Golf club membership in Scotland has fallen by nearly 12,500 in the last seven years and will continue to fall for at least another two years, according to the Scottish Golf Union (SGU).
The chief executive stressed the importance of golf clubs as a part of the national economy that brought in an estimated £200 million to Scotland every year.
”We’d like to be more exact about that and we need some more independent analysis, but thankfully we have a First Minister who understands the importance of golf without these figures,” he went on.
”There are one million members of sports clubs in Scotland, and a quarter of them men, women and children are members of golf clubs, so it’s a significant part of the culture in this country.
”Speak to people abroad about Scotland, and they’ll talk about golf.
”Visitor green fees on average account for nearly a third of club business at Scottish clubs in some areas like Argyll and Bute it’s almost 60%. This is why courses like the Trump development are good, because it and the likes of Kingsbarns and Castle Stuart are not about members, they’re about bringing people to Scotland to play golf, and they’ll generally stay for a few days and play other courses nearby.”
The long-term future of golf clubs in Scotland is being addressed by the clubgolf programme, with 300 clubs now involved and funding from central government secured through to 2018.
”It’s still quite young, and so far we’ve reached 73% of nine-year-olds being introduced to golf, and 15% have transferred from that to structured coaching at clubs,” Grey said.
”We want to see a better return on that, and if we can get a youngster to a handicap of 20 or better, that’s the level you start to really enjoy it and are more likely to stay involved.
”The big difference there is good quality coaching so we’re working very hard with the PGA to provide the specialist coaching once the 1,570 volunteer coaches we’ve trained have done as much as they can.
”We’re improving and doing better year-on-year, but the most significant challenge until 2014 is retention of members.”
The sobering assessment was made by SGU chief executive Hamish Grey as membership figures for 2011 are coming in showing a 2% fall in adult male memberships over the last year, amounting to around 3,400 in total.
Since the middle of the last decade the drop is around 7% as the economy bites in the golf industry.
Only two courses in Scotland have closed in that time Whitemoss Golf Club near Auchterarder and another near Gretna but Grey admitted clubs and courses across Scotland face ”major challenges.”
”The drop is 2% this year compared to 1.4%, and that had been improving,” said Grey. ”That’s with 89% of returns in and it probably won’t change, so we’re clearly seeing the cumulative effects of the overall economic situation.
”A lot of our clubs are finding it tough year-on-year, and we’re not expecting this will bottom out for another couple of years at least.”
The SGU’s member clubs have done ”a great job cutting costs, but there comes a point where you cut so much and don’t have a product any more,” he continued.
”Until the mid-2000s we had a 20% growth in courses and 5% in membership, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that we’ve got over-capacity.
”We like to think that gives us the chance to get more people playing the game, and that’s why we’ve appointed three club development officers.”
Continued…