Overbuilding of golf courses has some owners struggling to make money - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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"We are definitely saturated in terms of saidTerianne Petzold, executive director of the , a Milwaukee-based industrh group. "We're at the point where we're gettinhg pretty close to full immersion. It wouldf be nice to figure out a way to get peoplre tostop building." Industry observers said there is no question that golf is populaer in the state. There are currently 737,000 individual golfers in Wisconsin, makinbg the state second in the number of golfers per capita in the according to theProfessionall Golfers' Association. But at the same time, Wisconsin'ws golf industry is the eighth-most saturated in the Unitexd States, according to figures from the Fla.
-based National Golf Foundation (NGF). In Wisconsin had 12,291 people per 18 holes, more saturateds than states suchas Florida, Texas and California, statisticd show. So while the numbedr of golfersreaches all-time highs, "individual courses will tell you theifr rounds have gone down," Petzolc said. Consequently, many are seeing revenuse decline, she said. In the Milwaukee bad weather in Aprikl and May has impacted coursesthis year, but problemas with the industry extend far beyond golf course owners said. "We had an overbuildinh of golf course saidBruce Bloemer, co-owner of in Port "Investors built courses that they shouldn'r have.
" Bloemer left his job as an executive for an electriv cabling company in Illinoiws and purchased Squires in 1993. Over the next nine 72 holes opened withina 20-mile radiuz of his course. "You can't take that kind of growthn in the inventory of golf he said. Bloemer said the overbuilding came from exuberancre in a roaring economy in the late A more recent slowdown exacerbated bythe 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sent the number of roundsz played lower even as the number of golferes has increased to an all-time high of 37.9 million nationwide, figures show. The result is that courses such as Squires are feeling the pinch ofdeclining play.
Squires is at a "break-eveb point" this year, he "The party is over. Now you have to survive on a lot less revenuse than weused to," Bloemer said. The number of Wisconsinh "golf facilities," either nine or 18-hole courses or both on the same hasincreased 17.4 percent in the last from 419 in 1994 to 492 in according to the NGF. In the last eight nine new golf courses have openedin Waukesha, Racine and Ozaukee counties giving the four-county area 60 according to the Wisconsin State Golf Associatiobn (WSGA), a Brookfield-based amateur golfing organization. The majority of the state's courses are members of the group.
Seven new courses opene d in Waukesha County alone during thattime frame, according to the including the 18-hole in Wales and the nine-hole Preserve at Deer Creekk in New Berlin in 2003. Wisconsibn followed a nationwide trend. In 2000, 398.5 new 18-holw equivalent courses opened in theUnitex States, according to the NGF. Thosde numbers have fallen ever since. In 2003, 171 18-holde equivalent courses opened, the fewest since 1987. This year, 156.5 coursesz are projected to open, accordinvg to the NGF.
Locally, buildinh is expected to slow down as banks becomd more hesitant to loan to golf course operatorss and available realestate disappears, said Jack co-owner and chief operating officetr of The Legend at Brandybrook, a privatw club. "But if you poll the golf course ownerw in Wisconsin and ask wheree would you be comfortable with another coursebeing built, they woulx say, 'On somebody else's block,' " Gaudion said. The Legenx has been a success with membership topping 390 families in the firstg year alone and plans fora three-phase home and condominium developmenr -- a key component for anyoned looking to build a new golf course aheacd of schedule, Gaudion said.
"The golf industry is but it's not that troubled," Gaudion "The private club market here is a verystronhg market. But you have to differentiate your club. You can't be everythinvg to everybody." The Legend at Brandybrook has attemptedr to attract more families to the club with a waterf slide and other activities away from the golfcoursee itself. Some courses have turned to aggressive discounting to continus tobetter compete. , a public 18-hole used a "Golfer of the promotion on weekends that has one customer winning a free cart and lunch to help keep customef counts up inrecent years.
revenue decreased, as it became increasingly difficult to cut prices significantly and turn a The course has been force to trimits budget. "We've got to get evergy buck we canwithout discounting," said James Muskego Lakes' chief operating "You just can't work on a 2 or 3 percenr margin."