“Everything was going along pretty well, even this summer, and then it was like someone turned the switch off Sept. 1.”

Bill Huffman does an excellent job making anyone in the golf business want to slash their wrists  leap off a bridge consider alternative business models. Actually, he very thoroughly considers the plight of Arizona golf and the sudden downturn in play, talking to SunCor Golf VP Tom Patrick. Thanks to reader Steven T. for catching the story.

This was interesting:

Still, and despite ridiculously low green fees already popping up lately in the West Valley, Patrick doesn’t expect a price war to break out. That’s because costs for rye seed are way up, water has never been more expensive, and maintenance costs are running through the roof after a mass exodus of undocumented workers back to Mexico.

“If people don’t come out to play, the courses will just go broke,” Patrick predicted. “In fact, that’s why so many are up for sale right now, even being foreclosed on — and you’re going to see more of that.”

Case in point: Starfire Golf Club in central Scottsdale went on the auction block this week for $8.5 million.

In another statement on the economy of Arizona golf, Royal Dunes, the former all-men’s club in Maricopa originally named Southern Dunes, completed its foreclosure on Wednesday when it was returned to lender Duane Young of Palm Springs, Calif.

Rumor on the street is the course is going to shift from private to public. (And, yes, women will be able to get a tee time there for the first time.)

“The golf industry is like everybody else,” Patrick said. “Things are not good, and until the banks loosen up some money, it’s going to get worse.”

Meanwhile, Patrick said, the golf industry is bracing for that perfect storm.

“You’re already seeing it,” he said.

“In places like Las Vegas, which really is getting hammered, they’re cutting back on everything, even the size of the courses by taking out turf.”

Well that's not such a bad thing.