Golf 20/20 Unveils Get Golf Ready Player Development Program
The World Golf Foundation's (WGF) Golf 20/20 development initiative yesterday unveiled Get Golf Ready in Five Days, an "ambitious player development program, ... marshaling almost every major governing body of the sport behind a two-phase, five-year plan with the goal of adding 700,000 new players by 2013," according to Garry Smits of the FLORIDA TIMES-UNION. The program will "use the resources of organizations" such as the WGF, the PGA of America, the USGA, the PGA Tour, the LPGA and "governing bodies of golf course owners, operators, superintendents and architects." Equipment manufacturers and golf broadcast partners also are "on board." The WGF will "provide a $1,000 stipend to certified host facilities that adhere to certain requirements, such as an 8-to-1 teacher-to-student ratio, the use of free-range balls and clubs during lessons and providing the on-course experiences." The goal is to "have 700 participating facilities by 2009, 3,000 by 2011 and 5,000 by 2013." The initiative was explained to "more than 250 members of the golf industry" yesterday at the annual Golf 20/20 conference at St. Johns County (FL) Convention Center in St. Augustine, Florida (FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, 11/12). Nike Golf President Cindy Davis, who helped develop the program, said that the plan "may generate as much as $700[M] in spending on the sport by 2013." BLOOMBERG NEWS' Michael Buteau reports the program will involve offering beginners a "set of five lessons covering basic skills, rules, etiquette and values for $99." The most recent National Golf Foundation study found that golf participation in the U.S. "fell to 26 million in 2005 from 30 million in 2000" (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 11/12). GOLFWEEK's Gene Yasuda notes sponsorship sales are "expected to generate $3[M] to roll out" the program, and the "main purpose of the sponsorship revenue is to accelerate the program's introduction in local markets" (GOLFWEEK, 11/15 issue).
NEW DIRECTION: GOLF WORLD's Ron Sirak wrote one of the "interesting oddities of the Tiger Woods era has been that while golf has grown as a spectator sport ... the number of people actually playing the game has remained flat." But Get Golf Ready offers "several innovative ideas that provide reason to think this program could work in a big way." The grass-roots nature of the initiative is "key and perhaps offers the best reason for hope." Sirak: "Essentially, think of Get Golf Ready as a community organizer and the facilities as the churches through which instruction will be disseminated" (GOLFDIGEST.com, 11/11). GOLFWEEK's Yasuda writes Get Golf Ready represents an "unprecedented national effort and the first to be financed primarily by the industry's private sector." The program marks a "decidedly different direction for Golf 20/20," which has "lost momentum in recent years" (GOLFWEEK, 11/15 issue).
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