Vital Signs, may 9, 2014

     The golf business in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa is stuck in “a period of complete stagnation,” according to a report from KPMG’s Golf Advisory Practice. In a recently released survey, KPMG notes that the number of golfers in the EMA increased by more than 5 percent annually between 1990 and 2008, the year of the world-wide economic crash. Since then: Nada. KPMG also notes that the number of courses in the EMA -- an area that includes two entire continents -- has grown by less than 1 percent annually since 2008. By comparison, golf construction and development in the region grew by an average of 3.3 percent annually between 1990 and 2008. At the end of last year, KPMG says, the EMA had roughly 4.5 million “affiliated” golfers (along with roughly 1.5 million “unaffiliateds”) and 7,300 total golf facilities, including practice centers.

     Speaking of “complete stagnation,” the National Golf Foundation reports that the number of female golfers in the United States today is the same as it was in 1991 -- roughly 5 million, or 20 percent of the total number of players. In this regard, the United States pales in comparison to Germany, where 39 percent of the golf population is female, not to mention South Korea (38 percent), the Netherlands (35 percent), Sweden (33 percent), and Canada (30 percent). What explains this disparity? “The countries that do well with women are not afraid to break with tradition,” the NGF has concluded. “They’ve held on to important golf customs such as rules, sportsmanship, and honor, but they’ve also joined the 21st century by getting rid of things like dress codes and mandatory 18-hole rounds.” The NGF also points out that U.S. women are actively engaged in sports other than golf, among them skiing (49 percent female), tennis (48 percent), bowling (ditto), billiards (40 percent), fishing (31 percent), and even handgun shooting (29 percent).

     Golf has become “the most lucrative game in Nepal,” according to a newspaper in Kathmandu. Golf pushed past cricket and soccer last month, when the Nepal Professional Golfers Association inked a record-setting, $416,000 (Rs 40 million) contract with Surya Nepal, the cigarette and clothing manufacturer that’s sponsored the nation’s professional golf tour since 2008. The new three-year agreement ensures that Nepal will have at least eight events annually. My Republica reports that Nepal, a nation with just one 18-hole golf course, has 60 professional golfers.

     The grand old men of golf continue to cash in on their fame. Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player occupy three of the top seven positions in this year’s installment of Golf Digest’s Money List, and Greg Norman, who’ll turn 60 next year, checks in at number 10. None of the aforementioned superstars made even $10,000 on professional tours last year, but they were all rewarded handsomely off the course. Palmer took home $40 million, Nicklaus $26 million, Player $16 million, and Norman $14 million. As in previous years, Tiger Woods ($83.1 million) and Phil Mickelson ($52 million) stand head and shoulders above their contemporaries. Only one woman made the list, Paula Creamer at number 48. She earned a total of $5.3 million.

     Pacific Links International, a Chinese-owned company, currently offers members of its vacation club access to roughly 100 international golf properties, and over the next three years it intends to establish a major presence in North America. Why is it building such a huge network? Because waves of Chinese vacationers are beginning to travel around the planet, among them golfers eager to play courses they’ve been reading about for years. By 2020, according to an estimate by Credit Lyonnais Securities Asia, 5.7 million Chinese will take holidays in the United States, a dramatic increase from the 1.6 million who visited in 2012. “You’ll be seeing huge growth in outbound Chinese travel,” a CLSA analyst said in a comment published by the New York Times. “Visitor numbers in some places are going to treble and quadruple in the next few years.” In total, says CLSA, the number of outbound Chinese travelers will double, to 200 million, by 2020.

     In a recent conference call with investment analysts, Eric Affeldt of ClubCorp Holdings mentioned that his company has dozens of possible purchases in its sights. “The opportunity for acquisitions is greater than in the past,” he said in a comment published by Barron’s. “We will continue to make deals, likely at an accelerated pace.” The financial magazine obviously likes what it heard, because it’s given the company’s future two thumbs up. It notes that ClubCorp’s stock price has increased by 30 percent since the firm went public in September 2013, predicts a further increase (to $24, from the current $18), and believes that the company “will benefit from an improving economy, which could bring more members in the door.” Barron’s also thinks ClubCorp may eventually turn itself into a real-estate investment trust, a move that “could unlock value down the road.”

     It appears that Australia isn’t the only nation with a growing number of people who think bicycling is “the new golf.” Money magazine reports that Americans have also begun to network at cycling events, which they view as “less time consuming,” “relatively less expensive,” and “a better way to stay in shape” than hitting the links. “Unlike golf, we’re not committing to a couple of hours and all kinds of expenses just to network,” said the president of a telecom company in Wisconsin. “This is a free gathering, very informal, and you’re done in two hours.”