Game of golf: a huge industry in New Zealand – Golf Feature
The game of golf... one will think of it as Rory McIlroy, splendid and lush green courses, the tournaments aired, a long drive with a club, and the beautiful sound of ball hitting the base of the cup.
On the other hand, economists look at it differently – they think of billions of dollars that come with this game.
PGA Chief Executive, Duncan Simpson, recently tried to find out the impact of the golf industry on the economy of New Zealand.
However, he failed to collect the real stats for the current time as most of the stats available are three to four years old.
According to him, it was difficult to predict the effects of the sport of golf on the New Zealand economy.
However, he told that the game contributes $A2.7 billion to the economy of Australia that has three times the number of golf courses as compared to New Zealand.
Therefore, it can be inferred that golf in New Zealand contributes around $1 billion to the economy.
Besides that, hundreds and thousands of people are benefiting from this industry in the form of different jobs.
It has provided different career paths to the locals, such as the trend of hiring golf physiotherapists and private trainers for losing weight prior to going for the golf tutorials.
Simpson also talked about the idea of getting fit before entering the field of golf.
“It sounds extreme, but they want to get players physically right. In the past, golfers had nursed niggling injuries instead of getting them fixed. Having them fixed at an early age would have extended the playing careers of a lot of people,” Simpson said.
“The younger brigade are all gym bunnies. Tiger Woods' much maligned caddie Steve Williams got him into the gym and running”.
“We do call them 'flat belly' tournaments where the younger stars play. We have senior tournaments. We don't call them 'round belly' tournaments because that's insulting,” he added.
The PGA plans to join New Zealand Golf in the upcoming 12 months in order to produce a paper that will address the issues related to the golf industry in New Zealand.
Moreover, it will help in setting some goals to be achieved by the professional organization and the local bodies operating the game of golf at different levels.
Moreover, it has been observed that in the last few years, mergers have been consistent between different golf clubs throughout the country.
As a result, it has provided an opportunity to the golf players to enjoy better game facilities on the courses.
Earlier, the golf clubs were facing financial issues, forcing them to shut down their practices. The boom of the game in the past few years has enabled them to work together and achieve the financial targets.
The collaboration of PGA and New Zealand Golf also has a similar aim, providing first class services to the players and the followers of the game.
In addition to that, targets will be set to achieve for each and every contributor of the economy so that the quality of the game can be improved in the country.
The improvements will, in turn, create more interest among the investors to invest more in the industry, creating a number of jobs for the local citizens.
Therefore, the game of golf has bright prospects in the country and has the ability to become the favourite sport among the people of New Zealand in the years to come.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: