“Sorry Golfers, This Is Not Your Spot!”: Exploring Public Opposition to Golf Development

Abstract

The worldwide expansion of golf development has been often accompanied by local opposition that at times has been strong. Most analyses focus on the views and attitudes of locals. The wider public’s stance has been little researched. One reason may be the difficulty to obtain a satisfactorily diverse sample of the public in a given case. An international petition against a proposed golf resort in Greece has offered an opportunity to analyze public perception and attitudes toward golf development and, thus, address the more general question of whether and why people react to golf and golfing or to golf courses and resorts. After presenting the conceptual approach and methodology of the study, the article analyzes the Greek case, summarizes the main findings, and suggests future research directions.