[Read Golf On Long Island's take on the Newsday article:
Newsday report features false data to support negative view of Long Island golf industry]
The business of golf on Long Island is "in the rough" according to a report published Thursday on Newsday.com.
Newsday's Ted Phillips said the Long Island golf industry is "shrinking" thanks to the combined effects of the course-building boom of the late 1990s, the struggling economy and a change in leisure priorities. Phillips points to a drop in rounds at Long Island's state parks over the past 15 years:
New York State operates six golf facilities on Long Island: Bethpage (which has four courses in addition to the Black), Sunken Meadow, Montauk Downs, Sag Harbor, Jones Beach and Robert Moses.
In 1998, golfers played 576,850
rounds at those public courses. Game play slid by 19 percent in the next
10 years to 466,343 rounds — and fell even more after the financial
crisis of 2008, dropping to 369,595 rounds last year. — Ted Phillips, Newsday, 4/4/2013
Read the full report on Newsday.com.