People are playing more golf, but there are not as many club members in Australia.
The 2018 national golf club participation report, released today, has revealed a continuation of the trend of players not formally joining clubs to play their golf.
It also revealed that only Western Australia (+1.7%) and South Australia (+0.1%) bucked that trend with all eastern states and the Northern Territory (-1%) down on previous membership rates for an overall 1.6% decrease in the past year.
“These numbers reflect the broader challenges facing traditional sports from a range of societal and demographic pressures, primarily in available recreation time,” Golf Australia’s general manager of golf development David Gallichio said.
“Despite this, club golf remains vital to regional communities and it’s still the most popular club sport for adults in Australia.”
Rounds of competition golf, as recorded by GolfLINK, rose 1.5% to 10,321,659 in 2018, consistent with a five-year trend. The average competition rounds per member in 2014 was 25.6; that had risen to 26.9 by 2018.
The annual Ausplay survey estimated that 945,900 adults played golf in the past year, equating to 4.9% of the population aged 15 and older.
The sixth of its kind, the report provides annual figures and trends on membership, competition rounds, general participation and specific program participation.
The 2018 report highlights of the 383,613 members nationally, 212,047 were from regional areas and 149,420 from metropolitan zones.
Click HERE to view the full report.