Innovation key to revival of Ireland’s golf industry
IRISH golf is holding its own in the post-crash economic climate but while things are not so rosy in the Home of Golf they are taking steps to get back into the game.
KPMG’s recent “Golf Participation Report for Europe 2017” shows that while Ireland lost four courses in 2016 and the number of golfers here fell by 0.84 percent, Scotland experienced a decline of approximately 3.37 percent, mainly due to the closure of 19 courses.
With an estimated 4 percent of the Irish population actively playing the game (we had 190,883 registered golfers in 2016) only Iceland with 16,823 (4.97 percent) and Sweden with 463,952 (4.71 percent) are more keen on their golf than the Irish.
To add to their woes, Scottish Golf suffered a funding blow earlier this year when “Sportscotland” was forced to reduce its investment in Scottish Golf by 35 percent to £665,000 (€750,000).
That was mainly due to a reduction in the funds it receives via the National Lottery and the Scottish Government, but there were other factors at play, including a decision by the mandarins at Scottish Golf redo its Strategic Plan.
England Golf has received an average of £3.25m (€3.67m) per year from government-backed Sport England since 2013 and while that’s less than half what Scotland received per capita, our Celtic cousins are taking steps to fill the funding hole.
Blane Dodds, the Chief Executive of Scottish Golf, told “The Scotsman” last week that he is confident that golf club members in Scotland will, according to the paper, “cough up an estimated additional
£10 (€11.20) in their subscription fee from next year to give the sport a £4 million boost.”
Dodds says he faces being forced to reduce Scottish Golf’s budget by £400,000 (€451,000) if a proposal to raise the per capita fee from its current rate of £11.25
(€12.70) by the “equivalent value of a sleeve of golf balls” doesn’t get the green light in December.
That target also includes a proposal to start charging foreign visitors a licence fee through the introduction of a national tee-time booking system with Scottish Golf potentially netting £1 from every booking, thus raising another
£1.5m (€1.69m) per year.
It is something that looks likely on these shores with the Golfnet. ie platform set to work in tandem with Book Golf 365, which is spearheaded by former European Tour player Peter Lawrie.
As for the KPMG report, Deirdre O’Connell, Head of Marketing Services at Carr Golf, saw the numbers as positive for Irish golf.
“We were the second worst-hit country in Europe for closures, after Scotland which had 19,” she said. “Yet we have multi-million euro capital investments in places like Hogs Head and Adare Manor, not to mention huge spends on staffing, infrastructure and golf technologies.
“Irish consumers are spending over €500m on golf annually. The green shoots are there, local golf club teams need to get ahead to reap rewards.
“The report only reaffirms the obvious — clubs must innovate to drive participation.
“Clubs should consider launching Autumn and Winter ‘Get Into Golf’ programmes now for juniors and ladies, timings that will feed into Spring starter membership programmes.”
Innovation is key, clubs should be making efforts to relax playing formats so they appeal to the younger generations, or those not interested in spending long periods at the course.
The Americans call it “Flogton”, which is “not golf” backwards.
“It encourages calming traditional rules to reduce player frustration, in the way snowboarding came from skiing,” O’Connell said.
“12-hole format golf, or breaks at the ninth — any version of modified formats will show an effort to welcome more play.
“The timing of these findings should help new committees and club managers focus on agreeing on investments and programmes now for a fit-for-purpose business model in 2018.”