining number of golfers is economic: No time, two jobs, real wages not rising, pensions disappearing. The Times article doesn't mention anything about fish fries, but Orchard Hills backers apparently couldn't get enough fried fish on Fridays.

The article also notes that several hundred golf courses have closed in the last few years, most of them in Arizona, Florida, Michigan and North Carolina, states which cater to retirees. Guess they couldn't play a round of golf for 20 bucks in those states.

The Times quoted Richard Rocchio, regional director of the National Golf Course Owners Association: "Years ago, men thought nothing of spending the whole day playing golf --- maybe Saturday and Sunday both. Today, he is driving his kids to their soccer games (did he say soccer?; did he say driving?). Maybe he's playing a round early in the morning. But he has to get back home in time for lunch."

If I was a Waukegan Park District commissioner, I would have this Times article read into the record at the next board meeting. Sort of validates what they're doing, doesn't it?

That is if you can believe what you read in The Times.