Here are the top three things I learnt editing The Golf Business in the last month

In his monthly round-up of industry trends, The Golf Business editor Alistair Dunsmuir looks at England Golf’s latest survey into membership numbers and asks if your local golf club would benefit from having more women’s lavatories.

The Rules of Golf like you’ve never seen them before

It’s not just rules such as new procedures for dropping the ball, the elimination of several penalties, relaxed putting and bunker rules, and rules that encourage improved pace of play that are changing in January, but, for the first time ever, The R&A has published all this in a ‘simple and easy-to-follow format with full-colour diagrams and charts’ for golfers.

The new ‘Player’s Edition’ is part of a PR drive to promote the game by the recently rebranded R&A.

Golf club membership is growing again

This might be the most important industry news in years – England Golf’s biennial survey of its member golf clubs has found that average club membership is now 484 – a rare and welcome rise (from 460 in 2016).

It doesn’t mean the industry’s problems are over – several golf clubs are still closing down and, coincidentally, two, North Luffenham Golf Club and Maywood Golf Club, both in the Midlands, have said they will both stop trading on March 31 next year.

Golf club membership has RISEN in England

Is it time to invest in a crèche and more women’s loos?

These are two of the recommendations by a panel of 25 international experts, who studied 342 papers as part of a project funded by the World Golf Foundation that explored how healthy golf is and how the industry can get more people playing it.

They say golf participation can be increased if quicker and easier versions of golf are promoted, membership fees are cut and the industry develops a culture ‘that will inspire more women and girls to play’.

Perhaps their most memorable recommendations, however, are for golf clubs ‘to increase the number of women’s lavatories’ and ‘offer childcare facilities to make it easier for parents to play’.