ENGLISH GOLF UNION RESEARCH HELPS COUNTY DEVELOPMENT
Following on from the recently published Golf Club Membership
Questionnaire 2004 results, the English Golf Union (EGU) and
English Ladies Golf Association (ELGA) have completed further
research relating to each of the 35 golfing counties.
Detailed statistics have been produced for each county highlighting
their strengths and weaknesses and identifying opportunities
and areas of focus for future golf development. The results
are already assisting the governing bodies in their ongoing
strategic plan for England Golf as a whole, but they will
also help each county to provide support to their golf clubs
and create long-term development plans.
The county breakdowns provide comparisons to regional and
national trends, with results highlighting membership vacancies,
waiting lists, membership fees, joining procedures and valuable
junior development matters including coaching, structures
and competitions.
Richard Flint, Golf Development Manager for the EGU commented:
“Junior Golf is the future of the game and much credit
should be given to those counties who are already focusing
on this area of development. Hopefully this research will
enable counties to benchmark their efforts and track the success
of their efforts over time”
Counties who have the highest proportion of junior members
are led by three Northern counties Northumberland with 11%
of members being juniors, followed by Cumbria and Durham with
10%. The national average is 8%.
Those counties who are showing the largest increases in junior
membership compared to the last survey in 2002 do vary when
comparing boys and girls. Derbyshire leads the way for developing
boy’s membership with 71% of their clubs showing increases,
followed by the Isle of Man and Sussex both with 60% of clubs
showing a positive trend. The national average is 44%.
Gloucestershire leads the way in improving girl’s membership
with 50% of clubs showing increases followed by Northumberland
with 46% and Bedfordshire with 43%. The national average is
34%.
County breakdowns are available upon request from the EGU.
The EGU and ELGA are studying the results of the questionnaire
further to identify trends and statistics for private members
golf clubs and both the municipal and proprietary golf club
sectors. The aim is to determine any specific needs and support
required for these areas of the industry
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