Is "Competitive Golf" losing interest?

[Club Rat]

At our club, participation in competitive competition seems to be decreasing in both social "Men's Games" and club level events; IE, Stroke Play and Match Play competitions the past couple of years while social golfing with friends has increased.

Over the past couple of years we have gained many new members, many which are young (30-50 years of age) whom do not seemed interested in competitions.
I'm sure this is a trend which usually goes in cycles and in a few years we may have more interest.

Any thoughts?

 

[CarlSpackler]

They can't handle losing. Perhaps there would be more interest if you start giving participation trophies. 

[DaveP043]

I think at my club we're seeing an increase in participation, which is at least partially due to an increase in membership.  The pro shop staff are also doing a much better job of publicizing tournaments and encouraging newer members to jump right in.  

[RussUK]

2 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

They can't handle losing. Perhaps there would be more interest if you start giving participation trophies. 

What, make it like school sports day? "its not the winning, its the taking part that counts" 

[krupa]

25 minutes ago, Club Rat said:

Over the past couple of years we have gained many new members, many which are young (30-50 years of age) whom do not seemed interested in competitions.

Are these new members also new golfers?  

I'm not a good golfer and so I don't bother with my club's tournaments.  I don't mind losing when it's competitive, but I see no value in donating.

(I don't know if golfers use the same terminology, so in case you don't know, in pool (pocket billiards) circles, "donating" means that you're playing in a tournament even though you have no chance to win it.  i.e., you're donating your entry fee to the prize fund.)

[mcanadiens]

I've only been a member of my club's men's association for the past two years, but it was shocking how many fewer played in the Club Championship than did the year before. 

To hear the old heads talk about, everything is down massively and has been going that way for years.

[metbid]

I voted declining. Our club (a City owned muni) has recently changed golf management companies. Due to popularity of the old manager, and some lack of organization with the new company, we have taken quite a hit in the turn out for tournaments.  I hope its just because this is their first year and things will improve as they get a handle on it.

[SG11118]

I voted decreased, but I have somewhat limited perspective.  Participation in our club's events has been dwindling over the years.  There used to be 50-60 guys who would try to qualify for the championship flight in our club championship - I think there were 18 guys this year.  Some of it is less members, some of it is the average age of the members have gone up and more people are trying to qualify for the senior championship flight, some of it is requiring two weekends with peoples busy schedules, and part of it is there is probably better clarity now as to who the good golfers are - and lots of members don't feel like they can match up against them, so why try.  Although our invitational tournament has had a bit of a resurgence the last couple years with 192 and 176 the past two years after being down as low as 144 a couple years back.  Social golf on men's day at our club is down a bit too though.

[Jeremie Boop]

This is the first year I've actually taken part in any competitions, so I voted increase because I don't really know any different. I may have jumped the gun a bit on the "increase" vote I put in there because I can't know for sure.

[MrDC]

It's fairly non-existent, and I have no interest, why would I want to support the sandbaggers? nobody can stop them obviously, so I'll just have fun playing.

[phillyk]

It's been steady or increasing for us.  You just got to advertise the payout and include a keg of beer in the headline and people will come out.  But the course also has to be known to not have cheaters.  Once too many mouths go out about sand baggers or whatever, you'll get less participation unless you dis-allow those golfers from playing.

[Yukari]

Around Denver area, I've seen decreasing participation.  Some clubs that had a waiting list join men's club a few years ago are having trouble keeping enough members now.

My guess is it is due to many factors: the first and foremost being the pace of play.  These men's club tournaments sometimes take >5 hours.  It's a torture!  I hate that pace of place.

[newtogolf]

Membership is way up but participation in tournaments is flat or slightly lower.  Many golfers don't like the pressure of tournament play and many are vanity cappers so they don't feel they can win, not because they vanity cap but because of sandbaggers.  

[Patch]

I don't participate in my home course tournaments for reasons already given in some of the  above post. I tend to play by the rules, while others don't. 

I do play in 3-4 charity tournaments every year where most of my entry fee goes to worthy cause. 

[Kalnoky]

Participation is up this year due to new ownership, but per the old guys, it’s still way down from its peak many years ago when Tiger was active.

 

Next year I’m going to dip my toes into competitive golf and see how I fare. Most of the prizes are for net scores anyway.

[Brad W]

curious what is sandbagging in this context?

 

[David in FL]

Flat to up.  My club has 4 to 6 competitive events each week, in addition to our annual big events.  Club championship, member/member, member/guest, match play, inter-clubs, etc...  Love it!

[Aguirre]

Ha. I thought this might be another thread about the state of the PGA. Instead, you know, beer softball league talk. 

My friends and I still compete. All seems well here.