We know club golfers are an avid lot. But even we can’t believe just how much you lot get out on the course.
Nearly a quarter of players who filled in our massive NCG Club Golf Survey said they played golf between 11 and 15 times each month. That’s nearly every other day!
And just under 40 per cent revealed they get their clubs out between six and 10 times during a typical 30- or 31-day period.
The numbers reveal just how valuable golf club membership is to those who hold it and just how determined they are to utilise it.
NCG’s Club Golf Survey was sent out as part of our daily email newsletter. We asked you all kinds of questions about how you play and experience the game, including what you think about membership fees, if you’d experienced cheating on the course, your views on golf club dress codes and how you really looked at the World Handicap System.
We also asked you: “How often do you play golf each month?”
The figures certainly jolted us up in our seats. While we expected the survey to be filled in by core golfers, what you told us was still astonishing.
Only six per cent of respondents (6.2%, 202 people) said they were able to get out their clubs fewer than three times a month. Nearly a quarter (22.8%, 742 people) revealed they played between three and five times each month.
But a whopping 38.6 per cent of you (1,255 people) are on the course on six to ten occasions during that time frame, while – as already revealed – 23.6 per cent of you (768 people) are hitting the fairways and greens between 11 and 15 times a month.
Check out the lucky 283 people (8.7%) who filled in our survey and said they played golf more than 15 times a month.
You’re not looking at reducing that in 2025, either. Asked the question, “Do you plan to play more or fewer rounds of golf in 2025?“, only 50 of the thousands of respondents said they would be playing fewer (1.5%, 48 people) or lots fewer (0.1%, 2 people) in 2025.
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The majority of you (58.1%, 1888 people) expected to be playing the same, but more than 40 per cent of you plan to be playing more (37.4%, 1,215 people) or lots more (3%, 97 people) over the rest of this year.
Given how often some of you are teeing it up already, that’s going to be quite a challenge!
What else did you say about the number of times you play golf?
We also asked you on our facebook page, ‘How often do you play golf each month?’, and it turns out the figures are not a fluke. You really do get out a lot!
Ian Windmall told us: “Generally 18-20 but when I am back in the UK to visit family I will play 30 rounds usually in a 5 week period.”
Robin Vidler added: “Watching me play, you’d never believe that I play between 8 and 16 rounds a month depending on whether I’m over at our place in Spain or in UK. I’m still absolute garbage but enjoy the craic and the social aspect!”
Graeme Black agreed: “15-20 a month. The other days I’m caddying and I’ll get an hour or so’s practice before or after that, sometimes a round too. The golf club is my second home, 7 days a week, for about 5 months of the year!”
While Simon Norcliffe said: “4 times a week sometimes 5 if it’s very warm weather. Shorts and tee shirt. A couple of hours on the practice area and 9 holes here & there and the competition every Saturday. Roll on spring.”
What do the experts say?
What you’re telling us would certainly back up the official figures out there. Sporting Insights recently revealed the suggestions there was a decline in levels of play back towards pre-Covid levels were overstated, with rounds played figures for 2024 only two per cent down on 2023 and fractionally higher than 2022.
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“As fashionable as it can be to put golf down, the truth is that the sport has demonstrated now over multiple years a sustained boost in participation, especially female participation, and in the total amount of play,” said John Bushell, joint MD of Sporting Insights.
He added: “The bottom line is that golf does appear to have become a critical part of so many people’s lives that it is so far weathering the economic storm, at least as far as appetite to step up to the tee goes.
“We also know that, outside the scope of this report, more people are playing alternative formats and shorter forms of golf, which is contributing to a wider boost in different types of golf play. Golf is still in great health and we are positive for 2025.”
Shown our figures, Richard Flint, England Golf’s chief operating officer, added the numbers were “incredible”. The governing body revealed recently that 2024 had seen a record number of scores submitted to the World Handicap System – more than 10 million – with competitive, general play, and 9-hole scores all up.
“On the face of those numbers, it’s great to see more people are playing than ever and there is a lot of avid golfers,” he said.
“For that percentage to be playing 11 to 15 times [a month] is incredible and it shows that golf is buoyant, that it’s thriving, and that the offerings at golf clubs are something golfers want to get stuck into.”
He added: “As a general point of view, in terms of us as a governing body, and wanting to see more people playing, and playing regularly, it’s really positive news.”
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Now have your say on this club golfers debate
What do you think of these figures for club golfers? Are you playing as much as this? Would you like to be playing even more? Is it a struggle just to get out to the course at all? Let us know with a comment on X.
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