A report from Golf Digest. "The headlines for golf’s health, notwithstanding Tiger Woods’ declaration that he intends to take the game up again competitively next month, have been disturbing. 'Golf is back in the Olympics. Too bad no one plays it anymore,' a Washington Post headline said a few weeks ago. 'Why golf has gone the way of the three-martini lunch,' Dow Jones’ MarketWatch declared last week."

"'Is the sky falling? Is this a death knell? No,' Jay Karen, CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association said. 'The angle on golf tends to be so negative on this stuff because we were on a rise forever, a decades-long rise. When we’re not performing as the industry used to at a high-water mark, there is this jump to a conclusion and I don’t think it’s the right one.'"

"Yet there is no denying that the number of courses have declined substantially in recent years. Both Jeff Woolson, managing director of CBRE’s Golf and Resort Group and Karen cited the same reason, economics 101, supply exceeding demand. 'Golf courses got overbuilt,' Woolson said. 'There really wasn’t any feasibility given to would this golf course be successful if we put homes here? Will they sell? Not one thought was given to the viability of the golf course.'"

"'We can’t get around the fact that you have to look at why so many courses built in the ‘90s and into the millennium, that it’s true courses were built to sell more houses,' Karen said. 'That’s not a highly sustainable market for the golf industry. We do have this strange anomaly of this golf economy, that the spike in supply was not in response to demand.'"

The Real Deal on California. "The Malibu Golf Club, which went bankrupt for a second time last year, has sold in a receivership sale for $30.5 million. The 18-hole property on a 650-acre site in the Santa Monica Mountains Recreational Area, sold to Shinhan Golden Faith International Development Limited, a holding company with major shares held by M.O. Company of Beijing, according to the Panama Papers. Dick Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers, bought the $100-a-round golf club with his partners in Malibu Associates for $33 million in 2006. The partners buried themselves in debt while attempting to give the course a restoration makeover and entitling it for development."

"Malibu Associates defaulted on a $46.7 million loan from U.S. Bank, which tried to seize the property, according to a report last year by the L.A. Business Journal. The partners filed for Chapter 11 protection last April."

From CBS New York. "A proposal to turn part of a golf course into housing is driving a wedge between residents in Nassau County. CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reported The Woodmere Club – a private country club – said it needs the money as opponents fear overdevelopment. The country club has been a South Shore jewel for more than a century, but hard times are prompting the private country club to sell off nearly a third of its 33-acre golf course to generate income."

"'It’s beautiful here, it’s picturesque and they’re going to put up townhouses? Everybody is up in arms,' said Woodsburgh resident Nicole Spivak."

The Coeur d' Alene Press in Idaho. "A more colorful chapter could be opening up in the saga of the embattled Idaho Club. The Jack Nicklaus-signature golf course and its remaining housing parcels are slated to go on the block during a Bonner County sheriff’s auction, which may seem a pretty gloomy and windswept turn of events. The golfing and housing development fell on hard times around 2008 amid the housing market collapse and the attendant cratering of the national economy. The course also lost its centerpiece clubhouse to an electrical fire."

"Insurance proceeds from the fire did not go back to Pend Oreille Bonner Development, the Idaho Club’s developer. They went to various parties with liens or security interest in the project, according to court records that fill four banker boxes in the Bonner County Courthouse. The course and two dozen undeveloped parcels went to tax auction in 2014, although Idaho Valiant stepped in and paid $1.7 million in unpaid taxes. Valiant does not expect any new bidders to emerge during the sheriff’s auction."

"'It’s extremely unlikely that anyone’s going to show up and bid more than $21 million for the purchase,' said Boise attorney Rick Stacey, counsel for Idaho Valiant. As a result, Valiant expects to make a credit bid at the auction based on the judgment that it is owed in order to acquire the development."

"While the fairways and greens appear to be in good condition, there are small glimpses of the Idaho Club’s initial unraveling on other parts of the course — inconsistent or absent yardage markers, Porta Potties in lieu of flush toilets and a lack of other minor amenities duffers might expect to encounter at a top-shelf course. Golfers still pass by the stone ruins of the clubhouse upon leaving the 18th green."