Golf has been confirmed as the biggest participation sport or game in Wales, with women’s golf almost tripling in the last three years.
New National Survey of Wales figures reveal show golf, including driving ranges and social play had a participation level of 100,000 adults, or almost 2% of the population of Wales, during the four week period of the survey.
New Wales Golf figures show the number of women joining golf clubs last year went up by around 4%, with girls golf holding steady, while men’s membership increased 5%, with overall membership up 7% for adults and juniors.
It comes after the Welsh Government gave £1 million Legacy Fund to ensure a long term benefit from hosting the AIG Women’s Open, with a significant boost to women’s golf participation in Wales.
Thanks to the Legacy Fund new facilities for women and girls at almost 50 clubs around Wales have been completed and are starting to be used, transforming golf clubs as attractive venues for women and girls to play. Around a third of Welsh golf clubs were successful if receiving some of the Welsh Government money, in total there were around 80 new facilities planned.
The £1 million in Legacy Fund money from the Welsh Government unlocked around £3 million of spending overall as clubs added to the grant money to complete the projects.
These increases help make golf the biggest adult participation sport in Wales, as published in the most recent National Survey for Wales. Participation in a ‘Sport’ or ‘Game’ was a separate category from Fitness Activity, such as walking, swimming or going to the gym. Pool, darts and football were second, third and fourth in the list, with cricket, tennis and badminton also in the top ten.
“We have just finished our annual survey of golf club membership in Wales and we are delighted to say that the numbers of women members have gone up significantly, with the growth in women participating in golf having almost tripled in the last three years,” said Hannah McAllister, CEO of Wales Golf.
“That was one of our key performance targets in the year the world’s best women golfers competed in Wales for the first time, so it is great to see that legacy in the numbers of people enjoying our sport. Thanks to the Welsh Government for providing the Legacy Fund, the facilities that those grants made possible will be having an impact for many years to come.
“The membership figures are incredibly strong, almost 60,000 members around Wales, junior membership is up by almost a third and more than 60 percent for our current strategy period, thanks to the strong growth of Boys golf.
“We also saw increases in members of our Flexi Club, which is an alternative to club membership for some, along with using the Wales Golf App, entering competitions and overall engagement with Wales Golf through social media or our newsletters.”
She added: “It was also a year when we exceeded targets in our team performances with our Women’s team qualifying in the top eight nations in Europe and the Men’s team promoted to the top flight in the European Team Championships next year.
“The importance of golf in Wales was underlined by the figures showing more adults here play golf than any other sport, including football and rugby, and it is great to have had the recognition from Welsh Government for the contribution we make to their #BeActiveWales campaign.”
Overall golf club membership in Wales increased to 56,501, with 45,171 men and 5,549 women. Junior membership is 5,781, with 5,276 boys and 505 girls. There are also 1,211 Flexi Club members.
