“All the boomers are doing is masking what’s really leaking in golf."

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I missed Gene Yasuda's alarming Oct. 4 piece on just how far down the drain golf is headed, but it's loaded with some great stuff and one huge stink-bomb of blame directed at the wrong source of the game's troubles. First, he explains how retiring boomers are masking huge declines in play among 25-44-year-olds.

In 1990, there were approximately 12.4 million golfers in that age group; by 2005, their ranks had fallen to 9.2 million – an alarming 26 percent drop. According to industry consultant Stuart Lindsay, who attributed the data to the National Sporting Goods Association, the fall-off bluntly underscores that golf isn’t appealing enough to the sweet spot of the U.S. population. He says the participation rate for that age group is about 20 percent lower today.

“All the boomers are doing is masking what’s really leaking in golf,” he says.

And the problem? Slow play and the overall emphasis on an 18-hole saga, of course.

Golf finds itself in this predicament for one main reason: In a day and age when free moments – let alone hours – are scarcer than ever, the game has become a time-sucking affair. Simply put, golf hasn’t adapted to sweeping societal changes, including the predominance of dual-income households. The increase in the number of married women in the workplace has redefined child-rearing and the division of household labor.

“Helicopter parenting” – hopping from one child’s activity to another – saps potential time on the links. And when these harried folks finally do get a chance to play, they’re quickly discouraged from going out again, thanks to five-hour-plus rounds.

Indeed, slow play is an epidemic.

And you know who gets the blame for that don't you? Yes, those pesky developers who just woke up one day and said, I want to build longer, tougher courses for no apparent reason!

Blame it, in part, on developers’ desire to build tougher tracks: 70 percent of courses built in the U.S. between 1990 and 2006 had a slope rating of 125 or more. By comparison, the average U.S. slope rating has been hovering around 119.

It still amazes me (I'm not sure why) that at this point, where the bottom is nowhere in sight, that everyone dances around addressing the distance chase for fear of upsetting manufacturers. They're in this mess too, and should be just as open to anything that sparks interest in the game.

Oh that's right, they don't look beyond the next quarter and no one wants to give up twenty yards or the joys of buying the same stuff the pros play.

There I go again.