to close its U.S.-based golf ball manufacturing plant next month after 36 years of operation isn’t surprising. Making golf products domestically is an expensive proposition. The millions of golf balls made annually at the Covington, Ga., facility will now be produced in Japan, allowing Bridgestone to control costs by revamping the company’s supply chain.

If you want to know why the facility closing is particularly heartbreaking, check out this story from Golf Digest in 2019. Meanwhile, don’t say we didn’t warn you about developments like this. Just last month, our Paul Sullivan wrote a now prescient story headlined “How golf companies that manufacture in the U.S.A. survive.” The answer? Not easily.