GOLF The boom is here

Sure as a two-foot putt — make that a one-foot putt, on a level green with no wind and nobody looking — the golf boom is here. The reports are pouring in from all over: from Chicago, where golfers at some courses line up by midnight for tee-off times the next day; from Tokyo, where a desperate duffer can choose between a $3 million country club initiation fee, or the cheaper alternative of flying to Hawaii for the weekly 18 holes; from New Jersey, where the golf-bag fax machine is being pioneered.

More than 25 million Americans now play golf, and most of them talk about the good old days before everybody else discovered the game.

Here in the Bangor area, too, golf is booming. The pros agree that newcomers are finding their way to the links in greater numbers than ever and they are changing the flavor of the game.

But don’t look for Baby Boom executives modeling Ralph Lauren golf fashions while they wait for a chance to play.

This is Maine, where there are more golf holes per capita than anywhere else in the country, according to Paul Dudley, president of the Maine Golf Course Owners Association and owner of the Hermon Meadows Golf Course.

The people you are looking for are the ones who are laughing, even though they just four-putted. They are the ones who do not mind following that errant drive, because it gives them a chance to walk in the woods.

“I think they are more fun,” Dudley says of the greenhorns on the greens. “They’re in it to have a good time. They’re possibly not taking it as seriously.”

“It’s a chance to be out seeing grass, trees, wildlife, water, air,” says Austin Kelly, pro at the Bangor Municipal Golf Course. “We’ve got a psychologist playing here who thinks it’s the best therapy in the world. He’s hooked.”

Bangor Municipal assistant pro Brian Enman says that most of the newcomers he sees are in their 30s. Kelly says he sees a big boom in teen-age golf. Dudley says that many of his beginners are retired.

But all three agree that women are a big part of the boom. New golfers seem to cut across layers of society, too — professionals, tradespeople, housewives. It’s not just for doctors anymore.

“They see the game and they think it looks fun, so they give it a try,” says Kelly. Enman adds, “Almost every one has a friend with them, too.”

Sometimes this infusion of new blood gives old-timers the fits. These neophytes are people who think a water hazard is a problem for the Coast Guard, and a good lie is a story the boss believes. Sometimes they will dump their bags on a green, ignore the scratch golfer fuming behind them, or commit some other unintended breach of etiquette.

“They haven’t had the background as caddies. They don’t know the history. There is no pre-training period to get on a course,” Kelly says. But he adds, many of the old-timers are forgetting what it was like when they were beginners.

And they had better get used to it, because the newcomers show no signs of giving up their golf. Most of them have made an investment, Kelly says, both in time and equipment. “People seem to be sticking with it,” Dudley agrees. “It’s a commitment.”

With 90 holes in the Bangor area alone, Dudley says that there is little danger of crowding. At $12 or $13 for 18 holes, the game remains affordable here. Those attractions, along with the addictive nature of the game, suggest that the golf boom is far from over.

“There are so many new faces,” Kelly says. “It’s mind boggling.”