The National Golf Foundation has identified 113 golf courses, in 18-hole equivalents, that opened for business in the U.S. in 2007. During the same period, there were 121.5 golf course closures, resulting in a net negative of 8.5 courses.

This year's story is much the same as 2006 when the number of closures outnumbered openings by 26.5. "The development business has run full circle," said Greg Nathan, NGF vice president. "Developers are now being more prudent about the decision to build, and are doing more due diligence on where to build, and at what price point."

Many courses close because of higher and better economic use of land, rather than business failure. Courses may be sold to developers when the underlying land has greater commercial real estate value than cash flow value as a golf course. In these cases, the land may have been unwittingly warehoused by the original owner, and then sold by the owner's heirs as a favorable exit strategy.

A disproportionate number of closures were "non-traditional" facilities – either stand-alone nine-holers or short courses (executive or par-3). In 2007, they accounted for 43 percent of total closures but only 20 percent of total U.S. supply.

Looking at the past five years combined, there have been 678.5 openings vs. 491.5 closures for a net positive of 187 courses, or a modest 37.4 per year. That equates to less than three-tenths of a percent of total supply being added per year. In other words, the overall number of golf courses is virtually unchanged from five years ago.