"It needs to be cooler for young people, and more accessible for children, to become a truly multi-generational game”

BBC News' Bill Wilson looks at the tepid state of the international golf industry and it gives analysts an opportunity to talk inventory, capacity and over-leveraging. Thanks to reader penneraj for this, which includes a portion about the United States:

"Golf in the US has also been hit by the economic downturn, and before then it was not growing," says Mr Alexander, who is also a member of the Golf Writers Association of America.

"It is a fully saturated market and there is unused capacity on golf courses, where there has been overbuilding.

He said in terms of basic household economics, golf has also been hit.

"Golf is expensive, hard to learn, and cannot be played unsupervised by children in the US," adds Mr Alexander.

He also said that whereas a soccer ball would set a family back about $12, a full set of golf clubs costs thousands of dollars.

"In addition, the US consumer was over-leveraged coming out of 2007, and discretionary spending was cut back by households when economic trouble hit."

Comments

[fatgoalie]

Okay, for those in the know. What is the growth in participation in youth sports programs in the US?
Baseball, basketball, football, ice/roller hockey, swimming, gymnastics etc?
There is incredible participation in kids sports. Go to a sign-up for youth soccer/softball/baseball And watch the parents involvement/volunteering, coaching, and most important, PAYING. The amount of time for kids in sports is crazy, but it gets done.

As a business, golf is trying to overcome obstacles that these sports also have.
Cost/time/coaching/obnoxious parents. We have to add in a place to play, but so does hockey, swimming etc.

Golf growth is flat or down, but is youth participation in golf?
It seems there are MORE tournaments than ever, but less kids just playing to play. Is that any different than baseball? I never see kids playing baseball on their own, or street hockey.

The problem as I see it? Our kids are getting softer and softer. Everybody needs to feel good about themselves, and team sports are easier to hide schlubs, especially in the "everybody plays" mentality. No matter what you do, posting a high score, is going to be a high score. Golf is beautiful in its exposure of the individuals strengths, AND weaknesses. In our current culture, weaknesses are not allowed to be exposed, or you risk damaging the self-esteem.

We offer FREE lessons, $1 golf, and free range balls for kids in our program. This is 7 days a week. 250 kids in the program, and about 40 take advantage of the golf regularly.
What we do that will help golf in the future, is help these kids with their education (which is our mission). They hopefully get through college, become successful, and come back to golf when they can.

[Del the Funk]

@ GBL, so despite your protestations about my "made up facts" looks like we are pretty much on the same page!

@ fatgoalie, how many programs like yours do you think exist around the country? And good onya, leading a program like that must really be fulfilling on a day-to-day basis.

[fatgoalie]

Del, not too many, but my point is that even with free equipment,lessons, and basically free access, it is very difficult
to get kids interested long term in the game.
We have a lot more interest in our tutoring, which is great.

[Gay Brewer's Legacy]

I just think the biggest disagreement between you and me, Del is that even with greater access for young people, non-golfers aren't going to be interested without a superstar in the sport. You need a Kobe, A-Rod, or Peyton Manning for the sport to reach out to a bigger base. I just don't see anyone from the current batch of "next generation" players to serve in that role (they are all in your number 1 category)... but maybe--hopefully--someone will surprise me.

[Joe]

It isn't just about cost and access- tennis courts are free and plentiful and mostly empty. One thing I remembered when I started playing golf as a kid is that us kids we not welcome at most courses. Yes we could play but these old guys were always mean to us and made us feel like we were bothering them. And god forbid we got paired with one of the old guys. That was hell. It was a very intimidating experience and I can see why some kids say the heck with it.

[Home Staging Toronto]

Simply stated cost does not have to be a barrier to entry here in the US. The Brits think it's so expensive and exclusive in the States and that simply is there own fabrication of grandeur!