The boom in golf since the Covid-19 pandemic has seen the demographic profile of the game change significantly. In the US, the National Golf Foundation reports that the average age of golfers fell from 44.6 to 43.5 years between 2019 and 2024: that might not sound dramatic, but among nearly 27 million golfers, a fall of over a year shows a lot of younger people taking up the game. Among the wins for golf since the pandemic, a generational shift might just be the most significant (along with a gender shift: the number of women and girls playing has increased rapidly too). The days of being able to dismiss golf as a dying game for the elderly are past. One question that is, so far, unanswered, is what impact this passing of the generational torch might have on the way the game is played and thus how courses are designed. Few golfers can have failed to notice the ‘music on the course’ trend, which sets a lot of (mostly older) players’ teeth on edge. But perhaps this is just the most visible (or audible) sign of a move to a less traditional, more ‘modern’ golf. “Youth is very addicted to carts,” one friend told me. “The ‘bros’ are kind of disdainful of us old walkers in some places”. I can’t say for sure whether this is true across the world, but it isn’t the first time I have heard the suggestion that the ‘new golfers’ are less wedded to some of the game’s traditions than those of us who have played for decades might wish. Will it be the case that future golfers’ demands for golf carts, on-course entertainment and who knows what else will require a different style of course from what has gone before? Probably the more traditional – and often higher profile – clubs will retain their more traditional ambience, certainly for longer. Old guys like me probably won’t like the new world. But as John Maynard Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead. Young vs old WELCOME ADAM LAWRENCE 1
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