Australian golf has certainly been on a roll in the past couple of months – from the top down.
There’s been a lot of positive news around tournament golf and the performance of our best players at the major championships, none more so than Jason Day.
Certainly Jason’s efforts in getting to world No.1 – coming on the back of his remarkable run of four victories in six starts on the US PGA Tour, including the US PGA Championship – has been nothing short of sublime.
Then to top it all off, we rejoiced in not only having four members of the Presidents Cup team that came so close to stunning the Americans in Korea, but also that three had key victories in the final day’s singles events as the Internationals made their charge.
Those results came hot on the heels of the announcement that Melbourne had secured the rights to host both the 2016 World Cup and the 2019 Presidents Cup, really ramming home our successful run.
One of the really positive things about those tournaments coming to Australia and the performance of our elite men and women around the globe is that it all has a really strong impact on grass-roots golf at home.
The clearest evidence of this was the surge in interest and membership when Greg Norman took the world by storm a generation ago.
Karrie Webb, likewise, was a catalyst for many women to get involved in the game with her multiple major championship successes.
And more recently, when Adam Scott broke Australia’s duck at the Masters in 2013, interest and golf activity spiked around the country.
Great results and tournament news translate into greater profile for the game and subsequently more participation and rounds played. Hopefully, down the road, it all has a positive impact on club membership.
There are a number of strengths with our grass-roots golf at the moment, none more so than an extremely positive innovation we’re presently enjoying – GOLF MONTH.
Clubs and other golf facilities have really got behind GOLF MONTH throughout October and we’ve been really delighted with how the program has performed.
This year we’ve had additional 50 centres come on board and support the initiative and, through their support, there are three times the number of activations for prospective golfers that we had last year.
I encourage all who read this to engage a friend in golf – get them involved at your local facility and teach them what the fuss is all about.
Looking forward, we see the GOLF MONTH initiative growing and connecting people to golf clubs and ultimately memberships.
Let’s hope that Jason and his countrymen and women continue to succeed and thereby promote the sport at the highest level, too!