The sport of golf has been a topic of conversation lately, and not because Tiger Woods just won another title. No, the recent buzz is unfortunately negative — it seems that the game’s appeal to youth is dwindling at a rapid clip, and the sport’s future is looking less secure for many of the businesses and manufacturers that base their revenues on it.
Golfsmith, a golf-based retail chain with 150 stores, is looking at filing for bankruptcy. Dick’s Sporting Goods, which formerly boasted it employed the second-largest number of golf pros outside the PGA, has laid off more than 500 of them as the company announced lower-than-expected sales of golf equipment.
Manufacturer Nike recently put out word it will be getting out of the business of making golf clubs, bags and balls, leaving sponsorship deals with stars of the sport like Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods up in the air. This follows Adidas’ similar decision to exit the hardware business in May in favor of making only golf shoes and apparel. Many sporting goods stores are attempting to cut inventory of bags and clubs, which have had sluggish sales for years.
Since 2000, more than 20 percent of people who play golf — roughly six million people — have stopped playing the game. Some observers blame Tiger Woods’ media blowout following devastating admissions of marital infidelities in 2009. Those admissions are estimated to have caused losses of $5 billion to $12 billion in the stock values of various sponsor companies.
Woods was the last major figure to popularize golf and had arguably captured the public’s imagination when he appeared on the scene in 1997. He became the first player in sports to earn more than a billion dollars in career earnings.
However, since 2008, Woods hasn’t won a major title and is currently recovering from back surgery that’s kept him away from the sport for the past three years.
As a game, golf is incredibly slow, drawn-out, dull and pretentious; there’s almost no end to the adjectives you can use for its description that reduce its appeal to today’s youth, who are invariably attracted to faster-moving and less cerebral diversions than ever in an era of video games, extreme sports and social media.
In fact, it’s the lack of appeal to youth that seriously threatens the game’s future. Funding for youth-oriented golf activities has dwindled while the number of high schools with afterschool golf programs has dropped precipitously.
Television viewership of golf coverage has taken a steep plunge in the last 10 years, even as title money has risen to new heights (FedEx just announced a $10 million prize for the winner of the FedEx Cup).
While it’s true that golf is a game of skill, it’s also a competition that requires access to very specialized and large pieces of real estate called golf courses, which were never in huge supply to begin with, but are now more costly and difficult to develop than ever.
Factors such as conservation, land prices and eco-consciousness have converged to make their creation as rare as holes-in-one. In 2013, more than 150 golf courses were closed in the U.S. while just 13 opened.
In 2014, golfers played 462 million rounds of golf, the lowest number in 20 years. Unlike other countries, the U.S. never made a concerted effort to develop urban driving ranges like the multi-level variety found in places such as Japan and Korea, nor has there been there a serious industry-wide push to stimulate interest in the game among adolescents and young adults.
The elitism and money of the sport have been emphasized for years, rather than the relaxation and the challenge. Millennials are turned off by the game’s costs and lack of diversity, Tiger Woods notwithstanding.
Restrictive membership policies and dress codes at exclusive clubs have been discussed in the press, rather than course designs or contributions to the environment. The sport is legendary for requiring seemingly endless amounts of practice to perfect one’s game.
And then there is the fun factor. When was the last time you heard a bunch of young people blurt out, “Hey, let’s go play a few rounds at the country club!”
For golf-based businesses, it will be a serious struggle to turn things around. Small steps are being taken, for instance, with the recent re-inclusion of the sport at the Rio Olympic Games after a 112-year absence.
However, the four top-ranked players in the world — Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Speith — have decided to skip the event, leading to something of a PR disaster for the sport.
McIlroy, in particular, has been candid about his decision to not to attend, saying that he more or less plays golf for the prize money and would rather watch “track and field, swimming, diving — the stuff that matters” at the Games.
It’s going to take more than just a few more televised games to get young people playing golf again. Some argue that a hot new star (unlike McIlroy) who could act as an ambassador for the sport would help. Others say the answer is to make it easier for young people to get tee times at local courses.
Whatever the case, the sport’s boosters will need to do something more radical if they hope to give the activity as bright a future as, say, soccer.
Regards,
Ethan Warrick
Editor
Wealth Authority
