The CEO of England Golf has revealed that memberships have risen sharply since May 13.
Image: Andy Hiseman
Since lockdown restrictions eased in the UK, we’ve all noticed that golf has suddenly become super popular.
For the first time ever, I’ve had to queue for the driving range and book my tee times way in advance. Meanwhile, lesson slots are booked up for months.
But while we could see with our own eyes that there was an increase in ‘casual’ golfers visiting our clubs, many were concerned about how many would stay in the game once other sports and activities became available or go as far as joining a club.
Well, it turns out that lots of people have got hooked on the game of golf in the last few months.
England Golf CEO Jeremy Tomlinson has announced that, based on stats from their Club Support Officers, English golf clubs have gained 20,000 new members in the last three months.
Speaking to The Sunday Times, he said:
“Since May 13, there have been 20,000 new members across England. The number of rounds played in June and July was up 60 percent on 2019 and is trending towards the same increase for August.”
20,000 is an absolutely staggering number.
According to The Golf Business, it’s the biggest membership growth over a three-month period in history.
It’s brilliant news, the only thing is we don’t yet know how many of these new members are women.
We know female golfers are in the minority, and our numbers are tiny compared to other countries in Europe.
A new study by Sports Marketing Surveys found that the UK has around 452,0000 female golfers. This might sound a lot on paper but it means that only 15 percent of the nations golfers are women.
This seems really bad when you compare it to places like Austria, where 40 percent of golfers are female.
So England Golf has launched the 'Membership - Give it a Shot’ campaign to try and get even more of these new or returning golfer to sign up as members, and there’s something in it for you too.
If you have joined a club since May 2020 or you refer a friend to join one before October 31, you can enter a prize draw to win four Country Memberships a Woodhall Spa Golf Club, in addition to two round of golf, a two-hour group clinic at the National Golf Centre and an overnight stay with bed and breakfast.
Other prizes on other include 10 pairs of tickets for the Open Championship at Royal St George’s next year, six pairs of adidas golf shoes and 24 dozen Titleist Pro V1s.
You can enter the prize draw HERE.
For more information visit www.englandgolf.org.
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