KEY POINTS:
One of the noble aspects of the New Zealand Golf strategic plan is to increase club membership by 2.5 per cent by 2010. But even if achieved, it won't bring numbers back to where they were just six years ago.
At the end of 2002, the Golf Association
had 132,804 members. The most recent number I could access was 127,557 to the end of 2005 - down 3.9 per cent in just three years. The figures to the end of 2007 will be presented at the New Zealand Golf annual meeting on May 1. I'd be surprised if they've increased.
We are not alone. A recent headline in the New York Times reads "More Americans are giving up golf". Their percentage drops are even worse than here.
The National Golf Foundation, which has been researching the US golf industry for more than 70 years, says the number who play at least once a year has dropped from 30 million to 26 million this century.
Those Americans who play 25 times a year or more dropped from 6.9 million in 2000 to 4.6 million by 2005. That's over 30 per cent.
The main reasons are similar: time and money. Fewer are prepared to commit four hours' playing time, plus travel, plus some socialising, on a Saturday or Sunday and maintain a happy relationship with the rest of the family. Little wonder that most golfers are aged over 50.
Few clubs in the Auckland region have a membership fee under $1200. As current economic realities hit home, clubs will ask members for another subscription in the next few months. Sadly, many will say no.
If the game wants to keep and attract members, it needs well-maintained courses. As fuel, sand and fertiliser prices increase, not to mention wage demands and labour shortages, maintenance and development get dearer, putting up the price of playing. And when golf becomes a luxury, or at least a discretionary spend, then the game faces real challenges.
I don't profess to know the answers but I do know clubs need to be seriously proactive in their recruiting and retention of players and to do more for their members.
The NZG strategic plan makes all sorts of suggestions on improving membership numbers and increasing course usage. I've probably been to more courses over the country than most people this summer but I've yet to see any specific plans to address these problems.
For instance, wouldn't this summer have been ideal to introduce a nine hole "young fathers" or "parents under 35" section on a Sunday afternoon?
Guys I've played a lot with over the last five years have become fathers for the first time recently and admit they'll hardly play any golf now for a few years. But does it have to be like that? Should clubs not be making every effort to maintain, even at a minimum level, some form of involvement and club membership for this generation until the kids are grown and the parents have more leisure time?
There is certainly no magic bullet to arrest the decline. But golf needs to invigorate itself soon, before it's too late.
