PGA Tour Commissioner & World Golf Foundation Chair Tim
Finchem last Friday "challenged a group of" about 200
"industry leaders" at the three-day Golf 20/20: Vision for
the Future conference at the World Golf Village in FL to
"make golf the sport with the largest fan base in the
country, surpassing even No. 1 football" by 2020, according
to Dale Gardner of GOLFWEEK.com. Citing figures from an
ESPN Sports Poll that indicates 69.3% of Americans say they
are "interested in football," Finchem said, "I think that's
a reasonable goal." Finchem added that golf had a 43.3%
level of interest in the poll, up from 20.1% in '80.
Finchem told the audience that the industry "should pursue a
participation goal" of 55.4 million by 2020, up from 35.4
million currently. That 2.2% rate of annual growth "could
be achieved by simply reducing the number of people who quit
the game each year by 500,000 to 2.5 million and increasing
the number of newcomers by 500,000 to 3.5 million"
(GOLFWEEK.com, 11/17). In FL, Garry Smits wrote that
Finchem also "wants to raise the fan base of golf" from 96
million to 177 million by 2020. To do that, Finchem
"proposed a number of solutions, including better consumer
research and analysis, using new media such as the Internet
to track the fan and player base" (FL TIMES-UNION, 11/20).
IT TAKES A VILLAGE: Also in FL, Alexa Jaworski reviews
the Town Center at the World Golf Village, and writes, "It
is easy to be reminded of Universal Studios' CityWalk or
Downtown Disney." But World Golf HOF COO Bruce Lucker
"wants to surpass that image," saying, "We aspire to have
the success [of the two Orlando retail centers]. We want
that element to be folded into a living, breathing, vital
community" (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 11/21).
