UPDATED: Global Junior Golf Participation on the rise
BY Mathilda Andersson
Recent data and global industry leaders are indicating positive growth in junior involvement in recent years. Golf’s return to the Olympic Games last summer, after a 112 year-long hiatus, was anticipated to upturn the game’s diminishing participation rates but it’s too recent to gauge their specific impact at this time.
The global golf industry’s protracted struggled to get more people into the game in major markets has damaged the sport’s future and mired its top businesses, with millennials gravitating to a more accessible array of pastimes.
Recently recorded in the U.S., casual golfers playing the minimum of one round per year has dropped from 30 million in 2005, down to 24 million only ten years later. It’s the lowest recorded participation number since the mid-1990s according to the National Golf Foundation’s data.
In Australia the numbers look much the same. In a report conducted by Golf Australia (GA) in late 2015, in conjunction with the Golf Management Australia (GMA), a cumulative loss of 11 per cent in memberships over the past ten-year period was made apparent.
But it’s not all doom and gloom, according to Steve Mona, Chief Executive of the World Golf Foundation (WGF) which is a non profit organisation founded to unite the golf industry in support of initiatives aspiring to grow the game, a major trend globally last year was that junior golf participation has continued to increase.
In the U.S., recent data shows that junior participation has grown 25 per cent, from 2.4 to 3 million participants, between 2011 and 2015. Similarly in Australia, the 2015 National Golf Club Participation Report also showed an increase in junior members under the age of 18, now accounting for 3.6 per cent of total members.
Part of the accumulative involvement in the country can be traced back to the many youth initiatives offered to Aussie children. One such initiative is the Federal Government’s ‘Sporting Schools’ – a school based participation program to help children foster an interest in sports, which is offering golf clinics through MyGolf.
These programs are held throughout the country by a mix of PGA Members, Community Instructors and teachers, and allow schools to experience golf – and pay an external provider to deliver golf – that may not have run a golf program before.
According to Golf Australia Participation Manager David Gallichio, the MyGolf program has allowed for the organisation, in conjunction with the PGA of Australia, to promote a single national junior brand.
“(It) allows us to deliver a unified message to parents, participants, golf facilities and deliverers that MyGolf is the first step on the pathway for children to get involved in the game,” Gallichio said.
“The Sporting Schools initiative has been a wonderful addition to the Australian schools landscape by the Federal Government. MyGolf is used as our Sporting Schools offering, and so far we are delighted to have reached over 35,000 children across who may not have experienced the sport before.”
Another successful grow-the-game initiative in Australia is Golf Month. The annual national marketing campaign aims to drive participation in golf with an emphasis on re-engaging lapsed golfers and increasing club membership. However, junior participation is also a key component.
Current club junior membership in Australia (2015 Golf Club Participation Report):
- Male Junior Members – 11,818
- Female Junior Members – 2,018
MyGolf participation statistics:
– 2014/15 – 3,470
– 2015/16 – 6,254
– 2016/17 – 6,174 (as at March 20, 2017) – target 9,149
In New Zealand the junior participation numbers have been relatively static over the past few years, with some positive growth data recently recorded according to Dean Murphy, Chief Executive for New Zealand Golf Inc.
“The number of young players transitioning to junior golf club membership remains static,” he said. “The number of junior club members is also reasonably static at 6,000 junior boys and 1,200 junior girls, however we continue to see growth in the number of young New Zealander’s who participate in introduction programmes.”
According to Steve Mona, the positive participation trend globally is due to several reasons, including golf’s return to the Olympic Games.
As a business as much as a sport, golf depends on new blood to survive as its traditional player base of older men ages out of the game. The Olympic Games, with its extensive broadcasting, was viewed as an excellent opportunity to attract a younger crowd.
The WGF was one of the groups that lobbied to get the sport back into the Olympics, and believed the Games would be the one thing that would do more to grow the game and create a greater interest in the game world-wide than any other thing the organisation could achieve.
“What we’ve observed by watching how other sports really have taken a nice bounce…off of their Olympic exposure, is if young people can watch these great athletes from their country do well in the Olympics on television, then they’ll be more likely to wanting to emulate them,” Mona said ahead of the event last year.
“We believe the Olympics is going to inspire young people who are already playing the game to replicate what they see these athletes do on TV and compete at a higher level. One day, they may also be standing on an Olympic podium.”
And even thought the flagship event didn’t start off quite the triumph many had hoped, faced with no-shows from several of the world’s top players, numbers are indicating that events like the Olympic Games, with wide-ranging media coverage, might have a positive effect on the younger generation.
In New Zealand, the success of world number one female golfer Lydia Ko on the world stage has certainly had an impact on the number of young girls participating in the sport, with a 20% growth experienced over the past two years.
“The inclusion of golf in the Olympic programme has certainly helped raise the profile of the sport in New Zealand,” Chief Executive Dean Murphy said.
“Lydia Ko’s fantastic silver medal was an achievement all New Zealanders’ can be proud of and provides us with yet another example of what a global superstar she is. We are very much looking to seeing the growing impact of golf at the Olympics through the Tokyo games.”
Ahead of the upcoming Olympic event in 2020, Mona said the WGF’s expected both the men’s and women’s competitions to “carry more importance and prestige”, adding it would be unlikely that top male players would elect not to compete again in Japan.
Mona also mentioned the further expansion of Topgolf and similar golf-entertainment venues, the continued growth of golf’s junior player-development programs, and the emergence of PGA and LPGA Tour stars, to have helped create a legion of young fans.
“Golf offers many initiatives to promote the game and increase participation on an international scale,” he said. “Golf will look more like society generally looks in 20 years. It will have greater participation than it does today among women, minorities, millennials and juniors,”
“It’s encouraging that the industry’s junior growth-of-the-game programs are unified and experiencing significant growth.”
In the U.S, the WGF is working continuously to grow the sport, and has through their youth initiative The First Tee, an organisation introducing the game of golf and its inherent values to young people, reached more than nine million young people since its creation in 1997.
The network has grown to more than 175 chapters offering programs at 1,000 golf locations and 9,000-plus elementary schools in-school as part of physical education requirements. It recently launched a new after-school program in partnership with other youth-serving organisations.
About WGF & Steve Mona
The World Golf Foundation was formed in1994 with a mission to unite the golf industry in support of initiatives aspiring to grow the game, and to make the sport accessible around the world while preserving its’ traditional values.
Steve Mona has served as the foundation’s Chief Executive Officer since early 2008, following an established career record of serving the industry including tournament director of the Northern California Golf Association in 1980-82 and assistant manager of press relations for the United States Golf Association from January 1982-83, at which time he became executive director of the Georgia State Golf Association.
Before commencing his role with the WGF, Mona also served as the CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA). In Mona’s position at theWGF, his responsibilities include overall management of the Foundation, as well as overseeing the Foundation’s industry relationships and ongoing global focus.
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