There’s no shortage of ideas about how to address golf’s participation problem. With both rounds and the actual number of people playing the game flat, the industry is increasingly anxious to figure out how to bring more warm bodies to the golf course.
The latest program seeking to address that issue is Golf 20/20’s Get Golf Ready in 5 Days. The initiative is aimed at bringing adults – who have the capacity to spend money now – into the game. While programs such as The First Tee are vital and necessary in order to train a new generation of future golfers, most operators right now are just fixated on getting through the present economic squeeze. And anything that creates “instant” players should be welcome.
New Golf 20/20 Director Cathy Harbin has tackled the issue head-on. She comes to her job with a successful track record of promoting grow-the-game initiatives in a variety of venues, most recently at the World Golf Village in St. Augustine, Fla.
Harbin has set a specific goal: Have 700 courses signed up for the program by the end of the year. If each one of those runs 50 students through the program, that’s an extra 35,000 people who’ll be introduced to the game. Encouragingly, Get Golf Ready is off to a fast start, with more than 330 courses signed up in the first week.
But its eventual success, after all is said and done, will depend on grass-roots support. Will it get the backing it needs from individual operators? Will your facility be one of the expected 700 to sign up for Get Golf Ready? What else can be done to bring new players to the game or to get existing golfers to play more often?