By Dean Murphy
New Zealand Golf Chief Executive

While the country still has many covid-19 related concerns to consider, the pandemic has given golf the opportunity to broaden its player base and increase its popularity.

Throughout the lockdown periods, golf has been able to position itself as a sport that is good for your health, good for your mind and a sport that you can do in a socially distant and responsible way.

For many, the lockdown periods of 2020 have also provided an opportunity to think about reconnecting with the game. This has led to a 4.8 percent lift in national membership numbers to the end of July against July 2019 and a whopping increase of 30 percent in rounds played in July 2020 vs July 2019.

This positive momentum builds on our work in 2019 where we saw both rounds and membership levels grow for the first time in many years.

The challenge now is to make this positive upswing sustainable.

We know that golf plays a vital part in New Zealand golfers’ lives mentally, physically and socially. It brings people together in a safe environment, often creating a community hub at local golf clubs around the country. Post our first two lockdown periods, these qualities are now more important than ever and therein lies the opportunity for golf.

Through the work we do each day with golf clubs all over the country, we are aware of so many clubs who are harnessing the current positive momentum in golf and working on ways to sustain the current growth. This is the critical piece in front of the sector right now and where our team have their focus.

What we do know is that interest in the game is increasing and we have a chance to keep this popularity growing, even despite the covid-19 pandemic.

Over the coming years we can expect to see much more public conversation on the health and wellbeing benefits of sport – golf is ideally placed to be a central part of this conversation and, if we harness the opportunity appropriately, increase our player base.