We recently confirmed the news that Northern Ireland’s World Number 3 Rory McIlroy will compete in the Emirates Australian Open for the first time since 2007.
It’s great news for the Open and we’re all looking forward to having Rory back on our shores.
Together with the excitement on the return of our US Masters champion Adam Scott, it bodes for a terrific week at Royal Sydney Golf Club at the end of November.
If you haven’t purchased a ticket, they are now available at www.ticketek.com or by phoning 132 849 and we look forward to seeing as many golf fans as possible in Sydney.
In industry news, the Australian Golf Industry Council recently confirmed that competition golf rounds played in Australia increased by 5.4% to more than 13.1 million in the 2012-2013 financial year.
With more favourable golf weather conditions across the east coast of Australia in the last 12 months, the eastern states collectively pushed the annual national result to above 5% for the year.
This was driven by New South Wales – the largest state (in terms of golfers) delivering the largest rounds growth in the east of 7.6%
The Northern Territory recorded the strongest growth of any state or territory for the financial year, up 13.9% on the 2011-2012 financial year figures.
The majority of the growth for the year has been in metropolitan regions, up 5.9% for the year against 5% in the regional areas.
Among the largest increases in competition rounds by district was Illawarra in NSW at 9% and Group D (largely social clubs) in Western Australia where competition rounds played increased by 19%.
To have more than 13.1 million competition rounds played on Australian golf courses is a great result and that’s in addition to the millions of social golf rounds played during that period.
There are a range of factors that contribute to energising golfers to play more regularly including improved weather conditions and inspiration from the success of Australian players overseas – both of which we’ve seen in recent times.
With the new financial year underway, facility managers can continue to measure their own performance against the market trends, helping to put their own facility results into perspective.
Information on the Australian Golf Industry Council data is available at www.golf.org.au or www.agic.org.au