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It was the boom pastime of the 80s, but golf now faces its biggest challenge ever with membership numbers at their lowest in five years.
Despite New Zealand boasting several world-class courses, a combination of rising fees and busy work schedules has prompted an unprecedented drop in the
number of people keeping or taking up golf subscriptions across the country.
Add to that a declining and ageing membership, and a change in social habits among young families, and the future looks bleak.
Figures from New Zealand Golf show that in the past five years the number of people with paid golf subscriptions has fallen steadily from 132,804 in 2002 to 123,924 last year.
It's a worry for the likes of Whitford Park Golf Club general manager Garry Donoghue who says club golfers are becoming something of an endangered species - those players, typically male, who spend every weekend on the golf course.
But New Zealand is not alone. Worldwide, the number of people playing golf has fallen with America one of the countries hit hardest - numbers there have fallen from 30 million to 26 million since 2000.
Despite the gloomy projections, golf still remains the most popular participation sport for adult men, second for women.
But, while more than 500,000 people play golf at least three times a year, with increasingly busy work and family schedules - and less money to throw around - those people are less and less likely to become members of a golf club.
Sports sociologist Toni Bruce, who teaches at the University of Waikato, agrees time pressures are changing sport and sport participation.
"It is partly the change in life; people are working harder. All this research is showing New Zealanders are working harder, working longer, so they don't have as much disposable or recreational time."
Golf coach Blair Clark, of the Golf Warehouse in Ellerslie, said plenty of his younger clients were unable to commit to the expense of club subscriptions which, typically, could be between $1000 and $1500 a year in main centres.
Donoghue said he believed the rise of the internet, seven-day shopping, and people having children later in life, had all contributed to the losses.
NZ Golf is about to launch a campaign this year to boost membership figures for suffering clubs, many of which are "asset-rich and cash-poor," New Zealand Golf chief executive Bill MacGowan said.
"The challenge is to capture those casual green fee players and convince them to join golf clubs."
