According to a recent National Golf Foundation participation report, the number of golfers age 6-17 dropped 24 percent to 2.9 million from 3.8 million over the past four years. Ironically, during that same time period, the popularity of The First Tee, the national program aimed at introducing younger players to golf, has been exploding.
There are now 200 First Tee Chapters in the U.S., which oversee the operation of clinics at 700 facilities and training programs for some 400,000 kids. Another 1.6 million will take up golf in elementary school gym classes The First Tee has developed. Its programs often present the game in combination with “life skills” such as being honest, polite and other virtuous attributes golf prides itself on.
Presented with these figures, golf officials are puzzled. “I don’t know how to reconcile those numbers with what we’re seeing in our program,” said Joe Louis Barrow, Jr., chief executive of The First Tee, an initiative of the World Golf Foundation. He suggested that while The First Tee is very good at connecting with younger kids, keeping teenagers is more challenging. “Conceivably one segment is growing and another is declining.”
Barrow isn’t the only one who is confused. The United States Golf Association has awarded some $65 million in grants since 1997, including more than $1.8 million last year, all aimed at increasing access to golf, in many cases, specifically for young people. But USGA executives say the industry doesn’t have hard data on exactly what makes a kid get hooked.
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