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The European Tour’s bold bid to attract young golfers

Published

9 years ago

on

The European Tour is discussing a six-hole format with time limits for shots, music, and alternatives clothing to traditional golf apparel for young golfers, per Chris Cutmore of Mail Online.

European Tour chief Keith Pelley was inspired by Twenty20, which has created a variety of cricket that’s more catered to millennial mindset. While details are limited at this point, the European Tour is discussing the prospect of an international match play competition, which they will “experiment” with in 2017 and potentially introduce in 2018.

“You could see England playing Scotland in a six-hole matchplay,” Pelley told BBC Radio’s Adam Parsons.

Listen to Pelley’s full interview with BBC Radio here.

The National Golf Foundation found earlier this year that participation among golfers who played at least once during the calendar year hovered around 25 million again at 24.1 million golfers. In 2014 that number was 24.7 million. Of course, these figures mark a steep decline from the Tiger Woods-era peak in 2005 of 30 million, but the figures are consistent with the pre-Tiger Woods participation figure: 24.7 million in 1995. (All with a margin of error of plus-or-minus 875,000 golfers).

Encouragingly, the NGF found beginners numbered 2.2 million in 2015, which is close to the all-time high of 2.4 million in 2000. New efforts and creative thinking could bolster future growth and offer alternatives to traditional match and medal-play formats.

What do you think? Is thinking like Pelley’s what the game needs?

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Ben Alberstadt is the Editor-in-Chief at GolfWRX, where he’s led editorial direction and gear coverage since 2018. He first joined the site as a freelance writer in 2012 after years spent working in pro shops and bag rooms at both public and private golf courses, experiences that laid the foundation for his deep knowledge of equipment and all facets of this maddening game. Based in Philadelphia, Ben’s byline has also appeared on PGATour.com, Bleacher Report...and across numerous PGA DFS and fantasy golf platforms. Off the course, Ben is a committed cat rescuer and, of course, a passionate Philadelphia sports fan. Follow him on Instagram @benalberstadt.

12 Comments

12 Comments

  1. JThunder

    Jul 27, 2016 at 4:25 am

    Bold bid? Sounds like typical corporate mindset. Want to do something bold? Shift some of the multimillions of dollars that go to corporate sponsors and a few elite players and get that money into jobs and careers. Want to know why Millennials aren’t playing golf? They don’t have time and they don’t have money. Most are working two jobs just to make ends meet, and even then, barely.

    The secondary issue is that the tech companies push the whole population – from grade school kids to senior citizens – to spend all their time online; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Spotify, sports, news, almost everything possible. This is tearing great holes in the economy – except for the tech companies, ISPs, and hosts – but few “content providers” make any money at all, and much of the marketing is skipped or ignored.

    Reply Report comment

  2. Matt Mitchell

    Jul 25, 2016 at 7:40 pm

    Does anyone even care about golf in Europe
    Seems like to me, they are busy bowing down to Russia

    Reply Report comment

  3. Leon

    Jul 25, 2016 at 3:48 pm

    Not a big fan of this proposal. I understood he is trying to bring more people, especially young people, to the game. But this is no necessary to make the golf game to a hippie style, just like playing soccer on a golf course, make the hole larger, more music on course, and other BS.

    Golf is not a game for everyone, whether young guys like to spend 4 hours on course, or the same amount of time on social media or Pokeman GO, that is their choice. The only thing need to change is the slow play, longer product release cycle, and the media coverage.

    Reply Report comment

  4. CD

    Jul 25, 2016 at 6:35 am

    It’s not just ‘millenials’ some abstract term that has blurred lines, people in the UK from all ages watch T20. It’s even reinvigorated Test cricket.

    Reply Report comment

  5. ffs

    Jul 25, 2016 at 3:40 am

    No need for that silliness. What people need to see on TV are the big Amateur Tournaments from around the world in which the young kids and college kids participate, so that the next generations can relate. That’ll be enough to open some eyes and fuel more interest, but the coverage on TV has to be steady and informative, and constantly being talked about in all sports news outlets. And it has to be global, so that the competition gets fierce and strong.

    Reply Report comment

  6. RAT

    Jul 24, 2016 at 9:31 pm

    I think the coverage is too much of the same old same old guys. I believe there is just as much interest in not as well known players .I change the channel where it’s the same bunch of guys that I’m not interested in that much, one can only handle so much Phil, Rory and etc. I like to hear more about the character type guy like “BEEF” ,that’s what I like about the European tour they show a lot of different players and the stories . PGA is too “stiff neck”.

    Reply Report comment

  7. Bladehunter

    Jul 24, 2016 at 8:20 pm

    And the last nail is being driven into the games coffin .

    Reply Report comment

    • Adam Cook

      Jul 25, 2016 at 8:59 am

      Cool, let’s all just watch 72 hole strokeplay events all year….

      Good on Keith Pelley for challenging the norm. A short-form, matchplay, T20 style competition would be brilliant

      Reply Report comment

      • SirBigSpur

        Jul 25, 2016 at 12:13 pm

        Agreed. And the thing is, stroke play isn’t going anywhere. If you want to watch only that, you’ll be able to do so till your heart’s content. This gives us more format options and that’s a good thing. I mean, how awesome was the college national championship match b/w Oregon and Texas??! I had no idea I liked college golf until watching that and now it’ll be appointment viewing for me going forward.

        Reply Report comment

        • Chopper

          Jul 25, 2016 at 1:50 pm

          Yes, Oregon/Texas was great, but it wasn’t even the best college championship that week. The UW/Stanford match was off the hook.

          Reply Report comment

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