Three potential trends for 2023

Here’s three stories from the last month from the UK golf industry that could possibly become trends in the next year.

Beating your age could be the new hole-in-one

A hole-in-one has always been considered the supreme achievement in golf but the odds of getting one are only about 12,500 to 1 for the average golfer.

Beating your age, on the other hand, is thought to carry odds of 9,000,000 to 1.

Stories of golfers hitting a hole-in-one now only receive prominence if something else has happened – for example if two playing partners both achieve the feat in the same round.

Yet as with the case of Graham Hoult, who is aged 72 and has carded a score of 71 at Oxford Golf Club, or Fred Couples, 63, who hit a round of 60 recently, beating your age may now be considered golf’s uniquely noteworthy achievement.

Dementia-friendly golf could take off

Seckford Golf Club in Suffolk has become the latest to offer it, by joining forces with an elderly care provider to create a monthly golf club that provides a social activity to people living with dementia and their families.

“This helps people in a number of ways, such as the physical side of golf which helps with balance and coordination,” said a spokesman.

“Then there are the mental and social wellbeing benefits of being out in a green space and socialising with others, something which can really help people with dementia.”

There may be help for clubs hit by vandals

There have been numerous recent stories of courses being hit by vandals – none more shocking than at Caird Park Golf Course in Dundee, which was hit by a series of break-ins just days after reopening most of its holes (because its course was ripped up by thugs in October).

Yet there could be some good news. Eastbourne Downs Golf Course in Sussex saw its course damaged by vandals earlier this year.

It has become the first in the world to try a hybrid grass – synthetic fibres stitched into the ground alongside real grass that add stability to the structure – on one of the damaged greens and so far the results are promising; – the green was hit by more criminal damage in October, but was back playing again by the next morning.