Bob Collins was part of the massive golf boom in Western Pennsylvania in the 1990s, back when golf courses were sprouting like dandelions and people were filling up tee sheets as if they were signing up for free college tuition.

Collins left his job as the golf professional at Oak Tree Country Club in West Middlesex to become director of golf at Diamond Run Golf Club, a private real-estate golf community with a steep initiation and one of five clubs to enter the Pittsburgh market that was designed by a big-name architect -- Gary Player.

But it wasn't just private country clubs such as Diamond Run and Nevillewood and Treesdale that were popping up around the region. Public courses with high-end greens fees and country club-like conditions were opening even more frequently, places such as Olde Stonewall, Deer Run, Tom's Run, Madison Club, The Links at Spring Church, Birdsfoot and Cranberry Highlands.

Since 1992, 17 daily-fee or resort-style courses and five private clubs have opened in the Tri-State area, saturating a region that was already known as a virtual buffet table of golf courses. That does not include the addition of nine new holes to other public courses such as Butler's and Pheasant Ridge.

However, the explosion of golf course construction has slowed not just locally, but even nationally. A new 18-hole course in Western Pennsylvania -- public or private -- hasn't been built in six years. And none are in the planning stages, or "in the pipeline," as the National Golf Foundation refers to courses that, at the very least, are in the planning stages.

The only course that even comes close to meeting that criteria is The Club at Blackthorne, an Arnold Palmer-signature development in Penn Township, Westmoreland County, that began being planned in 1993, opened nine holes in June, 2005 and still has plans to expand to 18 holes.

With so many golf courses, and because of an aging, declining population in many regions, there aren't enough players to go around for all the courses. At least, that is the opinion of many public-course owners, who are trying to withstand a five-year decline in rounds played that has forced many courses to cut rates to attract customers.

"I think if everyone decided to play golf on one weekend, I don't think it would fill up all the available tee times," Collins said. "During the week, I don't know what golf course you can't get on, unless it's private. There are a lot of golf courses and the demand to play is not that big right now."

Collins has witnessed firsthand what has happened to golf in Western Pennsylvania. After more than six years at Diamond Run, Collins returned to Oak Tree as general manager and director of golf and as one of the investors who bought the club from the members and opened the course to the public.

His club is one of five in the area that has been purchased from the members and re-opened as a daily-fee facility, a move that has caused even greater consternation for public-course owners who were already worried about over-saturation.

The others are Alcoma, Ambridge (Harmony Ridge), Beaver Valley and Duquesne (Westwood).

"Some of them have gone public and now you have more public courses," said John Kerins, a PGA professional whose family owns Tam O'Shanter Golf Cub in West Middlesex. "Then a lot of those [private] clubs have dropped their rates so low the public guy is joining the clubs. All of a sudden, the pie is shrinking.

"For the amount of population, for the amount of golf opportunities, there are too many courses."

"There are too many courses and people don't have the time they used to have 10 or 15 years ago," said John Aubrey, a PGA professional who owns Aubrey's Dubs Dred in Butler. "They don't have five hours or $50 to spend anymore. Golf has changed dramatically."

Still, that didn't stop Ed Vietmeier, a PGA professional who has spent most of his professional life working at private clubs, from leasing Shenago Lake Golf Club, formerly Birchwood, an 18-hole public course in Shenango. Vietmeier said he thinks there are too many private clubs, not too many public courses.

"Look at public golf courses, I think they are pretty busy," Vietmeier said. "I think public is the way to go instead of private."

Collins thinks there are too may courses -- period.

"There are still the same amount of golfers, maybe even a little more than there used to be," he said. "But they're not playing as much and they have more places to play."