Vital Signs, october 18, 2013

     When it comes to golf, the world is composed largely of haves and have-nots. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, the National Golf Foundation counts nearly 35,000 golf facilities. Of the world-wide total, an estimated 16,500 (47 percent) are in the United States. The remaining 18,350 can be found in 200 other countries, but they’re concentrated in a relative handful of places. According to the NGF’s international database, 70 percent of the golf facilities outside the United States can be found in just 10 nations, while 85 percent are in just 20 nations. In other words, about 32,000 of the world’s 35,000 golf facilities are in the United States and 20 other countries.

     Speaking of haves and have-nots, the bank accounts and investment portfolios of affluent Americans, the prime market for golf, are recovering nicely. Between 2009 and 2011, the first two years of the U.S. economic revival, the mean net worth of the 8 million households in the upper 7 percent of the wealth spectrum rose by an estimated 28 percent, according to an analysis of Census Bureau data by the Pew Research Center. In dollar amounts, the mean net worth of these households increased from an estimated $2,476,244 to an estimated $3,173,895. The increases, Pew says, result primarily from gains in the stock market. For comparison’s sake, during this period the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent of the income scale declined by 4 percent, from $139,896 to $133,817, mostly because their net worth is tied closely to the value of their homes. For the golf industry, the message ought to be clear: The money is out there, and, because 2012 and 2013 have also been good years on Wall Street, it’s even bigger today than it was in 2011.

     Female corporate executives have apparently discovered what their male counterparts have known for decades: Golf is good for business. According to a survey of 1,000 “career women” by the Executive Women’s Golf Association, 73 percent believe that playing golf has helped them network and develop new business relationships, while 22 percent say that they’ve actually closed business deals on a golf course. “Golf is time consuming, but what I discovered was the opportunities I was missing out on because I didn’t play,” a retired female bank executive told the Toledo Blade. As so many observers have noted, women are a particularly underserved market in golf. The Blade reports that our nation has only 6 million female golfers, a number that represents a mere 6 percent of the total U.S. golf universe.

     Financially speaking, sunnier days may be on the horizon for Great Britain’s golf clubs. Ninety percent of the golfers who currently belong to clubs expect to renew their memberships in 2014, while only 3 percent have decided to quit. The remaining 7 percent are undecided. “It’s still early days, but these figures suggest something more than simply the green shoots of recovery in golf,” said Barry Dyett, the managing director of HowDidiDo Media. “If only 3 percent of current members say they won’t be renewing their membership, that surely suggests that the industry is doing something right and augurs well for the future.” HowDidiDo, which describes itself as “Europe’s largest golfing community,” gathered the results from a poll of nearly 2,500 club golfers. The respondents consisted of both men and women.

     Can the golf industry really generate more play by promoting nine-hole rounds? According to the National Golf Foundation, 27 percent of U.S. golfers believe that golf is an 18-hole game and simply won’t play nine-hole rounds, while 5 percent play nine-hole rounds exclusively. Of the remaining golfers -- 68 percent of the nation’s total -- roughly three of every four already play nine-hole rounds on occasion. Given these statistics, how significant can the growth in nine-hole rounds be?

     A series of newspaper articles about the impact golf courses are having on the water supply in California’s Coachella Valley has lit a fire under local water officials. “Everybody’s talking about the golf courses,” one of them acknowledged to the Desert Sun. While the valley’s residents come to grips with the fact that each course in the valley soaks up 325 million gallons of water a year -- enough to supply 1,400 houses -- the water district is trying to figure out how to accelerate its efforts to connect more than 100 courses to the reclaimed water (or to water from the Colorado River) that’s already available in the area. The task won’t be easy, because many of the valley’s courses are under financial strain and can’t afford to hook up on their own. But the valley is going dry, and if the local golf industry wants to maintain good relations in the community, it needs to solve this problem soon.

     Tourism officials in Thailand are beginning to appreciate the value of vacationing golfers. Of the 22 million tourists who visited Thailand last year, nearly 737,900 (3 percent) were golfers, and they contributed an estimated 10.54 billion Baht ($339.5 million) to the Thai economy. Thailand expects to welcome 24 million tourists in 2013. If the ratio of golfers and spending remains the same, the visitors will include more than 815,000 golfers who’ll spend $374.9 million.