National Golf Foundation to release new report to private golf clubs

The National Golf Foundation has been awarded a grant by the NCA Foundation of the National Club Association which will be used to distribute the NGF's upcoming publication, The Future of Private Golf Clubs in the U.S., to private club presidents, owners and managers throughout the country.

The report, scheduled to be released early this summer, will provide an in-depth look at the state of private golf in the United States. Based on interviews with club operators, financial data provided by clubs and a nationally representative survey of golfers, the report will look at the current state of private golf as well as the future outlook for the nation's 4,400 golf clubs. 

Highlights from the study include an statistic that shows for every private club that has closed its doors over the past decade, another 10 have converted to public courses. This would appear to be a good sign in terms of accessibility for average golfers.

Depending on which side of the issue you stand the next number could be viewed as alarming or indicative of changing times; The number of private golf clubs in the U.S. today is equal to the number that existed on the eve of the Great Depression.

Home relocation and financial reasons are the top two situations people cited for leaving clubs.

Overall the study suggests that latent demand still exists for private clubs, and baby boomers may yet join in the years ahead.

"The NGF undertook this research to help clarify the current financial state of private clubs and the outlook for their future," said NGF president and CEO Joe Beditz. "We've read with interest numerous articles over the past several months dealing with the state of private golf. And, while these articles have done a good job of detailing the problems being experienced by private clubs, we felt that a more rigorous effort was called for to accurately quantify not only the extent of the challenges, but also what successful operators are doing to overcome them."

Beditz went on to say that the research was based on hundreds of interviews with club operators and thousands of surveys of private club members, former members and prospective members. Detailed study results will be presented to attendees of the NGF's upcoming Golf Business Symposium in Dallas, May 15.

Sue Wegrzyn, president and CEO of the NCA, said the NGF study fit perfectly into the mission of the NCA Foundation, the NCA's charitable arm which focuses on research and education in the private club field. "The NCA Foundation was established in 1993 in order to fund critical trends studies and underwrite education programs and research to help clubs prepare for their future. We were glad to be able to provide this grant to the NGF which will be used to ensure that the report achieves the widest possible distribution to private clubs."