Here’s the top three things I learnt while editing the magazine in December

Here’s the top three things Golf Club Management editor Alistair Dunsmuir learnt while editing the magazine in December:

3. Jack Nicklaus doesn’t like silence on golf courses

I always thought the lack of noise, or the change to hearing nature’s soft sounds for a few hours, was one of the attractions of golf. But two of the game’s greatest ever players, Greg Norman, who said recently that buggies should play music, and now Jack Nicklaus, who said “I never liked the silence” have shown not everyone thinks that way. Nicklaus thinks that music on the driving range or first tee would be an effective way to attract new people to golf.

2. England Golf are getting it right

As a governing body any national golf union is going to be maligned, but you cannot argue with these impressive results.

Thanks largely to Get into golf, Golf Express, county development officers and business growth hubs, the number of people who tried golf in England between April and September 2016 (more than 135,000) was up a huge 47 per cent compared with the previous year, and more than 9,000 of them joined golf clubs as a result.

Understandably, England Golf chief executive Nick Pink said the results are “very satisfying”.

1. Women offer even more potential to the industry than we thought

We knew that women are underrepresented in golf (women account for just 24 per cent of golfers worldwide) and we knew that there is a demand around the world by women to play the game.

What we didn’t know until now is that nearly one in three women who don’t play golf are interested in taking up the game.

A major new survey has found that if golf clubs could tap into this huge market they would add a staggering £28 billion to the global golf economy.

In the UK and Ireland, just 16 per cent of golfers – 162,000 people – are female, but the report found that there are 3.79 million prospective female golfers. Their latent demand value would be worth £2.85 billion to the UK and Irish golf economy.