We may have endured a wetter than usual summer, but 2023 has shown that the appetite for golf has still been there in England.
Across the past 12 months, we’ve seen over nine million scores submitted – it turns out the weather won’t stop us after all!
There have been some notable increases over the past 12 months in England, with General Play scores having risen by 2.09 per cent in 2023, and nine-hole scores on the increase – over seven per cent more than last year!
With increased awareness and easier compatibility within the MyEG app, 2023 has seen a huge increase of more than 21 per cent of scores being entered through the app. An impressive 2.3 million scores have been logged through the app, including a 20 per cent increase in usage by girls/women.
Since introducing interoperability to the MyEG app, which allows players to input scores across all golf clubs in GB&I, we have seen 50,115 scores submitted by EG members on Welsh, Irish or Scottish courses. That’s a staggering 82 per cent increase in comparison to the same period in 2022!
Rounds played by members of other GB&I countries at courses in England was also up by 23 per cent in the same period.
That’s not all. Since the inception of iGolf, we have now seen over 60,000 people sign up for the platform, which allows casual golfers to maintain a Handicap Index®. The introduction of iGolf was to create a pathway for individuals to go on to Club Membership - and we’re delighted to reveal that over 7,700 have now made the move from iGolf into Club Membership. That’s 12 per cent of iGolfers converting into Club Membership!
We all play the game for a number of reasons, and following a survey shared with England Golf members and iGolf members, over 11,000 communicated their views to provide extremely insightful feedback.
It turns out that 86 per cent of us play for social purposes, such as spending time with friends, while 83 per cent of us play for individual reasons such as physical health.
And with the introduction of iPlay earlier this year to bring more people into the game, play your part in helping others to recognise the physical and mental benefits of the game, particularly the social side, and encourage them to join iPlay or iGolf and ignite their golfing journey.
This year has also seen us roll out one of our most important movements to date – Respect in Golf. All of our counties are now Respect-in-Golf-accredited, as we look to spread the message that golf is a game for all, and everybody should feel welcomed to take up the sport.
It really has been another year to celebrate for golf, so here’s a toast to an even more prosperous one in 2024 – and hopefully some better weather for growing the game and getting out there to do what we love!
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