Where have all the golfers gone

in Ireland? Scotland next?

By JO MAES
A Belgian based in Ireland
For the first time in the history of the Irish Golf Union, there are fewer affiliated golfers this year than there were last year!
After many years of continuous growth and expansion, the tide has turned with golfers leaving the game. In the United States this trend has already established itself and research showed that the US has lost about 8 to 10 million golfers over the past few years.
What could cause this phenomenon? I see a few reasons with price and time being the main culprits. Time is a factor everywhere. It takes longer to play 7,000 yard golf courses than the original low 6,000 yard ones.
Golfers emulating the pros lining up putts from every angle, deciding which club to use, waiting for a par 5 green to clear take longer than the ones who get on with things, courses not putting up adequate measurements, leaving the golfers to guess rather than know.
All these factors have turned the game of golf into a full day's work rather than the quick 18 back by lunchtime for the missus experience.
Price is not really a factor in the US with an abundance of golf courses all competing with each other, resulting in cheap green fees across the country. On the other hand, price is most definitely a factor in Ireland. Golf is not cheap and although we saw golf course after golf course mushroom out of the Irish countryside, they all aimed at the 'high end' customer but there aren't that many stones at the top of the pyramid.
Of course, there are still cheap courses to join and play but the majority of courses are charging in general more than their continental counterparts. Part of this is due to the 'greed' factor that has swept the country over the last few years, one felt one could charge whatever, the gullible Irish consumer forked out with pleasure riding the Celtic Tiger wave.
The Americans didn't care neither when they were charging their company platinum card but they do now. Another factor that has raised prices is the 'drink-driving' situation, turning the clubhouse into a cost rather than a profit line. Outsourcing the catering is just postponing the inevitable. A clubhouse will not make any money if the only thing you see are jugs of water on the society outing's table! This leaves the golf club with only two options, charging the members (the current and the new) or adding green fee revenue.
One has to be carefull when charging members as the cost of playing starts to outweigh the benefit (or numbers of rounds played in a year) so people look elsewhere (cheaper) to play. Green fee revenue is the next opportunity as every green fee received goes straight to the bottom line as the cost of the course is more or less fixed for the year whether it's played on or not.
Increasing the number of green fees is also a Catch 22 situation as more green fee slots are taking away members' slots, therefore reducing the appeal to members to join or renew. Yielding your times is the way forward on this.
When demand is high, sell high, when demand is low, sell low! The only and easy way on that is to go online and distribute your tee times to an as broad as possible network!
As Ireland is facing an economic downturn, golf will not escape. Presure on the golfer to meet all sorts of demands, be it work, be it family life or be it financial, is mounting.
It's up to the Irish Golf Union and the individual golf clubs to act rather than react to the challenge ahead. Encourage more cost-efficient initiatives to keep the number of golfers steady or better still, growing.
Only growth will keep Irish golf prospering and will allow the golfing bodies to keep up the development of amateur golf.
Reactions to yours truly at jmaes@golfhub.ie