Golfsmith Coverage: As Usual, It's All Golf's Fault

Nothing is positive about the Golfsmith news because people will lose jobs and some golfers will undoubtedly lose favorite stores.

The news of Golfsmith's bankruptcy filling also offered a disconcerting window into business journalism. I am always mystified how easily such respected names fall back on the lazy "golf is declining" storyline when reporting on entities not succeeding for a number of reasons.

It started off okay yesterday, as WSJ's first story on Golfsmith likely filing dated September 14th at 12:21 am ET authored by Lillian Rizzo and Jacquie McNish makes mention ten paragraphs in about "golf participation levels" declining. Most of the story pinned the bankruptcy on business decisions, bad luck, golf slowing down and general retail sector problems.

The Canadian chain is healthier than its U.S. counterpart because it has a larger market share in a less crowded golf retail sector.

U.S. stores have suffered because of either over saturation in certain markets or being too large in general, said a person close to the matter.

And there was this as well:

Golfsmith’s planned breakup comes four years after it was acquired by Toronto-based Golf Town for about $97 million, a deal that was backed by the private equity arm of the Canadian pension fund OMERS. Following the merger, Golfsmith launched an ambitious expansion across the U.S. with large golf emporiums, some of which featured indoor putting greens and golf simulators.

The strategy quickly unraveled as U.S. golf participation levels declined and increased competition from big box and online retailers eroded profit.

It's a real estate and lease story as much as it is a golf one, and we almost got that.

But then in the second "updated" story posted by the same authors at 4:51 pm ET, the above paragraphs have been deleted with the blame-golf diagnosis for Golfsmith's issues starting in paragraph seven.

While the assessment isn't as bleak as Bloomberg's story, it was nonetheless odd to see the business side of the story deleted in favor of the usual game of blaming consumers.

Golf’s popularity has waned since the heyday of last decade’s Tiger Woods era, and those who have been hitting the links have, until recently, been playing fewer rounds. The National Golf Foundation, an industry research and consulting group, said about 24 million people played the game last year, down from a peak of 30 million in 2005.

There are hopeful signs for a turnaround, with some four million aging baby boomers expected to retire in the coming years. Golfers older than 65 play 80% more rounds of golf than those between the ages of 50 and 64, and the NGF projects that this increase in the number of retirees will boost golf’ popularity.

Unlike the WSJ, Bloomberg's reporting didn't even offer a glimmer of hope for the game, continuing a recent trend by the entity in blaming the sport for causing the issues at Nike, Adidas, Dick's, Sports Authority and if we wait around long enough, probably Walmart and Target too.

Bloomberg's Steven Church and Lauren Coleman-Lochner threw golf under the bus in their lede, saying Golfsmith was "hoping to reorganize or attract a buyer who can save the golf-gear retailer as the sport’s popularity fades in North America."

And of course, it's all Tiger's fault too.

The golf industry hasn’t recovered the popularity it enjoyed at the turn of the century, when Tiger Woods dominated the sport and attracted hordes of new fans. Millennials in particular haven’t embraced golf’s slow pace and hours-long time commitment. The number of U.S. players declined to 24.1 million last year from 25.7 million in 2011, according to the National Golf Foundation.

Nike Inc. has said it will no longer sell equipment for the sport, and Adidas AG is trying to divest most of its golf brands. Sports Authority Inc. filed for bankruptcy in March with a plan to survive by closing unprofitable stores and wound up in liquidation.

I had not seen golf blamed for Sports Authority's undoing, but what hell, why not?

The blame-golf bashing by Bloomberg dates back at least two years now, with nary a mention of unrealistic expectations or retailers wanting golfers replacing clubs biannually or, heaven forbid, suggesting some of the products weren't good or the strategies behind them examples of poor decision-making.

Here were Lindsey Rupp and Lauren Coleman-Lochner in May, 2014:

Once the go-to activity for corporate bonding, the sport is suffering from an exodus of players, a lack of interest among millennials and the mass closure of courses. The tangled personal life of Tiger Woods, who for years was golf’s biggest ambassador, also hasn’t helped. All that has taken a toll on the companies that make and sell golf equipment, including Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. and Callaway Golf Co.

Both Dick's and Callaway have rebounded. Does anyone know of a golfer giving up the game because they found out Tiger liked going to Perkins?

Here's another example not just of the extreme language, but also the complete disregard for the business side of the golf business decline story.

Bloomberg's Stephanie Hoi-Nga Wong wrote on August 5th, 2016 after Nike said it was getting out of golf:

Millennials, the key to the sport’s future,

the key!

are shunning the expensive and time-consuming game in favor of more instantly gratifying pursuits like Pokemon Go and Netflix binges. That’s bad news for companies like Nike and Adidas AG, which said in May that it was starting talks with potential buyers for the bulk of its golf unit, TaylorMade, which generates about $1 billion in annual sales.

No one is going to deny that golf is facing a slowdown and issues with a generation consumed by pastimes that require less time and effort. But it's incredibly discouraging to read the respected publications charged with covering business lazily falling back on an easy blame game that ignores some very basic concepts and facts.

As Allan Freeman at Northeast Ohio Golfer best summed up in this response to the Golfsmith coverage:

Here’s another idea on the ‘why’: if big box retailers carrying inventory worth multiple millions of dollars at each location hadn’t expanded to multiple stores in many cities that could never support it — and if the club manufacturers hadn’t pushed those retailers into making multiple new product introductions every six weeks — then maybe those big box golf retailers wouldn’t be looking for bankruptcy protection now.

Perhaps a better business model would be far smaller golf stores with far less carried inventory offering primarily custom-fit golf clubs and related products…

The Bloomberg coverage is particularly disappointing given the namesake's love for the game and quality of their coverage. But the namesake also laid off the regular golf business writer in last year's cost cutting. Maybe golfers not buying new drivers every 9 months are to blame for Bloomberg's lean times too?