The top 40 trends of 2015
The year 2015 was fascinating for the golf club industry. It started with a wake-up call – Rory McIlroy’s failure to win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year prize, despite a sensational 2014, gave a jolt to the industry that showed the sport was not as popular as it once was, and this, in turn, gave more authority to some golf club managers and industry associations to deliver a raft of initiatives throughout the year that were intended to boost participation in the sport, and membership at clubs.
But what were the biggest trends of 2015?
Tania Longmire and Alistair Dunsmuir have compiled their annual top trends list:
40. The golf industry did more for people with disabilities than ever before
From individual stories like Mid Sussex Golf Club creating a 56-inch-long putter with three twists in it so that a local cerebral palsy sufferer could play golf to generic ones like the launch of a guide that teaches clubs how to reach out to deaf people, it was a great year for golf and people with disabilities.
39. Despite the economic difficulties, golf courses were still being developed
The £100m golf resort planned for Bushmills Dunes in Northern Ireland was shelved, but plans to redevelop the derelict Woolsington Hall in Newcastle into a £23m five-star hotel with spa complex, golf course and restaurant were approved by Newcastle City Council and Arnold Palmer announced that his company will begin construction work on a second course at Castle Stuart in Scotland shortly.
38. A club used crowdfunding to raise money
37. Facilities started chasing the Chinese yuan
With so many millionaires in China interested in golf and travelling to the UK, and the UK government this year relaxing visa restrictions on people from China visiting the country, golf clubs were keen to make money out of the opportunity.
36. The finger of blame for golf’s economic problems got pointed at club committees
There are several reasons why many clubs have struggled in the last few years, and the core reasons are a drop in the number of people playing golf and fewer people being members of clubs.
But in 2015 analysis was carried out of what was underlying the issues – and in one famous case golf club committees were blamed.
35. A rival to golf became apparent: cycling
Two reports in 2015 revealed a correlation between the decline in participation in golf and the growth in the number of cyclists over the last 20 years.
34. Proactive clubs, especially ones that have launched flexible membership schemes, are still recruiting new members
Proactive clubs, especially ones that have launched flexible membership schemes, are still recruiting new members
It’s not true to say that all clubs have struggled in the last few years, as many, such as several that have launched flexible membership schemes, have thrived. The ones that have performed the strongest have tended to be proactive at recruiting new members.
33. Speedgolf is getting more popular
32. Urban Golf briefly became massive
This might be a passing fad, but in May Cross Golf or Urban Golf became huge.
Cross Golf or Urban Golf is being seen as a way to attract people, especially youngsters from deprived urban areas who would never normally play golf, to take up the game.
31. Some clubs led the way on helping the environment
The club built a close relationship with the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and created wildlife boxes and log piles along with a new wildflower area providing good opportunities for a range of pollinators, birds and small mammals. The creation of an artificial otter holt in a disused irrigation pump house on the golf club’s grounds even led to otters settling in.
30. Golfers began ‘surfing’ fairways
29. Three and even four clubs began merging into one
One way struggling golf clubs have coped with the economic downturn is to merge with each other and this trend continued in 2015.
The Northern, Bon Accord and Caledonian golf clubs in Aberdeen joined forces to form Aberdeen Links Golf Club for example, while it was proposed that four Dundee clubs: Monifieth Golf Links, rated the 47th best course in Scotland according to www.top100golfcourses.co.uk, which was officially established in 1858, although its course is described as the 16th oldest in the world, as it dates back to 1845, Broughty Golf Club, which has been in existence since 1878, Ladies Panmure Golf Club, another venue that was established in the 19th century, and Grange Golf Club, which was established more recently, form one club.
28. Clubs had AAA screenings
In 2015 a new trend started that saw golf clubs receive free Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA) screenings for their members.
AAA screening teams approached golf clubs to offer their services. They provide simple ultrasound scans which can detect if an AAA, which occurs when the aorta, the main blood vessel in the body, weakens and expands, has appeared. If untreated, AAAs can lead to a rupture of the aorta, which creates a serious risk of death due to internal bleeding. Around 3,000 people – mostly old age male pensioners – die every year from ruptured AAAs.
27. Golf still attracted its range of bizarre stories
What is it about golf clubs and unusual stories?
In 2015 a woman was given a fine for running an illegal teeth whitening business at one club, Calverley Golf and Country Club in Yorkshire was left with a £100,000 bill after several loose horses ran over the course, Chelsfield Lakes Golf Centre in Kent dealt with one media storm when the press said it had suspended one of its greenkeepers, after he allowed a neighbouring animal sanctuary to take some of its irrigation water in an emergency, and Whetstone Golf Club in Leicestershire dealt with another after three members resigned and another was suspended when a story appeared that an unnamed woman complained to a member of staff when she heard a female member say ‘that’s put me right off my food’ as she breastfed her baby in the clubhouse.
26. The industry worked even more closely together
Another way clubs have coped is by working more closely with each other, in recent years this has been exemplified by the growth of reciprocal deals in which members of one club are given free access to the course of another.
25. Despite the doom and gloom, overall rounds of golf played are slowly going up
There is a lot of negativity about golf participation and membership levels at the moment, but 2015 did bring some good news: the numbers of rounds plays was actually up compared to 2014.
It was only one percent (for the first three quarters, and participation fell quite dramatically in the third quarter compared with 2014) but it is, overall, good news and it means that the first nine months of 2015 saw the most rounds of golf played since 2011. Weekly participation in England also saw a small rise compared with 2014.
24. More juniors than ever before are being exposed to golf
Many golf clubs, especially via their PGA professionals, have been proactively attracting juniors to the game, and this seemed to step up in 2015.
23. Clubs and golfers continued to do exceptional work for charity
There has always been a strong link between golf clubs and charity, and 2015 was no exception.
Major charities targeted golf clubs to help them. The Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity called on every UK golf club to spend one hour raising funds for it in October, while the Movember Foundation teamed up with The PGA and the Organisation of Golf Range Owners (OGRO) to launch Movember Mondays – weekly events in November that encouraged new and existing golfers to discover the health and social benefits that swinging a golf club can bring
22. Legal issues over getting hit by golf balls became more prevalent
Every year, it seems, more people launch legal action against golfers and golf clubs after they have been hit by a wayward ball.
These cases follow famous stories such as that of Mary Brennan, who was awarded nearly £200,000 after she suffered a stroke when a golf ball hit her on the head, while she was standing on the clubhouse balcony at Old Conna Golf Club, and golfer Anthony Phee, who was awarded nearly £400,000 when he lost an eye after being struck by a golf ball at Niddry Castle Golf Club. Both the golfer who hit the ball and the club were ordered to pay the sum.
21. Golf’s authorities brought in more measures to help clubs
There has been a cry for a number of years that golf’s authorities have not done enough to support golf clubs during the economic downturn.
There was distinctly less of that in 2015 as, for example, England Golf brought out its most comprehensive guide ever produced to help golf clubs attract women to their venues. The organisation also published a report for golf clubs that revealed that ones that offer free golf coaching and the ability to play less than 18 holes of the game are seeing a ‘surge’ in new players and club members.
20. The increasing number of defibrillators meant more lives were saved at golf clubs
One of the biggest trends of the last two years has been the number of golf clubs that have purchased potentially life-saving defibrillators, largely thanks to the campaign by Bernard Gallacher to get one in every British golf club.
19. Even less top golf appeared on terrestrial television
18. More clubs became victims of crime
Every year several golf clubs are victims of crime – in recent years especially trophy thefts – but in 2015 there seemed to be more reports of criminal activity than normal.
Riverside Golf Centre revealed that thieves stole thousands of driving range balls by hand, and several golf clubs in the Midlands joined forces in April to post pictures of a man who they believed had been robbing their pro shop, on their social media accounts.
In August Foxhills Golf Club in Surrey, Ashby Decoy Golf Club in Lincolnshire and Southerndown Golf Club in Wales all suffered robberies within the space of a few days of each other, while in one bizarre case, a greenkeeper at Cleeve Hill Golf Club in Gloucestershire saw his golf clubs on eBay after they were stolen from the club’s greenkeeping shed.
17. Golf clubs were still investing – especially in adventure golf
With the drop in membership at golf clubs in the UK over the last decade, you might think that middle end clubs in particular have less money to spend on improvements. But 2015 saw many clubs investing.
16. Municipal golf clubs continued to struggle in 2015
The decade-long trend of the sharp decline of municipal golf clubs continued in 2015.
And at the end of 2015 Leicester City Council announced it was closing down Western Park Golf Club.
15. Wentworth made an extraordinary announcement
14. Golf clubs continued to close down
Another year, another list of golf clubs that closed forever.
Austin Lodge Golf Club in Kent closed after its owner, Pentland Golf, decided to convert it back to farmland, Frome Golf Club in Somerset also reverted to farmland because its owner could not find a buyer and Canford Magna Golf Club in Dorest went under due to financial losses.
Several other clubs also suffered extreme financial difficulties.
Wrangaton Golf Club in Devon entered liquidation (later bought by another golf club) and Brocket Hall in Hertfordshire entered administration, for example.
13. Scottish golf clubs were hurt by new drink driving legislation
At the end of 2014 the legal driving limit was lowered from 80mg to 50mg of alcohol in Scotland, and several golf clubs said this change had a devastating effect on their business.
Other clubs had similar reports.
12. Giant holes became a thing
The size of a golf hole is 4.25 inches in diameter, but in 2015 it became seriously questioned if this was deterring people from playing the game.
Lee Westwood led the calls for clubs to offer larger holes to attract beginners. “The holes need to be made bigger – the game is too difficult and that makes it less fun,” he said. Others to support increased hole sizes included Ted Bishop, the former president of the PGA of America, Mark King, CEO of TaylorMade-adidas Golf, course architect Jonathan Gaunt and golfers Sergio Garcia and Justin Rose. And venues that brought in larger holes did report increased activity.
11. The general public found out a lot more about the industry’s financial issues
The industry has known about club closures, falling participation numbers and the general financial malaise for several years, but in 2015 the general public started to hear about it too.
“No one would have said 25 years ago that Twenty20 cricket would be the success it is and it has grown. It doesn’t mean that through Test cricket those who are the purists don’t still get their diet,” said Giles Morgan, the head of sponsorship for HSBC, which produced a viral video that showed that golf can attract non traditional profiles to the game.
10. The health benefits of golf became more widely known
Every sport brings in physical and mental benefits but in some ways golf, because of the age range of its participants, is the best placed to tackle the obesity crisis that’s hit much of the developed world.
Individual stories also showcased how beneficial golf can be. For example, 82-year-old Joe Canetti, whose wife recently died, and was himself diagnosed with cancer, has said he is being kept healthy by his golf club membership, and Jenny Moss, who cares for her husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s, said that she has found mental and physical wellbeing by taking up golf.
9. Housing continues to be a threat and an opportunity to golf
It’s an opportunity because, for example, Meltham Golf Club, Sonning Golf Club, Westhill Golf Club and Whitstable and Seasalter Golf Club all submitted planning applications in 2015 to build homes on land the venues own to boost revenues coming into the clubs.
8. Data on long term participation trends revealed some worrying facts
Everyone in the industry knew that participation had been dropping over the past few years, but in 2015 Golf Club Management revealed that in England the trend over the last decade had been much worse than realised.
There were, for example, 1.54 million golfers who played the game at least once a month in 2007. By March 2015 this had dropped to 1.1 million, and that figure continued to fall by the autumn of 2015.
7. Clubs started abandoning ladies’ tees
They replaced them with movable ‘gender-free tees’, which are now common in the USA.
6. Struggling clubs had their futures secured
With so many golf clubs struggling, why didn’t more go under?
The truth is that in 2015 for every club that closed down, at least twice as many that teetered on the brink were saved.
Broome Manor and Highworth golf clubs in Swindon, for example, which were both in danger of closing down, were bought by Twigmarket, which began investing in them, Blair Atholl Golf Club was struggling and brought in an operating arrangement with Pitlochry Golf that secured its future, North Inch Golf Course brought in a flexible membership scheme that improved its finances, Castle Park Golf Club, which was about to be converted into agricultural land, was rescued after five local residents got together to purchase the entire venue, Llangefni Golf Course entered into a partnership with a social enterprise group to keep it open, Mentmore Golf and Country Club was saved weeks after it ceased trading and Derby Golf Club benefitted from a seven figure investment when there were fears that its Sinfin golf course would close.
5. The industry became preoccupied with tackling slow play
The length of time it takes to play a round of golf is one of the most cited reasons why people either stop playing golf or feel deterred from starting, with England Golf calling it the biggest barrier to participation at the start of the year. And as a result the industry became slightly obsessed with speeding up golf in 2015.
Several big golfing names also called for the game to be speeded up. Lee Westwood said there needs to be a two-hour format of the game, Greg Norman called for more 12-hole courses to be built, Stephen Gallacher said the time golfers should be allowed to search for lost balls should be reduced and leading golf journalist Ewen Murray said there should be more punishment for professional golfers who play the game too slowly.
At the end of 2015 an R&A Pace of Play International Conference took place at St Andrews to address the issue.
4. Many golf clubs were placed up for sale
One of the biggest trends of 2014 was the number of golf clubs that got put up for sale, and this continued into 2015.
“There is strong demand from investors for quality golf courses, particularly from international buyers looking for a safe place to own property which can also turn a profit,” explained Kay Griffiths, an associate at Savills.
3. The VAT saga rumbled on
Back in 2013, after years of legal wrangling, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that green fees at member-owned golf clubs should have been exempt from VAT.
This meant that scores of golf clubs were able to reclaim VAT previously declared on green fees, collectively worth millions of pounds, which in January 2015 HMRC said would be partially paid by April. And then HMRC announced that it was going to invoke a defence of unjust enrichment, which meant nothing was paid out and more legal hearings took place in the summer of 2015.
2. Golf clubs tried to get more women to play the game
The number one trend of 2014 continues to dominate the industry.
The year started with more research showing that golf clubs can reverse their financial decline if they can eradicate their ‘male culture’, and throughout the year some of the few men-only golf clubs that exist, such as Royal St George’s and Lundin, voted to allow women to join. Peter Alliss, who in April said that equality for women had destroyed golf and gave completely inaccurate data to ‘prove’ it, was widely ridiculed, and later in the year the all-male Scottish Golf Union amalgamated with the Scottish Ladies’ Golfing Association.
The real change happened in the clubs, perhaps best exemplified by Wimbledon Common Golf Club, which until 2005 was all-male, and in 2015 announced it now has a waiting list for its ladies’ academy. A ‘This Girl Can’ movement teed off in the summer that saw many clubs embark on female-only coaching sessions, Europe’s Solheim Cup captain Carin Koch advised many clubs on how to recruit female golfers, especially through relaxing dress codes, and the governing bodies got in on the act, England Golf focused on marketing to women, the Irish Golf Union explored female participation programmes, Scotland Golf considered governance and equality, the Golf Union of Wales explored shorter, fun formats and competitive opportunities to get more women playing and even the PGA targeted theatre goers to get more ladies to try the game!
1. Footgolf became massive
It only came to the UK less than three years ago, but already more than 150 UK golf clubs offer footgolf, the new sport that combines football and golf (and at least two golf clubs have now abandoned golf to become ‘footgolf centres’).
In 2016 the number is set to pass 200, with the figure doubling in Scotland alone.
“Courses in 2015 have reported up to 300 footgolf rounds on a given day, and upwards of an additional £70,000-plus in green fee revenue, matched with significant increases in food and beverage spend,” said Gareth May, head of UK development at the UK FootGolf Association.
He said that in the summer of 2015 there were more than 30,000 people playing footgolf every week, and his association has a membership database of nearly 50,000 people on it.
“This can only be good for golf, as footgolf cannot exist without the ability to be played on a golf course.”
“It’s bringing to a golf club people who may have never thought about setting foot in one before and there is the hope that some of the footgolf players could then take up golf as well,” said Paul Doherty, sales director of the UK FootGolf Association.
“There was a club in the Borders that I spoke to who were losing £30,000 per year. I was showing them a way of how they could earn £90,000 to £100,000 per year with very little investment.
“You get some funny looks from time to time. At Hilton Park, we had a couple of golfers saying they weren’t too happy about us doing it. It was the same at Dunoon, but now they get three times as many footgolfers as they do golfers.”
http://www.golfclubmanagement.net/2015/12/the-top-40-trends-of-2015/
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.On #6 I would disagree with the statement “Mentmore Golf and Country Club was saved weeks after it ceased trading” as the previous owner retained ownership following pre-pack and to date has not re-opened the club, far from it! The 2 once fantastic golf courses are in a terrible state due to lack of greenkeeping staff, machinery and suppliers willing to work with the club to supply vital chemicals, fertilisers etc. The only thing the owner is interested in is the Mentmore Towers estate adjacent to the golf courses. The planned ‘Corporate Golfing Destination’ is yet another example of his promise to invest but never actually deliver. The whole saga is a sorry tale of affairs and frankly a tragedy to the 80+ staff, 3,000 members and countless customers who enjoyed the tremendous facilities that Mentmore Golf & Country Club had to offer. Hopefully the old/previous/current owner will relinquish his stranglehold on the golf courses and allow a company to take it over and run it properly. I doubt it but I live in hope!!