England Golf initiative helps create more players and more club members

The figures are highlighted in the latest County Impact Report and reflect the work going on to fulfil the aim to create more players, more members and stronger clubs.

Survey results released by Sport England earlier this month indicated that golf participation is continuing to stabilise after a long period of decline.

Claire Hodgson, England Golf’s Head of Participation, said: “These results are very encouraging and, with our county network now up to full strength, we expect to build on these in 2016. We will be offering improved and targeted support for golf clubs, new campaigns to attract attention to golf, an increased focus on women, juniors and families, more opportunities for disabled people and a refresh of Get into Golf to attract even more golfers and members.”

The Impact Report shows:

Over 92,000 people tried golf during the six months. Over 36,000 took part in structured coaching courses of at least four weeks (up 29 per cent on the same period in 2014.) Of these, over 14,500 people now play golf weekly.

Over 7,400 people became club members after taking part in county activity (up 57 per cent on the same period in 2014)

The national Get into golf campaign has continued to inspire adults to take up golf and play more often, with coaching from PGA professionals.

During the six months, 18,600 people took courses; 3,800 took up some form of membership; and, encouragingly, 41 per cent of participants are female. During 2015 almost 770 clubs took advantage of the opportunity to upload their beginner activity onto the Get into Golf website.

England Golf has been working with targeted clubs in five counties to attract more women. Since the project began in July, 550 have taken structured courses and almost 130 have taken up memberships. Almost 700 women have been involved in activity across other counties.

Work with the Golf Foundation to encourage juniors and young people continues to be positive and has resulted in 58,400 youngsters experiencing golf; 9,600 taking structured coaching and almost 1600 new memberships.