European golf: Registered golfers down

• European golf report published by KPMG
• No. of registered golfers down marginally across the board
• England, Wales and Ireland all experience decline

A new report into European golf has shown that 15 countries suffered a decline in ‘registered golfers’ from 2014 to 2015.

The 2016 KPMG Golf Participation Report for Europe has found that the number of registered across the Continent fell by 0.3% from 4,154,863 to 4,142,661 in that period, with emerging golf nations – such as Lithuania, Bulgaria and Estonia – helping to offset losses experienced by more established golfing nations.

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The bad news

England continues to have the highest number of registered golfers, with 661,805. However, that is down by 2.4% (16,567) on 2014. Spain has seen its number fall 2.2% to 277,782, whilst Ireland, Australia, Italy, Wales and Portugal have also experienced losses.

There will be particular cause for alarm in Wales, where there was almost 5% of a difference from 2014 to 2015, a drop of 2,350.

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The good news

Sweden, by comparison, enjoyed growth of 4.6% in the same time period. Its total number of registered rose by almost 20,000, from just under 436,000 to almost 456,000.

Switzerland, Belgium and Poland also experienced growth. However, by the biggest improvements have been identified in eastern Europe. Between them, Estonia, Russia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Lithuania, as well as Moldova, Azerbaijan and Armenia, have registered over 1,000 new golfers in that time.

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The picture in Scotland

The picture in the home of golf is a little less clear than it is in other nations, simply because the data provided for the study compares numbers for 2013 and 2014.

Based on those figures, Scotland has the seventh highest number of registered golfers in Europe, with just under 200,000 (199,244). That’s down by just 0.6% and is, therefore, classed as ‘stable’.

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What about the golf courses?

There are 7,097 courses in Europe, not including par-3 courses, academy courses or ‘pitch & putts’.

Of Europe’s established golfing nations, Scotland also continues to have the most courses per capita, with 8,710 residents per course. That’s as compared with 28,029 per course in England, 22,022 per course in Sweden and 107,209 per course in Spain.

Across Europe, 40 new courses opened between 2014 and 2015, with 22 closing. England and Ireland accounted for half of those closures, losing six and five courses respectively.

The Netherlands had the most new courses open for play, with eight.

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Other noteworthy results

Adult males account for two-thirds of the total number of registered golfers in Europe. Adult women account for a quarter, with the remaining 9% made up of juniors.

The proportion of the European population who actively played golf in 2015 was 0.9%.

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European Golf report :: your thoughts

What do you make of the findings of this new European golf report? Have you joined or left a club in recent months? Why did you do so? Leave all your thoughts in our ‘Comments’ section below.

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor