Huge rise in club golfers playing in Stableford competitions

Surprising new data has found that although UK golf clubs are still losing members, the remaining members are playing much more competitive rounds of golf, and especially in Stableford competitions.

According to KPMG, England, for example, lost 16,567 members of golf clubs between 2014 and 2015, but, the research from HowDidiDo, Europe’s largest golfing community, which holds the handicaps, results and scores of more than 1.3 million UK golf club members, finds that the number of competitive rounds at clubs is actually on the increase.

Analysis of the 2015 data shows that ladies’ medal rounds at the 2,000-odd clubs using the system were up by two percent on 2014, while Stableford rounds rose by nearly 11 percent to 469,530.

Meanwhile, the men’s rounds also showed a similar increase: one percent in medal rounds (to 2,190,782) and five percent in Stableford (1,875,523). Meanwhile, par competitions – formerly known as bogey competitions – dropped by almost 1,000 rounds across both genders.

In total, there was an overall four percent increase in the number of competition rounds played by HowDidiDo club members in 2015, up to 5,031,056.

Barry Dyett, managing director of HowDidiDo, believes the figures indicate a move to more club golfers playing competitions – but of the Stableford variety in preference to medal rounds.

He said: “While there is still an increase in the number of medal rounds being played, the drift towards Stableford is more noticeable as the gap between the two closes. What’s more, compared with 2013, there were around 11,000 fewer medal rounds played, but almost 200,000 more Stableford rounds – that’s a considerable swing.”