Women’s Golfing Industry

Written By Rebecca West

Women golfers rejoice!  Your time may finally be coming.  The industry surrounding the sport has finally started to stand up and take notice of your financial clout, and my suggestion to you would be to wield it – much like a 5 iron.  At the recent golf expo held in Orlando January 25-28, 2012, it was painfully obvious to the industry leaders what they’d been missing out on in the form of roughly $4.6 billion in revenue from the ladies of the sport, which is far too much by anyone’s standards to ignore.

The 2012 PGA Merchandise Show examined the ever-growing fact that the golf industry must do far more to garner and retain the business of women or continue to suffer the financial fallout.  The theme of this year’s PGA of America Expo, the Golf 2.0 initiative, was aimed at boosting participation, and some of the game’s icons such as the legendary Jack Nicklaus spoke of the growing need to make golf more accessible and fun for women.  “We’ve lost 23 percent of the women in the game and 36 percent of the kids in the game since 2006,” Nicklaus said during a panel discussion kicking off the 59^th annual summit at which well over 40,000 retailers, industry leaders, and PGA pros gathered to try and boost the economics of golf.  “That’s not a good stat.”

One after the other speakers alluded to the need to provide women with more tee areas on good courses, friendlier customer service, clean restroom facilities, and better selections of gear and clothing in pro shops.  Even if it meant offering golfers the option of playing fewer holes or enlarging the size of the cups, Nicklaus was all for ways to make golf “easier, more fun, and less expensive.”  Also in attendance was long-time women’s-rights activist Arthur Little, who spoke to reporters about the fact that the time was right for women to “demand that golf courses do the right thing.”  He was quoted as saying, “It’s basically so simple.  All the choices men have – for tees, in the pro shops, with food – women ought to have.”

Women’s financial clout has long been underestimated, and many businesses and industries are starting to see the folly of their ways in that rather outdated assumption that women are not a significant source of revenue.  This has been a huge and often costly mistake on the part of those in marketing.  In today’s economy it’s quickly becoming seen as professional suicide to neglect any niche group, especially one as formidable as women, as more and more businesses fall by the wayside unable to compete.

As women’s salaries grow and more and more are choosing to put off child rearing in favor of advancing their careers, there’s more free time and money for them to spend on personal indulgences in the form of arts and entertainment, becoming involved in activities such as golf and tennis, and a whole litany of endeavors previously seen as low priorities on a woman’s list of things to do.

Spread the love