Vital Signs, july 17, 2015

     Last year at this time, Golf Australia issued a distress signal. Half of the nation’s golf clubs, it said, were operating under “financial duress” and needed to connect with women, families, and young people if they expected to survive. One year later, sadly, the clubs have yet to make these connections effectively. In its “2014 National Participation Report,” Golf Australia notes that the 1,590 clubs it surveyed have lost 7.2 percent of their members over the past five years and a worrisome 21 percent since 1998, when membership rolls peaked. According to the report, exactly half of the nation’s clubs lost members in 2014, and they’re all burdened by the weight of age: 55 percent of their members are 55 and older, while just 17 percent are 34 and under. Despite the erosion, however, Golf Australia has detected signs of life. During 2014, the nation’s clubs lost a mere 2,852 members, a negligible number (less than 1 percent), and 44 percent of clubs with 100 or more members grew in size. What’s more, the nation’s golfers played 14.3 million “competition rounds” last year, a 7.2 percent increase from the number posted in 2013. “We are encouraged to see rounds played up and the decline in membership back to next to nothing,” says the group’s CEO. “We have seen almost five years of a downward trend, and, hopefully soon, the graph points upward again.” And here’s another reason for optimism: 57 percent of those who joined Australia’s golf clubs last year were between the ages of 25 and 54.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the July 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Vietnam is in the midst of a mini golf boom, perhaps because it’s also experiencing what a national news service calls a “tourism crisis.” The nation currently has about three dozen golf properties, and this year more than a half-dozen new golf ventures have been announced, from Quảng Ninh Province in the north to Kiên Giang Province in the south. Ordinarily, such a wave of development would be viewed as a triumph for a wanna-be golf nation, but for Vietnam it might be a sign of desperation. The nation counted a disappointing 7.87 million foreign visitors last year (it had expected to attract 8.2 million), and through the first six months of this year it counted only 3.8 million, an 11.3 percent decline. According to Thanhnien News, the nation’s deputy prime minister blames the declines on “unsafe traffic, dirty food and environment, thieves, beggars, and overcharging by vendors.” Clearly, Vietnam needs new seasonings for its tourism industry, and it’s probably hoping that golf will be its secret sauce.

     Speaking of Vietnam, most Asian golfers don’t yet rate the nation among their favorite golf destinations. Thailand is the top choice for Asian golf tourists, according to the Club Managers Association of Asia, followed by China, Malaysia, and the United States. Vietnam checks in at #7. Of course, part of Vietnam’s problem is availability and ease of access. The nation has only 36 golf properties, according to the Wall Street Journal, and they’re spread all over. By contrast, one vacation spot in China -- Hainan Island -- offers nearly as many choices as Vietnam does, without all the wasted travel time.

     When it comes to the top golf destinations in the United States, Myrtle Beach still reigns supreme. According to surveys by Golf magazine, some 6,000 traveling U.S. golfers ranked the coastal vacation spot in South Carolina as their overall favorite destination (ahead of Bandon, Oregon and Gaylord, Michigan), their favorite “value” destination (ahead of Montgomery, Alabama and Gaylord), and their favorite destination for a buddy trip (ahead of, once again, Bandon and Gaylord). Now you know why more than 3.5 million rounds of golf are played in Myrtle Beach every year.