Here’s three trends from the last month that give us an insight into the state of the UK golf industry

August was a month of mixed news – the demand to play golf remains very strong but some venues are continuing to struggle.

Participation has not seen the expected drop

From The R&A’s report that adult participation in golf across the world has risen by 34 percent in the last seven years, and in Britain was higher for the first half of this year compared with last year, with double digit growth in Scotland in the last 12 months, to studies showing that more rounds of golf were played by members of clubs in the first half of 2023 than in the whole of 2019, and green fee bookings in the UK and Ireland are up 17 percent year-on-year, the industry has not seen the post-pandemic participation slump that many predicted.

As David Maher, the chief executive of Acushnet Holdings, said: “The biggest observation is how well and strong the game is holding up as compared to our, I think, rightfully conservative expectations coming off the very high watermark of 2021.”

Some clubs are still struggling though

While clubs like Stratford Park Hotel & Golf Club in Stratford-upon-Avon is forecasting back-to-back years of record turnover thanks to the growth in participation, many are finding it tough, at least partly due to high inflation.

In Scotland, the UK territory that has reported the biggest participation growth in the last 12 months, Mar Hall Golf and Spa Resort, for example, has fallen into administration and will be put up for sale. Newburgh-on-Ythan Golf Club, also in Scotland, has said rising expenditure costs has meant it needs another cash injection, having successfully crowdfunded more than £50,000 last year, to ensure it can survive until the end of the year.

Perhaps some will look at the likes of Deane Golf Club in Bolton, where developers have started building 14 homes, or Sonning Golf Club in Berkshire or Dunbar Golf Club in East Lothian, which have both received planning permission to build scores of homes, as inspiration to secure their futures.

More clubs are offering cancer screening services

In recent days, for example, Old Thorns Golf Club in Hampshire, invited men aged between 40 and 90 to attend a prostate cancer testing and awareness event, and Chart Hills Golf Club in Kent offered screening sessions to raise awareness of the risk of skin cancer.

As the physician Peter Attia, best known for his work in longevity medicine, says: “The evidence suggests that a cancer that is caught earlier is easier to treat than a cancer that is caught later. For instance, if you catch colon cancer when there are tens or hundreds of millions of cancer cells, your odds of treating that successfully are better than if you catch the same cancer years later, when there are billions of cells.”

Any golf club that can help with that is doing a service to its customers and its community.