Golf spreads wider

Press, 22 August 1989, Page 20

Golf spreads wider

From the “Economist,” London

IN ENGLAND, golf clubs still conjure up an image of upper-middle-aged and upper-middle-class businessmen — the sort who make sound committee men or Prime Ministers’ husbands — all gathered round an alcoholic nineteenth hole. The same could be said for most of continental Europe. But not for long; that curious creature, the post-yuppie, is knocking at the club-house door. Behind him are the businessmen who hope to turn European golf into the sort of SUS2O billion-a-year market it is in America. America has around 12,600 courses and 25 million golfers — against 17 million in 1985. The new players include many of the postwar baby boomers, who now find tennis a bit too active and are wealthy enough to afford a game where good clubs (the sort to hit a ball with) typically cost SUSSOO a set. Other new golfers are older people keen to keep fit (and thus, they hope, alive). American golfers spend around SUSB billion on member-

ship fees and equipment each year, and even more on travel and accommodation on special golf holidays. Europe has a mere 5 million active golfers (3 million of those in Britain) and just 2400 golf courses (1880 in Britain), according to Sports Marketing Surveys, a British research firm. The Eurogolfers spend a paltry SUS7SO million on equipment. But the market is growing: in France, around 115 golf courses are under construction, half as many as those now in use; in Holland 40 are being built, almost as many as currently exist.

Why the boom? Experienced putters say that the demand is coming from post-yuppies and the health-conscious oldsters, just as in America.

Most of the businesses building new courses in Europe are local ones. In Britain these include Whitbread, a brewer, and Trusthouse Forte, a hotelier. But America’s biggest golf-course owner, Landmark Land, now receives joint-venture proposals

from Europeans every two weeks, and Nitto Kogyo, Japan’s biggest golf-course operator, already owns Turnberry hotel and golf course in Scotland. Other companies from Japan, where the sport is seriously expensive — so seriously that few “golfers” ever see a green — are also active.

The biggest gap in the European market is at the top. A common American complaint is that Gleneagles in Scotland is Europe’s only luxury top-class hotel and golf course. Now Mr Brian Turner, a Canadian entrepreneur, is building a second one: the East Sussex National Golf Club. When finished the SUSSO million comaplex will include two 18-hole courses, a golf school and a 200bed luxury hotel. Mr Turner is looking for 1000 members. The cost of joining is a $U523,000 tradable debenture, exorbitant by British standards, but barely bigger than a caddy’s tip in America. Copyright—The Economist.