Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2012 - 10

Growing the Game-It's Doable
(editor's letter
)
W
hoever thunked up the phrase
" grow the game " ought to be
taken to the woodshed. Never
before in golf has a phrase promised so much
and delivered so little.
In 2003, the Minnesota Golf Council
called for the game's local stakeholders to,
you guessed it, grow the game. This group of
experienced stakeholders zeroed in on an immediate
fix to offset burgeoning supply and
slipping demand: more rounds. Everyone on
the council, profit and nonprofit alike, would
benefit if the game grew.
The theory was sound, only the council
In Minnesota, the window of opportunity
to actively engage a new or lapsed golfer
amounts to three months every season.
couldn't effectively implement a top-down
solution. In hindsight, it was like the Titanic's
Captain Smith asking for more life boats-
his crew simply couldn't deliver.
The game leaked a million golfers in 2010,
according to the National Golf Foundation.
What to do in the face of this massive exodus
is a riddle the PGA of America hopes to solve
with its new strategic grow-the-game plan
called Golf 2.0.
The PGA sees an opportunity in 90 million
lapsed golfers. Golf 2.0's goal is to increase
the number of golfers from 26.1 million to 40
million by the year 2020, largely by tapping
this latent source.
Whatever mojo the PGA hopes to tap into
to entice 13.9 million golfers back to the
game, it means that the PGA of America's
more than 28,000 members nationwide will
have to grow the game by about 500 new golfers
apiece, or more than 55 golfers every year
for the next nine. The heavy lifting will fall
disproportionately on the shoulders of public
facility golf pros, as the private pros are
largely engaged in retention.
In Minnesota, we will have to make hay
while the sun shines. Pleasant weather in
the spring equates to greater interest in the
game-which means that the window of opportunity
to actively engage a new or lapsed
golfer amounts to three months every season,
April to June.
Meanwhile, we'll also need to do what we
can to keep the 26.1 million current golfers
nationwide from abandoning the ship.
Consider that the PGA's research also acknowledges
that consumer behavior (read
leisure time and discretionary income) has
changed dramatically,
if not permanently.
These factors and the weather are largely beyond
our control, but both will potentially
impact the success of Golf 2.0.
The role of the PGA professional is indispensable
to the health of the game, but is Golf
2.0 beyond the realm of possible?
" It's not necessarily the number of golfers
that drives the business, it's the rounds
they play, " says MGA executive director Tom
Ryan.
It should be easier to get 25 existing golfers
to play one extra round than it would be to
create one new golfer who plays 25 rounds,
Ryan explains. If the PGA can get the existing
golfer base to play one extra round every
year, it would mean about 1,770 incremental
rounds for every golf facility in the country.
That's doable.
See you on the tee.
W.P. Ryan, Editor-in-Chief
8
MINNESOTAGOLFER Directory 2012
www.mngolf.org
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Minnesota Golfer - Directory 2012
