These photos of deserted golf courses reveal a new normal in America
nce a community staple in suburbs across America, the golf course is now a slowly dying breed.
According to new data from Foursquare, the location intelligence company, foot traffic to golf courses has gone down in the last year. While overall visits to golf courses were up 8% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017, the number of unique visits also decreased by 11% in the same time period.
This could mean that while regular golfers are continuing to enjoy the sport, the number of occasional or new players — who are trying it out for the first time — is going down. The Foursquare data was drawn from both implicit and explicit visits to golf courses, compared to the same period in 2016.
Over 800 golf courses have shuttered across the US in the past decade, and data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has shown that millennials between the age of 18 to 30 have a lack of interest in playing the game. From Las Vegas, Nevada, to Mahwah, New Jersey, many courses are being replaced with housing developments.
We recently explored two closed golf courses in northern New Jersey, both of which are being turned into housing developments, to see firsthand what courses across the country look like as they become abandoned.
Check them out below:
