Boom spreads to the fairways

REFERENCES to the Celtic Tiger in describing Ireland's thriving economy would be equally valid in a golfing context. According to a comprehensive British report, recently completed, this country is better positioned than any other in Europe to produce a rival for the American phenomenon, Tiger Woods.

Indeed it is now widely acknowledged that Ireland has passed Scotland as Europe's leading golfing destination. And while declining to comment publicly, top Scottish tourist officials are secretly conceding that they have been out-marketed by the Irish in the game they invented.

An analysis of some fascinating developments in golf in this country is contained in "The Irish Golf Report" available from the London-based Golf Research Group (0044 181 9879950) at IR £115. The report was spearheaded by the group's managing director, Colin Hegarty, who is English born of a Cork father.

For the last 15 years, Hegarty has been involved in producing statistics on the golf business from around the world. As he put it: "For millions of people golf is a game, but it is also a multi-billion pound industry. We look at the industry as business analysts to measure how it performs."

Within the last two months, he commissioned a team of researchers to contact every golf course in Ireland, with a view to completing a full picture of the game here. "Though I considered myself to be fairly familiar with Irish golf, the early results astonished me," he said. "Firstly there was the sheer number of courses that have been built since 1990 alone."

As the accompanying graph shows, the upsurge is truly remarkable in a history which shows that, after an initial boom under British rule, there was a complete halt during the First World War and War Of Independence and further doldrums during the recessions of the I950s and early 1980s.

Hegarty went on: "There have been 115 new courses during recent years - an increase of 47 per cent. Just in the 1990s! The comparable figure in England is a 27 per cent increase, which is amazing in its own right. But this is far, far bigger. And it's also worth noting at this stage that of the 520 new courses in England since 1990, 88 per cent of them have gone broke.

"In sharp contrast, not only have the Irish built good courses but for the most part they're viable. Much of this success can be attributed to aggressive marketing by your tourist people. A look around any important international golf show reveals a strong Irish presence. Irish marketing people are working hard - and it shows.

"A good example of this is the international profile of such courses as Ballybunion, Killarney, Lahinch, Portmarnock, Royal Port rush and Royal Co Down, which are instantly familiar to most American golfers. They also know about the leading Scottish courses. But ask them to name a leading English venue and they may come up with Wentworth. After that, they'd be struggling."

He attributes the overall success to four key factors: Golf-orientated population; grant support from the European Union; aggressive marketing and thriving national economy.

New Irish courses have doubled their membership in a three-year period, which has meant the sale of 50,000 new memberships. Based on responses from every club, these account for more than a quarter of the current Irish golf club membership of 191,000 - men, women and juniors.

And prospects for the future would appear to be decidedly healthy, given the opportunities Ireland is prepared to give its young players. For instance, juniors represent 10 per cent of golf club memberships as opposed to just seven per cent in England.

Meanwhile, those who assumed that Scotland was Europe's leading golfing nation, had better think again. While an estimated 9.3 per cent of the Scottish population play golf, they have been outstripped by their brethren from these shores, of whom an estimated 9.6 per cent are involved in the Royal and Ancient game.

According to the group's research this points to as many as 480,000 Irish people playing golf at some level (the figure was arrived at through the established process of randomly sampling 1,000 homes). Of those, 41 per cent are members of clubs, which is in line with the rest of Europe where, on average, 40 per cent of the golfing population are club members.

In fact in relative terms, Ireland is currently better off for golfing facilities than England, which has as many as 2,407 courses. Ireland has 361 but when population is taken into account, there are 18 holes per every 16,000 people in this country, whereas the ratio is 1:26,000 people in England, where only 5.5 per cent of the population play golf.

Normal entry into the game for aspiring golfers is through green fees, before progressing to club membership. A highly significant element of the recent Irish experience, however, is that 21 per cent of golf club members/associates here are women. This compares with only 5 per cent in Britain.

So, with more women and more juniors, golf is a much more egalitarian game in Ireland. Despite accusations of elitism, the survey's findings were that the game here is largely accessible to anybody who wants to play.

According to the report, the average green fee midweek in Ireland is £17 which is slightly cheaper than the English average of £17.80. At the weekend, virtually all green fees are increased by an average of 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, for the 50,000 new club members, the average joining fee was £1,000 at the start of the period under review, but it has since dropped to £700. Even at that, it is still almost three times the figure of £250 in England, where entrance fees have dropped down to zero in certain cases. When the market becomes overheated, the first thing to collapse is the entrance fee.

Hegarty said: "At those rates, almost £50 million worth of entrance or so-called joining fees have changed hands in the last three years. That's an incredible success. Obviously your thriving economy has increased the amount of disposable income in the country."

But are we building too many courses? "When I saw the number of new courses my initial reaction was, `this is insane'," he replied. "On closer inspection, however, I could see that, generally speaking, they were successful.

"So, the answer is no, you are not building too many courses. But I think you have to be careful where you locate them. Around Dublin, for instance, our feedback suggested that there is potential for a substantially-increased green fee market.

"Meanwhile, there's far too much talk about championship courses. A good way of building a successful business is to keep your development costs down and deliver a product which will attract repeat business. Good product quality and customer service are the keys.

But if you pick a famous designer, your costs escalate for two main reasons. Firstly you have to pay the architect a fat fee. Then he will probably design a course which is too difficult for most handicap golfers - at a huge cost to you, the owner.

"Over the last few years, the main emphasis in Ireland has been on the premium green fee market which emerged in the States in the mid-1980s. In this context, it is interesting to note that most of the work by leading architects such as Tom Fazio and Jack Nicklaus in the States right now, is for pay-and-play courses, pitched at around $200 per round.

"The premium market hasn't really reached Continental Europe yet. And in England, it is limited to clubs such as Wentworth which, at £140 per round, is the most expensive. As I see it, you've got the premium market well covered, with courses such as The K Club, Druids Glen and Mount Juliet, where fees can rise to more than £100. And they're all doing well, with reported green-fee income of between £750,000 and £1 million last year.

I wondered what impact the Ryder Cup would have on the situation if, as expected, it comes to Ireland in 2005? "It would be absolutely huge," enthused Hegarty. "Look at what it's done for Spain. The prospect of the Ryder Cup at Valderrama has led to a very healthy Spanish golf business right now. And remember, Spain is essentially a non-golfing country.

"If Ireland can nail down the Ryder Cup, it would turbocharge the tourist industry. It really would."

So, what advice would Hegarty give to the Irish golf industry? "What often happens in golf-development booms - and Ireland has had the biggest boom in the history of the European game - is that the market can overheat with potentially disastrous results. You should look to the green fee business and give priority to location."