High Gas Prices: A Change in Plans?

There's no doubt the high cost of gas is having an impact on Golf travelers. Most are choosing to stay closer to home, or are traveling in larger groups. I even know a couple of people that have decided not to travel at all, at least until the price of gas returns to more palatable levels. And that, I think, is a bit of a forlorn hope.

During the course of my travels I tend to drive more than fly; not by choice, flying is just too expensive, both in cash and time spent waiting for delayed flights, but that's another topic altogether. If I drive carefully, I can get close to 32 miles per gallon, but I'm willing to bet that most golfers get a lot less than that - the SUV being the gas guzzler that it is.

Earlier this month I visited the PLAYERS STADIUM Course at Sawgrass, the Omni Orlando Resort at ChampionsGate and three great courses in Destin, Florida. The trip burned a little more than 63 gallons. Even though my car uses high-test gas, the cost (about $155) was still a lot less than that of an arline ticket.

Talking of how expensive it is to fly, all of the research confirms that the present high cost of gas is having a direct impact on the price of airline tickets. I've just returned from Freeport, Bahamas, and I paid $615 for my round-trip ticket. That's up by nearly $100 over the same time last year.

Now this is something I've had on my mind for quite a while and I'm more than a little curious as to just how much of an impact the rising costs of travel are actually having on the golfing public. So I did some basic Internet research and during the course of my surfing I found a link to an article that tells quite a story. What do you think?