The vast majority of new members say they will renew next year

A new poll of golfers has found that just two percent of those who joined a club during the surge this summer have said they will not renew next year.

This comes amid growing commentary that the industry’s biggest challenge for generations may be to ensure that the new members – 20,000 in England in three months alone – renew in 2021.

Nearly three quarters (72 percent) said they will renew with a further one in four (26 percent) saying they’re ‘not sure’.

The research also found that more than six percent of people who had given golf up for good have returned to play it this summer.

The Golfshake survey of 2,500 people found that 6.3 percent of lapsed golfers played the game again after golf courses reopened earlier this year. Of those, just over one in three said they have joined a golf club, and of those that haven’t, more than half said they are considering joining one.

Overall, just over 13 percent of golfers said they joined a club this year. Of those, 96 percent said they have felt welcome at their new club.

When it comes to nomadic golfers – people who aren’t members of clubs – the poll found 17 percent are actively considering joining one, and a further 31 percent said they may join a club. One in two said they would not.

More than a third (36 percent) of respondents said they played more golf this summer than normal (with one in four saying they played less). Of those, two in five said this is due to changing circumstances surrounding their working lives which has given them more time to play golf, such as working from home, being furloughed or now being out of work.

Just 2.6 percent of respondents said they are normally regular golfers but have not played this season due to factors such as that they are self isolating.

Perhaps, interestingly, in the first few weeks after courses reopened, many golfers talked positively about the increased pace of play, but 44 percent of respondents say it is now no faster. Just one in four golfers (26 percent) now say the game is faster than it was.

The data also comes as HowDidiDo has reported that 100,000 golf club members downloaded its app between July and September.