Sporting Insights, formerly Sports Marketing Surveys, has published a report on the attitudes of 21,000 golfers across 13 countries towards the current state of the professional game.
The report, titled ‘The Future of Professional Golf’ covered a variety of topics related to the professional game, including levels of interest in attending golf events and watching golf on television, attitudes towards women’s and mixed golf, views on players, sponsors, the emergence of LIV Golf and the reaction of the existing tours, format preferences and media coverage.
“The future of professional golf is exciting, but not necessarily assured,” said Richard Payne, Director of Sporting Insights. “On the one hand, golf has an almost unprecedented chance to grow. Record numbers of people are playing worldwide. Articulate, highly marketable and above all highly talented young stars are showcasing their talents in more countries than ever, while record purses are testament to the commercial interest in the sport. Innovations like Netflix’s Full Swing and CBS’s midround mic-ups promise to give golfers closer insight into their favourite players and introduce non-golfers to some of the engaging personalities in the game.
“However, there is also unprecedented discord in the professional game. TV ratings are not what they once were – thanks in part to the fracturing of sports broadcast rights and the proliferation in entertainment choices offered by streaming. Alongside long-running imbalances between men’s and women’s tours, the emergence of LIV Golf and the maelstrom of rumour, argument, and legal action that have ensued have raised new questions.
“As our new global study into the future of professional golf shows, those questions are not always easy to answer, but they are fundamental. They are fundamental if golf as a sport is to paint itself in the best possible light, if it is to avoid getting bogged down by the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities rather than the opposite. There is broad agreement across the world in our study that LIV is providing a ‘disruptive’ force. There’s much less agreement about whether that is a good thing, with a number of striking regional and demographic differences heaving into view.
“Other insights are slightly more clear cut. There is a broad appetite for more variation in play formats, for more matchplay, more team golf, and more mixed events – although again the scale of that interest does vary by country. It is not just women the research confirms who are interested in women’s and mixed golf. Tournaments like the Scandinavian Mixed and the newly announced QBE shootout are no doubt an important part of golf’s present and future.”
Payne added: “There are other questions that still need to be tackled. The data suggests there is appetite for a settlement between the tours, but what shape should that settlement take? How many golfers would like this to be an equitable sentiment and how many would like to see LIV and its Saudi backers shown no quarter in any talks. Once again, that will likely depend on the region – sportswashing is a major dialogue in the western world in golf and other sports – as attitudes to football club ownership continue to illuminate – but it is less of a topic of conversation in Asian markets.
“Another question that golf will have to tackle is how actively it promotes the money involved. There is more than a hint in the data that promoting the now hugely lucrative sums involved at the very top of the game might not necessarily be a positive for all groups. Does golf risk seeming out of touch and making its players look greedy if it goes too far down this route?
“What is certain is that Tours, players, agencies, and the brands who sponsor the sport need to be up to date on the global and local sentiment surrounding professional golf. Only by understanding that in as much detail as possible can they take the right decisions to overcome some of the barriers and protect and enhance their reputations.”
Sporting Insights’ ‘The Future of Professional Golf ‘ study is available now as an interactive dashboard. Interested parties can purchase data on a single market or compare multiple selected markets. Results can be split by age, gender, play frequency and market – delivering specific granular insight for the markets that matter to different businesses.
For more details, visit www.sportinginsights.com or email richard.payne@sportinginsights.com.