Growth of golf stalled – MGA
National association says juniors not taking up the sport
THE growth of golf in Malaysia has stalled for some time now, with no new numbers coming into the sport.
That is the view of the Malaysia Golf Association (MGA), who, when responding to enquiries from Teeup on the matter, added that their “golf in schools” programme has also been brought to a halt.
In their statement, the MGA said: “The growth of the game has stalled for some time now, be it men or women’s golf.
“Golf has not been able to attract the new generation to pick up the sport and we have seen a decline in golf (numbers), based on the handicap data.
“We have not seen the game being picked up by the younger generation, although we do see youngsters still participating in the Sportexcel tournament (series). But even then, the numbers are still the same as in previous years.”
The MGA said they treated the development of the game for men and women equally, and that the general state of women’s golf is the same as for the men.
The national association added: “When we started the golf in schools (initiative) in 2014, we made sure that girls were also included in the programme.
“However, due to financial constraints, we have had to stop the golf in schools programme.”
The MGA did not indicate when the programme was called off – that is, whether it was before or after the start of the pandemic.
They did add though, that they “will always support any programme that benefits the game of golf” when asked if Malaysia was part of the R&A’S new initiative: #Foreeveryone – a participation programme aimed at encouraging more women and girls to play golf.
The MGA confirmed they do receive “a small grant” from the R&A, as did the Malaysian Ladies Golf Association (Malga), who added that the world governing body’s support has been received since 2006.
Malga said they did not have any statistics (or numbers) to share, because “not all the lady golfers are members” of their association.
For their part, the MGA said there were 183,000 registered golfers in Malaysia and pointed out that these figures were determined by their handicap system.
The MGA is the only body that ratifies handicaps in Malaysia and is part of the World Handicap System (WHS) that was developed by the R&A and USGA “in close coordination with existing handicapping authorities” and launched last year.
Of that total, the MGA said 8,140 are women and girls, and the balance of 174,860 is men and boys.
According to stats of the Professional Golf Association Malaysia (PGAM) there are 224 teaching professionals in the country.
The Professional Golf Malaysia (PGM) Tour said they had 120 card holders in the men’s category on their books and 14 in the women’s section.
The International Golf Federation (IGF), another global body and the one mainly responsible for getting golf readmitted to the Olympics in 2016, have Malaysia listed with 189 golf courses.
This in turns means that of the total number of registered golfers with the MGA, there is an average of 968 golfers per course in this country.
Probed on Malaysia’s juniors at overseas colleges, which are supposed to be the breeding ground of tomorrow’s pros, the MGA said their numbers reflected 26 girls and 20 boys at high learning institutions, mainly in the US and Australia.
There are numerous organisations around the world whose main objective is to foster the development of the game of golf, in whichever ways are best.
The R&A and the United States Golf Association are the two world governing bodies, and do the most. The former’s jurisdiction embraces the entire globe, except for the US and Mexico, which falls under the umbrella of the latter.
Similarly, there is more than one organisation that runs, or partially runs, golf in Malaysia.
The MGA, “entrusted to promote the game while preserving its traditions and integrity” in the country, is the biggest entity. They mainly oversee the development of the amateur game and host several amateur competitions and the Malaysian Open championship. This professional tournament, started in 1962, featured on the European Tour between 1999 and 2015, while being co-sanctioned by the Asian Tour.
Between 2016 and 2019 it was not held, and then in 2020 it was sanctioned solely by the Asian Tour, a week before the initial Covid-19 lockdown.
The local game, to some extent, is also influenced by the Professional Golf Association Malaysia, the Professional Golf Malaysia Tour and the Malaysian Ladies Golf Association.