There’s a lot of gloom and doom to go around these days. Some of it is legitimate. Most of it, in my opinion, is kind of silly.

The region’s most obvious case in point is Tamarack Resort in western Idaho. In various forms, I’ve heard that the bankrupt project is just a canary in the mine that is chirping in a new era of course closures, depleting resources, spiraling interest in the game, lawsuits, mass bankruptcies, pollution, death, destruction and a general sense of recreational malaise across the entire landscape of golf.

Please. Enough already.

What happened to the investors and employees of Tamarack was rotten, to be sure, but what happened to Tamarack itself was healthy. And it’s true— the failed project IS a canary in the mine. It’s song is that like a good game of golf, a multi-million dollar golf resort should unveil itself in measured, steady doses.

Not to dwell here, but it’s worth noting that much of the resort’s woes can be traced back to its unconventional $250 million construction loan in 2006. Rather than offering just enough moolah to jumpstart one phase or segment, the cascade of funds  allowed the developer to build several clusters of housing all at once. The thinking seems to have been, why lay up when you can go for the green? The only hitch was that the green ended up being a lot farther away than what the yardage marker indicated.

On the course or in big business, bad decisions have a way of correcting themselves. When your drive flies into the pucker brush, you can chip out or plow through—knowing full well that one choice will get you by and the other will get you glory. Your decision might pan out, but if it doesn’t, you will always have the opportunity to make the best of what you have left.

We wish the best for Tamarack’s future, whatever it may be. And we certainly wish the best for the industry and our pastime as a whole. As our PGA Professional contributor Jeff Thomsen states in this issue, there needs to be a change in mindset to make that happen. In his words, golf needs a return to “the old paths.” Players want a faceto- face dialog with the golf pro, for instance, “or maybe a story or a joke and maybe a comment about the new drivers,” he said. “They could care less about the new tie the GM is wearing; they want to have some fun with the golf pro. It’s the way golf was and the way golf should be again—an energized dialog with the golf pro and the customers who support the club; private or public.”