"Golf sees huge upswing with women and young adults"

Yahoo Finance’s Melody Hahm shares all sorts of amazing data on the upsurge in golf participation, lessons and sales.

It seems, again, that extra time and the safety of outdoor exercise in a beautiful setting is driving the boom and not any of golf’s PSA-fueled initiatives or the PGA Tour Commissioner’s claim of playing a part. Maybe that data is coming.

In the meantime, Hahm writes:

According to research from the National Golf Foundation, there have been notable increases in participation among juniors and beginners, along with returners, as golf has positioned itself as a healthy way to pass time during this crisis.

“The number of junior golfers (ages 6-17) could increase by as much as 20% this year, a potential COVID-related bump of a half million golfers by year’s end. During a time when many other activities were on hold, including youth sports in many instances, we’ve also seen increases in the number of beginning and returning golfers of about 20% during the first half of 2020,” NGF editorial director Erik Matuszewski told Yahoo Finance.

And this…

Nationally, rounds of golf were up 19.7% year-over-year in the month of July, marking the biggest increase ever for a high-volume summer month since NGF started monthly tracking in 2000. This reflects an increase of approximately 10 million more rounds than in July 2019. In August, rounds were up 3% nationwide over the same period in 2019, after climbing from a 16% year-to-date deficit on April 30.