US cigarette consumption

American golf courses going down. American cigarettes going down. Two pieces of mid-century American leisure retiring on the same schedule, with the patience and grace of any institution that no longer fits the room. The 19th hole is missing two of its regulars.

US golf course count fell from about 16,000 in 2002 to roughly 14,500 by 2015 as the post-Tiger boom ended and millennials chose other recreations. Cigarette consumption fell by roughly a third in the same window thanks to taxation, smoking bans, and a long generational shift. Two unrelated declines sharing a window because the same fourteen years quietly retired multiple legacy American leisure habits. The decade emptied two clubhouses at the same speed.

Old leisure habits faded together. The same generation chose differently in two registers.