Spanish golf ended the year 2023 with 298,959 members, 297,378 of them amateurs and 1,581 professionals, according to the official count data as of December 31.
This figure represents an absolute increase of 5,399 licenses during the past year, which in percentage terms is 1.8% more than at the beginning of the year.
Both absolute and percentage records consolidate the growth experienced over the last five years, a period of consolidation that, like all areas of Spanish society, has gradually overcome the effects of the economic crisis and the coronavirus health crisis of the past few years.
In this complicated context, the idiosyncrasy of golf – a healthy sport, practiced outdoors, safe, that naturally establishes safety distances – has been an attraction for many people in recent years, who find in golf a healthy activity both from a physical and psychological point of view.
This increase in golf licenses constitutes the fifth consecutive year of growth, thus breaking a prolonged streak of nine consecutive years of decrease experienced in the period between 2010 and 2018, coinciding with much of the prolonged economic crisis and social changes that conditioned for many years the development of very diverse sectors of Spanish society.
This last five-year period, with an overall growth of 9.8%, also confirms a trend that started in 2013, when the peak of decrease was reached – namely 6.0% – subsequently slowed down in 2014 (-3.7%), 2015 (-2.7%), 2016 (-1.5%), 2017 (-0.5%) and 2018 (-0.3%) before giving way to growth of 0.1% in 2019 and 2020, 4.8% in 2021, 3.0% in 2022 and 1.8% in 2023, which draws a curve that, in statistical terms, is understood as a turning point from the aforementioned moment.
Taking a longer period of time as a reference, it should be recalled that in 1990 there were 45,000 players in Spain; the 100,000 mark was passed in 1996; 200,000 were registered in the first months of 2002; in mid-2004 there were 250,000 and at the end of 2006 the barrier of 300,000 federated players was surpassed. The maximum peak in the number of licenses occurred in 2010, when there were 338,588 members, and since then the inflection curve process described above has begun.
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Data by Autonomous Community
During 2023, the performance in the different Autonomous Communities was diverse, with positive data being the tone of the year, with some significant upward variations.
In absolute terms, Madrid, with 92,693 members, accounts for 31.0 % of the total number of licenses, followed by Andalusia, with 50,830, and Catalonia, with 29,232, accounting for 17.0 % and 9.8 % of the total number of members, respectively.
The Valencian Community (21,456), the Basque Country (18,127), Castilla y León (14,375) and Galicia (11,259) are the other Autonomous Communities with more than 10,000 members.
The one that added the most licenses during the 2023 fiscal year was Madrid, with 2,363 members (2.6% more), followed by Andalusia (1.090 members, up 2.2%), Comunidad Valenciana (853 members, up 4.1%), Cataluña (329 members, up 1.1%), Galicia (298 members, up 2.5%), Murcia (253 members, up 3.5%), Cantabria (217 members, up 2.9%), Baleares (156 members, up 1.9%), Castile y León (217 members, up 2.9%), Castilla y León (1.9%) and the Balearic Islands (1.9%), 1.9% more), Castilla y León (137 members, up 1.1%), Extremadura (83 members, up 3.2%), Navarra (67 members, up 2.0%) and Aragón (18 members, up 0.2%), where promotional campaigns have been particularly effective.
The Autonomous Communities that have exceeded the average growth of 1.8% experienced at national level should be highlighted. This was the case, in first place, of the Valencian Community, with the aforementioned 4.1% increase.
Murcia and Extremadura, with 3.5% and 3.2%, are also in this outstanding group, while Cantabria (2.9%), Madrid (2.6%), Galicia (2.5%), Andalusia (2.2%) and the Balearic Islands (1.9%) also increased their number of members above the average.
At the opposite pole are six Autonomous Communities that lost members in 2023 – La Rioja, Castilla La Mancha, the Canary Islands, Asturias, the Basque Country and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla – although in all cases moderately or very moderately, with an average of less than 40 members per geographical demarcation.
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Women and junior golf in Spain
It should be noted that the number of women’s licenses currently stands at 82,077, with an increase of 577 licenses compared to the last year. In relative terms, this represents 27.6% of the total number of golf licenses in Spain.
Of these, 47,428 were women over 50 years of age, 22,521 were women between 21 and 50 years of age and 12,031 were under 21 years of age, with a special mention for the 8,205 under 16 years of age.
Among the youngest, it should be noted that the Spanish golf quarry is made up of 23,689 boys and girls under 16 years of age -almost 36,000, 35,951 to be precise, if the age range is extended to 21 years-, which in percentage terms represents 7.9 % or 12.0 % of the total number of members, respectively.
To highlight in this case that the Spanish golf base continues to expand little by little, since at the first of 2015 there were 21,530 under 16 years of age -33,682 up to 21 years of age-, which in percentage terms then represented 7.6% or 11.9%, respectively.
This process of gradual growth coincides with the progressive and gradual implementation of the Golf in Schools Program, the Friends Cup and various promotional activities among young people that have been developed jointly by the RFEG, Autonomous Federations and Clubs for several years now.
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