At first glance, the National Golf Foundation’s annual golf participation study results may have seemed like more bad news to an industry that’s had more than its share of negative developments in the past few years.
The survey found that the number of golfers in the United States in 2008 fell 3 percent, from 29.5 million in 2007 to 28.6 million. Nearly a million golfers gone, vanished. Not good, right?
Granted, no one is happy about seeing participation go down, but let’s put that figure in context. Given the badly battered economy, most American industries would have accepted a mere 3 percent drop in the number of customers. And a closer examination of the numbers shows that most of the loss is attributable to a significant drop in the number of “core” golfers, those who play eight or more rounds a year.
That’s a figure that operators should review carefully with an eye for devising strategies that will keep more of those frequent players in the game. On the other hand, what golf has managed to do well is to attract newcomers interested in taking up the game and former golfers back to the course. The NGF report pegged the number of golf newcomers in 2008 at 1.7 million and it found another 2.3 million came back to the game after not playing in 2007.
NGF president and CEO Joe Beditz correctly pointed out that there is a natural turnover in participation for all sports, but he optimistically noted that golf is “definitely attracting new and former golfers from a large pool of latent demand.” What needs to be addressed now is the retention rate.
We’d like to hear from operators about the participation trends you’ve noticed at your courses. Is it easier to attract new golfers now than in the past? How much of the increase can be attributed to industry “grow the game” efforts? What can operators do to keep those vanishing “core” golfers coming back? Share your opinions now.