60% of golfers would prefer their rounds to last less time

The Royal & Ancient has announced the results of a pace of play survey of more than 56,000 golfers from 122 countries between September 2014 and March 2015. It was conducted by The R&A as part of its efforts to investigate the issues affecting golf and the extent to which they impact on its development. You can download the report here.

The survey revealed that while 70% of golfers are satisfied with the length of their rounds, 60% of players felt they would enjoy golf more if they played in less time. Importantly, of the 25-44 year old players who said they were never happy with the pace of play, 21% said that golf would have to last up to an hour and a half less in order to play more often. Of the 8,468 players in this age range who responded, 19% said they would positively value having the opportunity to play nine holes more often in an alternative format.

The survey found that the two main factors preventing the practice of golf were professional commitments (34%) and family commitments (29%), with the time needed to play (16%) coming in third place. Other factors mentioned were alternative hobbies (12%), cost of the activity (7%), difficulty of play (1%) and cost of equipment (1%); although there was some regional variation on these percentages.

The Royal & Ancient is organizing a forum to be held later this year where a number of golf organizations will be invited to address the pace of play issue and explore key areas of player behavior, management approaches and golf course issues.

Duncan Weir, Chief Executive of The R&A, commented: “This survey is our first step in examining, in detail, the wide range of issues currently affecting participation in golf. There is a lot of evidence available, and the survey to obtain accurate data on pace of play is an important aspect of getting an idea of what the main factors are that, according to the players themselves, contribute to slower rounds. We believe the next step in this process is to engage our partners across the golf industry to look at these results and invite them to contribute their views to these important discussions. Our forum later this year will provide the opportunity for this input to take place.”