Only one member of the Allen family is still intrigued by the golf clubs stored in the garage.
Curious 2-year-old Landon digs through the old bag stuffed with dirty clubs any chance he gets. But the toddler has enough toys, mom Nicole said, as she priced the clubs to sell at $30 on Craigslist last month. A sale will be the final step in making it at least 40,000 Minnesotans who have given up the game of golf in the past two decades.
All over the state, and especially in Minneapolis and around the Twin Cities, communities are quickly trying to decide whether to abandon the game; change their courses and golf culture for a new generation; or wait out the slump while hoping for another 20-year hot streak.
Riding the golf boom into the new millennium, the sport's health, like a good round gone terribly wrong, has taken a painful turn in short time. The game is bleeding both recreational golfers and the courses they used to play.
With so many former customers like the Jason Allen, Landon's father, choosing to spend their time and money elsewhere, the sport's many jobs — from greenskeeper to clubhouse bartender to golf pro — continue to vanish.
It has been six years since Allen, of Brooklyn Park, last punished himself on the golf course. He first sliced a tee shot into the wrong fairway 10 years ago at Pebble Creek Golf Club in Becker. The slice never straightened, and he doesn't have the time or the desire to spend the money to fix it.
"If I had the time to, maybe I wouldn't mind putting the time and investment that you have to put into the game," Allen said. "I don't have the time to play anymore, and it is kind of an expensive sport."
He was pulled in, like millions of others, when Tiger Woods was energizing the old game and new gear such as Big Berthas enticed fringe players. But today the sport has lost nearly 5 million players nationally since it hit a peak of 30.5 million in 2003. Even the state that proudly boasts a "most golfers per capita" slogan isn't scoring well. Minnesota Golf Association membership, a strong indicator of avid golfers of the 492 state courses, has fallen from a 1999 high of 94,000 to 65,000.