Stableford golf on the increase in UK&I

While there may be a downturn in the number of members at UK&I golf clubs, the number of competitive rounds played at clubs is actually on the increase. Here’s the drill down.

HowDidiDo, which holds the handicaps, results and scores of more than 1,300,000 UK golf club members, has looked into their own data to make the following analysis.

2015 data shows that ladies' medal rounds at the 2,000-odd clubs using the system were up by two per cent on 2014, while Stableford rounds rose by nearly 11 per cent to 469,530.

Meanwhile, the men's rounds also showed a similar increase: one per cent in medal rounds (to 2,190,782) and five per cent in Stableford (1,875,523). Meanwhile, par competitions - formerly known as bogey competitions - dropped by almost 1,000 rounds across both sexes.

In total, there was an overall four per cent increase in the number of competition rounds played by HowDidiDo club members in 2015, up to 5,031,056.

Barry Dyett, managing director of HowDidiDo, believes the figures indicate a move to more club golfers playing competitions - but of the Stableford variety in preference to medal rounds.

He said: "While there is still an increase in the number of medal rounds being played, the drift towards Stableford is more noticeable as the gap between the two closes. What's more, compared with 2013, there were around 11,000 fewer medal rounds played, but almost 200,000 more Stableford rounds - that's a considerable swing."

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