The Houston golf community is abuzz today with Phil Mickelson’s dominating performance over the weekend in shooting 16 under par over his final two rounds to win the Shell Houston Open by 3 strokes. Not a bad way to warm up for the Masters this week, eh?

Also, The Woodlands’ Stacey Lewis, with whom I have hit golf balls at the local driving ranges over the years, broke through in a big way yesterday by winning her first LPGA tournament and first major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

Meanwhile, other aspects of the golf business aren’t quite so rosy. This NY Sunday Times article surveys the carnage of Tiger Woods’ first three ventures into the golf course design business, each of which is either failed or undergoing restructuring. Tiger still has not finished a golf course that his group has designed.

Of course, such problems are not solely of Woods’ design business. This San Antonio Express-News article reports on the multiple, successive restructurings of the long-distressed Boot Ranch project near Fredricksburg. And with only 105 members — and still charging a $100,000 membership fee and $12,000 in annual dues to a non-existent supply of prospective members – the developer suggests that this is a viable business model? What are they drinking?

Those interested in the golf business will sit back and put these untidy matters aside while enjoying the annual spectacle of the Masters this week. But it’s not lost on those who care about the future of golf that the success of the Masters and the Augusta National Golf Club bear little relationship to the state of the golf business elsewhere.

Clinging to obsolescent business models in the face of changing market conditions is a prescription for failure.