Is a program created by the U.S. Olympic Committee the answer for getting more people to play golf? The sport’s top properties are about to find out.
The PGA Tour, LPGA, PGA of America, Masters and U.S. Golf Association will implement the American Development Model, which the USOC created in 2014 to encourage people to become physically active and develop their skills.
The USOC started the program as the organization, like the game of golf, saw a decline in participation in several sports. Chris Snyder, director of coaching education for the USOC, said 23 national governing bodies use ADM concepts in education and programming. The USOC expects to see more than 30 NGBs using the concepts by the start of 2019.
Ted Logan, player development consultant for the PGA of America, said the program will provide a framework to guide decision-making for the sport.
“If you think of stages of sport, you enter a game, you’ve enjoyed the game and then you excel at the game,” Logan said. “ADM is going to help us identify what the key factors are in those stages. It’s really based on human development, consumer experiences and data. If people are having an amazing and welcoming experience, if they are staying in the game because they are enjoying it, and then if they have opportunities to really excel at the game, that’s how we feel we will grow the sport.”
Unlike most Olympic sports, which have only one NGB, golf has five associations working together to establish their own version of the ADM.
“Swimming has USA Swimming. Basketball has USA Basketball. That’s their national governing body of sport,” Logan said. “Golf’s lucky. We have a whole group of successful associations that could be almost called a governing body. The PGA of America, the PGA Tour, the United States Golf Association, the Masters and the LPGA Tour have all banded together on this. That’s who we’re working with collectively to see how it could take shape for golf.”
According to the National Golf Foundation, on-course golf participation dropped from 24.1 million in 2015 to 23.8 million in 2016. “If you look at participation in sport overall in the U.S., it’s declining in a number of different sports,” Logan said. “[Our goal] is to grow participation. When participation rises, we all benefit. From a PGA of America perspective, we want to grow the game. When participation grows, there’s more customers. Hopefully, overall in the industry when there’s an influx of participation and customers, our entire industry benefits.”
The golf properties have not announced any ADM initiatives, but have discussed the effort at industry events. They plan to outline more specifics by the end of the year. Initiatives could take the shape of new clinics for youth and adults, different ways to experience the game versus a traditional 18-hole round on a golf course, and new marketing programs. The bottom line is to make initial encounters with golf enjoyable and provide reasons for people to continue playing.
Despite the drop in on-course participation, golf has reasons for optimism. The number of youth golfers ages 6-17 grew from 2.4 million in 2011 to 2.9 million in 2016, an increase of more than 20 percent, according to the National Golf Foundation. Diversity also grew among junior golfers during that time, as female and non-Caucasian participation increased.
Through on-course and off-course venues, 32 million people participated in the game of golf in 2016, up from 31.1 million the year before. Twenty million individuals participated in popular off-course venues such as Topgolf, driving ranges and indoor golf simulators.
“From a golf perspective, we are not there yet,” Logan said. “I think by the end of the year, we’ll have our ADM completed and we can start to identify some key actions that will help us increase participation and really track our consumers and make sure they are having the right experience at the right time in their golf pathway.”
