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The American Golf Census
More than 27 million Americans play nearly 500 million rounds each year. Golf’s economic impact is huge, as the industry provides hundreds of thousands of jobs and contributes billions of dollars annually to the nation’s economy and charities.
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The R&A Signs New Five Year Deal With The BBC To Broadcast The Open Until 2016
The Open will be broadcast on the BBC up to and including the 2016 Championship, following a new deal announced today by The R&A and BBC Sport. The new deal extends BBC Sport’s current contract as exclusive live television broadcaster, and also covers radio, online, interactive and iPlayer.
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Rounds of Golf Played Increasing in Australia
Australian golfers are taking to the fairways more often according to figures released by the Australian Golf Industry Council last week. The Australian Golf Industry Council, of which the PGA of Australia is a key member, has released a tally of club member competition rounds played across Australia last year.
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Mission Hills Builds for China's Golf Boom
When you run the biggest golf resort in the world and you bring a weak game, you play. Early and often, night and day. That's what Ken Chu did when he became vice-chairman of Mission Hills Group . The company opened the first course on what is now a sprawling 12-course club in Shenzhen, China, in 1994, and is building a 10-course venue in Hainan, the southern Chinese island Beijing is backing as a tourism hub.
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'Get Golf Ready' Program Covers All the Bases
How do you hit from a sand trap? When do you hit a provisional ball? Why do you get the shanks? Taking up golf certainly isn't for the faint of heart. The Manor's Cheryl Heckman, who learned the game as an adult, understands that. That's why she offers "Get Golf Ready," a national initiative started by the World Golf Foundation's Golf 20/20 arm in 2009.
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Driving BUSINESS
When Linda Rogers talks about golf, she means business. Earlier this year, on National Golf Day, the owner of Juday Creek Golf Course was talking to Congress people in Washington about the business of golf, part of a launch for the We Are Golf Consortium of several organizations (www.wearegolf.org).
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China’s Mission Hills Boosts Hainan Spending on Tourism Demand
Mission Hills Group, owner of the world’s largest golf club, will boost investment sixfold in a golfing complex on China’s Hainan island as the nation’s economic rebound spurs a tourism and property boom.
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South America Becoming Fertile Ground for Golf
Henrique Lavie was more involved than usual in meetings during The PLAYERS Championship. He is commissioner of Tour de las Americas, and while that is among golf's smallest circuits, it is becoming more important than ever. The Olympics in Brazil are six years away, and golf has only one shot to make a good impression before another vote to determine whether the sport makes it beyond the 2020 games.
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Golf in China: Targeting Three Million Players
China is one of the few places globally still building golf courses. As Dow Jones Investment Banker reports, potential sand traps and water hazards mean this may provide an opportunity for buyout firms and course-management companies that cut their teeth turning around busted courses in places such as the U.S. and Japan.
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The R&A Announces Support of the Greg Norman Foundation
The R&A has announced its support of the Greg Norman Foundation. It becomes the fifth initiative headed by an Open Champion, on the fifth continent, to be financially assisted by The R&A. The Foundation, headed by the two-time Open Champion, endeavours to make professional golf tuition available and affordable for the children of Queensland.
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Cuba Allows Foreign Investment in Tourism
Cuba has announced plans to allow foreigners to develop golf courses, marinas and related land projects to boost the nation's tourism industry.
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Austrailian Golf Industry Speaks With One Voice
The Austrailian Golf Industry Council (AGIC) is making steady progress, say chair Max Garske. Nine months are Australian golf industry delegates gave the AGIC a mandate to speak with one voice, the group's representative bodies have met on two occasions and are currently working on a number of key issues.
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Golf Comes to the Fore in India
Unlike traditional golf markets where the sport is promoted mainly among the middle-aged and older population, golf in India is generating a huge following among young people and children from middle-class families.
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The Challenges of New Golf Development in Australia
Over the past ten years nearly 50 golf courses have been developed and opened around Australia with approximately three quarters of these courses being part of a residential and/or resort development. As of January 2010, 27 of these courses were ranked in the country's top 100.
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Golf Industry Tees Up New Washington Lobbying Campaign
Has Washington fallen out of love with the game of golf? Last year, for example, Congress forbade golf courses from tapping into federal stimulus money, going so far as to lump the game in with casinos and (gasp!) massage parlors as businesses unworthy of assistance. The sport has also found itself at the center of some of Washington's tawdrier influence scandals in recent years, including those Jack Abramoff junkets to Scotland.
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WE ARE GOLF Coalition Shows Members of Congress Why Golf is More Than Just a Game for Americans
WE ARE GOLF, a new coalition led by four of the game’s leading associations and supported by other small businesses, met with key members of Congress today – in conjunction with the 3rd annual National Golf Day – to promote the true face of golf, one that better reflects the economic, human, health and environmental benefits of the industry across the nation.
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Thailand Hopes to Become Asia's Golf Hub
Thailand will underline its attempt to become Asia's golf hub by hosting four international events within 18 months starting with the inaugural PGA Conference of Asia later this month. Mike Sebastian, managing director of Asia Pacific Golf Development Conference and organiser of the events, said the move was a clear indication of the growing golf industry in Thailand.
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Golf In This Kingdom
The late King Hassan II was a golf fanatic. Not only did the Moroccan monarch tee it up as often as royal duties allowed, but he also carried a single-digit handicap for much of his adult life- thanks in no small part to his engaging first Claude Harmon and later Billy Casper as his personal teaching pros.
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Royal Canadian Golf Association Prepares to Remake Itself
The Royal Canadian Golf Association will unveil its new identity as Golf Canada. Well, the RCGA will still be the RCGA when it comes to such business as working on rules with other organizations. Governors will wear the RCGA jacket when they attend USGA and R&A functions, but still, this marks the dawn of a new day.
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OneAsia Appoints Sang Y. Chun as New Chairman
OneAsia - Asia Pacific's first consolidated professional tournament pathway for elite golfers - today announced the appointment of Mr. Sang Y. Chun as its new Chairman and Commissioner. Mr. Chun is an industry veteran with extensive experience in sports sponsorship and securing multi-million dollar television deals across the globe, involving many sports most valuable properties.
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International Golf Facility Planned for Malaysia
Malaysia could soon be on the international golf circuit with plans to develop a PGA TOUR TPC facility in the country. PGA TOUR commissioner Tim Finchem discussed the possibility of developing the TPC (Tournament Players Club) facility during a meeting with Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak here on Wednesday.
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Unraveling the Chinese Golf Markets
The evolution of the golf markets in China has been dramatic over the past several years. This evolution, coupled with the prospects of economic growth, the global economic recession and the overbuilding of the golf markets in North America, bring an allure to the prospects for golf in China. For those in the golf industry that were not the early adapters in China, many are now investigating the possibility of business growth in China.
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PGA TOUR Eager to Tap Japan Market
The U.S. PGA TOUR is eager to launch a tournament in Japan in late 2011 as it explores new markets amid the global economic slowdown, a Japanese tour executive says.
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HP Joins Ryder Cup Team
Ryder Cup Europe has announced a sponsorship deal with technology giant HP for this year's tournament. In its capacity as the official technology partner of the 2010 Ryder Cup, HP will provide a unified wired and wireless network to allow for internet services throughout the Ryder Cup complex in Wales' Celtic Manor Resort.
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Golf Searches For Its Feminine Side
If the vast majority of golfers were women, with men accommodated mostly as an afterthought—in other words, the inverse of the way things actually are—the primary set of tees at most courses would be around 4,900 yards. Female players could reach every green in regulation (two shots on a par-four). Green fees would be cheaper, courses would have more flowers and aesthetic amenities and on-site restaurants would serve healthier food.
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IGF: China will Have Top Golfers, Games Medalists
Golf could evolve into a big business in China and give the country a chance to win Olympic medals, officials and scholars said in the capital of Hainan province yesterday. Dawson said the inclusion of golf at the 2016 Olympic Games will benefit China and golf tourism in Hainan, China's southern most province, as it attempts to build itself into a top international tour destination by 2020.
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Cuba Readies for U.S. Tourists With Golf Courses, Luxury Hotels
Cuba’s hotels could manage a sudden influx of one million American tourists if the U.S. Congress lifts its 47-year ban on travel to the Communist island, Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero said.
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Ryder Cup-Themed School Curriculum Launched in Newport
The European Tour has joined forces with Newport City Council Local Education Authority to launch a new, bilingual Ryder Cup-themed curriculum to pupils from years two to eight in schools across the city.
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State of the Media, By the Numbers
The annual State of the Media report by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism was released this morning. The report looks back on how every part of the media fared in 2009,including newspapers, magazines, network news, cable television, and online sites.
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Q&A with Asian Tour Chairman Kyi Hln Han by the Global Golf Post
Asian Tour executive chairman Kyi Hla Han has been one of the leaders in the development of professional golf in Asia since the early 1990s.
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Hail Colombia!
As part of its changed image, Colombia is staking a place in the international golf world with over 50 challenging courses. The nation boasts courses designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player in exotic locations as diverse as the country itself.
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Only One Of 20 Beijing Golf Courses Legal, Says Official
Only one of the some 20 golf courses in Beijing has been developed legally, a member of the law committee in China's parliament said. Amid concerns about land grabs of prime farming land, China's government put a moratorium on the development of new golf courses in 2004 and reinforced the ban last year.
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Golden Touch: Three The First Tee Students Experience a Legend up Close
Nearly a quarter century ago, when I first started writing about golf for the Associated Press, Bob Green, who lugged around the label "AP Golf Writer" for 26 years, gave me these words of advice: "You can never write too much Jack Nicklaus." Which leads me to a lovely Thursday morning at The Bear's Club, three charming young The First Tee golfers and Nicklaus, the legend who can't do enough for the game.
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Hockey's Olympic Boom Could Happen To Golf
The 2016 Summer Games will be in Brazil, a country of 200 million people with just a handful of golfers. Imagine the growth potential. Now multiply that worldwide. Imagine if the men's golf final in Rio de Janeiro was a shootout between Colombia's Camilo Villegas and Japan's Ryo Ishikawa and the women's involved America's Michelle Wie and China's Shanshan Feng. And when a compelling competition occurs, people watch and remember.
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Palm Beach County Golf Report Highlights the Sport's Contributions
Home to The PGA of America for 45 years and stretching along Florida's scenic Gold Coast, Palm Beach County is the quintessential golf destination. Golf is a significant industry contributing to the vitality of the county's economy. According to the Palm Beach County Golf Economy Report, the golf industry generated a total economic impact of $1.8 billion in 2007 supporting nearly 21,000 jobs with $600 million of wage income.
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OneAsia Ties Up 5-year Regional Broadcast Deal With ESPN STAR Sports
Asia’s biggest sports content provider, ESPN STAR Sports, announced today its multi-year regional television broadcast partnership to showcase the new OneAsia golf series, Asia Pacific's first consolidated professional tournament pathway for elite golfers.
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WE ARE GOLF Editorial by Golf Digest
If you care at all about how your sport is being treated by Washington these days, John Paul Newport’s weekend piece in the Wall Street Journal about the new “We Are Golf” lobbying initiative, announced at the PGA Merchandise Show is worth a read. Big program, big deal.
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Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Forms Partnership with TPC Sawgrass
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Northeast District Office will partner with the PGA TOUR’s TPC Sawgrass to host an environmental outreach seminar for golf course managers and superintendents on Wednesday, February 24 at the club. The seminar is designed to assist golf courses in the region with environmental stewardship, using many of the environmental practices initiated at TPC Sawgrass as a model.
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USGA & the PGA of America to Create Central Repository for African-American Golf History
In recognition of the numerous contributions that African Americans have made to golf over more than a century, the United States Golf Association and The PGA of America have agreed to create a centralized repository for artifacts and documents related to the history of African Americans in golf, to be located at the USGA Museum in Far Hills, N.J.
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Game On
After a year marked by sponsorship issues and turmoil at the top, the LPGA heads into its 60th season with 44-year-old Mike Whan representing a welcome change in style and, hopefully, substance.
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Golf's Four-Letter Words: Slow Play
It's perhaps the bane of golf's existence: its dreadful pace of play. One of the reasons that newcomers leave the game is that golf simply takes too long.
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PGA TOUR Pledges Support to The First Lady’s National Campaign to Battle Childhood Obesity
The PGA TOUR today announced its support of First Lady Michelle Obama’s national initiative to combat childhood obesity, which was announced today at the White House.
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Q&A with Annika Sorenstam by the Global Golf Post
In a one-on-one interview with Global Golf Post Editor-In-Chief Brian Hewitt, Annika Sorenstam talks candidly and openly about anything and everything that comes up. The subjects range from motherhood and growing her business empire in a tough economy to new LPGA Commissioner Michael Whan and golf in the Olympics.
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USGA Makes the Most of a Trying Year
In what could only be described as a trying year financially for the golf industry, the USGA managed to make a profit of $7.8 million in 2009 on revenues of $144 million, according to the financial information published in its annual report released this week on the eve of the USGA annual meeting.
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Tour Club Looks to Attract Businesses to Pro Golf
The PGA TOUR thinks the time is right for corporations to get back to business - and it sees the Tour Club as a new way for CEOs to partner with professional golf. The Tour Club, licensed by the PGA TOUR, offers corporate members the chance to send clients, employees and guests to PGA TOUR events,stay in luxury accommodations and even set pins with tour officials or watch TV broadcasts from the control truck.
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North Carolina's Hyler Elected To Serve Term As USGA President
The U.S. Golf Association elects James B. Hyler Jr. of Raleigh, NC, to serve a one year term as president. Hyler is in his seventh year as a member of the USGA Executive Committee, a term that has included three years as a USGA vice president.
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VIETNAM: On Course for Growth
After loosening control over the number of "golf course investment projects" around the country, Vietnam is set to experience a course construction boom over the next decade.
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Environmental Institute for Golf Aims at a Sustainable Industry
With a focus on continual improvement, Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Chief Executive Officer Mark J. Woodward, CGCS, announced that the association's philanthropic organization – The Environmental Institute for Golf – will create and lead a program that will provide the golf industry with a sustainable approach to golf facility management.
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Get Golf Ready Enters Second Year After Exceeding Facility Participation Goals in its Inaugural Year
Aimed at bringing adults into the game in a fast, fun and affordable way, Get Golf Ready in 5 Days introduced the game to thousands of golfers in its inaugural year. Launched as Play Golf America’s featured program in 2009, more than 1,150 facilities are currently certified to host the program, surpassing the target goal of 700 host facilities.
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FedEx Teams Up With The First Tee to Launch a Sustainable Golf Program
As part of the FedEx commitment to environmental sustainability, the company is launching the FedExCup® Fore!Ever campaign with the PGA TOUR, Audubon International and one of golf’s premiere youth charitable organizations, The First Tee.
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Callaway Golf to Sponsor CBS Sports' Super Bowl XLIV Telecast
Callaway Golf Company and CBS Sports have reached a unique agreement that establishes the golf equipment manufacturer as a presenting sponsor of the Super Bowl Today pregame show on Sunday, February 7th. The partnership marks the first ever Super Bowl pregame sponsorship struck by a stand-alone golf company.
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Asian Game Growing Despite World Economy
The Asian Tour, the third-richest after the U.S. PGA TOUR and European Tour, has 28-30 events this year including WGF events and the four major championships. It plans to take that number to 35 with a total purse of $45 million by 2012.
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Michael Whan's Articles of Faith
For Michael Whan, the concept of marketing is a "nice esoteric" discussion. What's most important, said Whan, the new commissioner of the LPGA, is whether marketing efforts turn translates into results.
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Part II of Q&A with Peter Dawson by the Global Golf Post
In Part II of Global Golf Post's exclusive interview with R&A boss Peter Dawson, we learn the significant, but little known distinction between The R&A and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club. Dawson also takes us behind the scenes at Copenhagen where golf gained admission into the Olympics.
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RBC Joins the PGA of America as Official Patron
The PGA of America today announced that RBC has become a PGA of America Official Patron, the highest level of partnership and designation granted by the world's largest working sports organization.
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PGA Historical Center Unveils African-American Pioneers Exhibit
In celebration of Black History Month, the PGA Historical Center, in Port St. Lucie, Fla., has unveiled a tribute to influential African Americas who paved the path for diversity and equal treatment for everyone who plays the game.
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WE ARE GOLF to be Introduced at PGA Merchandise Show
WE ARE GOLF, a coalition of four of the game's leading associations, was announced today as an initiative to change the face of golf and to represent the economic, human and environmental benefits of the industry at federal, state and local levels of government.
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PGA TOUR Launches New Charity Website
Making a positive impact on the communities where PGA TOUR tournaments are held and players live has become an even larger focus in the PGA TOUR’s charitable mission with the “Together, anything’s possible” campaign.
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PGA TOUR Player Jim Furyk Visits The First Tee
Although courting supporters was not the aim of the golfing star's visit to The First Tee of St. Johns County, it was almost certainly the by-product. For more than an hour Monday afternoon, the 2003 U.S. Open champion and Ponte Vedra Beach resident demonstrated shots, talked about his career and his game, gave some individual instruction and signed autographs for about 75 county youngsters and their parents.
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PGA TOUR’s Final Charity Total for 2009 Hits $108 Million
The PGA TOUR announced today that its combined charitable contributions from tournaments on the PGA TOUR, Champions Tour and Nationwide Tour came to $108 million for 2009.
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Q&A with Peter Dawson by the Global Golf Post
Peter Dawson is arguably the most powerful man in golf outside of the United States. As secretary of the R&A, his domain is global and even his harshest critics credit him for gently nudging the body he governs into the 21st century.
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School Initiatives Help Kids Find Golf
It isn’t GOLF weather in many parts of the United States, but at a growing number of elementary schools, the climate is better than it has ever been for introducing the game to children who otherwise might not have had the opportunity.
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Douglas Reappointed as Chairman of USGA Women's Committee
Barbara Douglas has been appointed by the USGA Executive Committee to serve a second one-year term in 2010 as chairman of the United States Golf Association's Women's Committee, USGA officials have announced.
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McDonald to be Named RCGA President
Jack McDonald will become the 107th president of Royal Canadian Golf Association. The job consists of, among other things, chairing the 11-person RCGA committee, being an ambassador for the association and some “perfunctory” duties, like speaking and giving out trophies at the RBC Canadian Open, a PGA Tour event, and the CN Canadian Women’s Open, an LPGA event.
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Callaway Golf Tees Up in India
Callaway Golf Co., the U.S. golf equipment manufacturer, is opening an Indian unit and has signed India's most famous golfer as a brand ambassador in an effort to tap the growing popularity of the sport in the world's second most populous country after China.
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Joe Steranka Named 2010 Named World Golf Foundation Chair
Joe Steranka, Chief Executive Officer of The PGA of America, has been named Chairman of the World Golf Foundation for 2010. Steranka succeeds R&A Chief Executive Peter Dawson, who served as the Foundation’s 2009 Chairman.
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Ryder Cup Profits Funding European Golf Development
The restructuring of the Ryder Cup in 2004 saw the creation of the Ryder Cup European Development Trust (RCEDT), a charity which ensures that a proportion of the profits from the Matches are distributed to grass-roots golf programmes throughout Europe. As a result, a total figure of some €2.5m was available after the matches at the K Club in 2006 and, since then, funding has now been granted to projects of varying size in seven countries.
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USGA Grants In 2009 Benefit More Than 230,000 Young People, Individuals With Disabilities
The United States Golf Association announced that it awarded $1.87 million to support the development of 127 golf programs through its "For the Good of the Game" Grants Initiative during 2009.
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American 'Get Golf Ready' garners EGCOA Grow the Game Award
The National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA) received the 2009 EGCOA Grow the Game Award for their involvement in the US golf industry's 'Get Golf Ready' initiative.
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Final Ballot Announced For 17th Annual ING Industry Honors
Hundreds of nominations from across the golf industry have been trimmed to three nominees in each category in the 17th Annual ING Industry Honors awards program. Called by some the "Academy Awards of the golf industry," the ING Industry Honors program is conducted by the non-profit International Network Of Golf to recognize outstanding achievement in the golf business.
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GCSAA Research Examines Nutrient Use on Golf Courses
The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) has released the results of a nationwide survey of golf courses examining nutrient use and management on golf facilities.
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2010 Economic Impact Studies
Five new states have been selected to conduct Economic Impact Studies in 2010. Those states are: Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Oregon and Wisconsin.
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