Hardly a month goes by in which you don’t see some press release either trumpeting the latest grow-the-game (GtG) initiative and investment or someone in the golf industry or media opining on the fundamental industry need to expand and diversify the golfer base annually and over time. My favorite among the latter is when professional golfers or golf mass media “talking heads” (both of which are very competent in their fields but out-of-depth on the facts and history of GtG) weigh in on the topic with their professional, considered “opinion.” Each (and every) of our respective industry trade associations has taken one or more swings at the strategy and programs and we even convened, way back in 2020, a collective of those resources to tackle that challenge which didn’t produce the desired result over a decade (generously) of effort and multiple iterations. The most successful grow-the-game initiative during my 24+ year tenure in the industry? COVID.
When I saw two recent iterations on this theme in the media recently (Bank of America’s “Golf With Us” and the USGA’s over-the-top programming for public golf in Western PA in conjunction with the upcoming US Open at Oakmont), it focused my thinking on strategies that are not youth-centric which we haven’t seriously tried and which reasonably have a much higher likelihood of success and impact on both participation and near-term spending (the latter being consistent with the Koppenhaver Corollary that you don’t take rounds or bodies to the bank, you take $$):
- The case for why Junior programs are necessary and needed but…have a time and associated revenue lag which isn’t optimal if you’re running an ongoing golf operations business
- Why programs focused on under-developed groups with the objective of “making golf look like the US population” have also proven ineffective and not successfully scaled (hint, why not try “cloning” the existing profile for growth?)
- “The prime attraction years for lifetime devotees to our sport are 25-40” (Stuart Lindsay). Stuart and I have discussed and debated this for 20+ years and he’s finally won me over through a combination of facts, reason and just plain persistence (ha, ha)
That’s a lot of ground to cover in one issue but I’ll do my best (and try to keep it to <10 pages) to make the case for why golf needs to think beyond the next Junior golf initiative if we’re truly serious about efficient and effective grow-the-game strategies and programs.
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