“The post-Covid recovery may have papered over the cracks”

The sharp rise in members at golf clubs in the UK over the last two and a half years have not solved ‘deep-seated problems’ in the industry, according to an article in The Times newspaper.

Membership in England alone rose by nearly 100,000 people from 2020 to 2021, according to figures released earlier this year, although they’re still about 150,000 below the number set in 2004.

Speaking to The Times, Robert Clive, co-owner of golf consultancy 360 Golf, said: “The post-Covid recovery may have papered over the cracks but deep-seated problems remain. In the late 80s and early 90s there was a boom in course building. Many of these clubs are getting very tired. They are often poorly managed by committees and struggle with finance. They cannot agree and difficult decisions get parked.

“Nobody likes change, least of all old golfers. They live in a world of parking spots reserved for club captains and disputes over whether jeans can be worn in the bar.”

On top of this, the paper states that some routes that are considered gateways into the game are either being blocked or weren’t actually acting as gateways at all.

For instance, municipal courses are increasingly being closed, typically to be converted into housing, while the article also states that playing golf as a video game, instead of making it more likely for a youngster to take up the game, will have the opposite effect ‘because it’s so much harder to perform a smooth shot in real life … which requires skill, patience and lots of time … than it is on a digital device.’

James Day, creator of new golf clothing company, Sounder, agreed that the pathway for beginners to take up the game still needs to be improved. He said: “The gateway into the game is broken. Playing 18 holes is intimidating and stressful. Pitch and putt is a far better way in. We’re sick of the golf industry’s obsession with distance and power and technology.”