To golf, or not to golf

It's approaching to that time of year where all partners alike will lose out to their other halves’ real love of their life, golf.

Whilst the last couple of years has seen the popularity of golf increase, with tournaments on telly and more mobile and tablet apps aimed and helping to improve your game there has been a downturn in the amount of people actually playing, but why?

Despite its popularity, it is actually very hard as a beginner to get onto a golf course. Most golf courses require an official handicap certificate in order for you to play (in case you wondered the handicap limit for men is 28, 36 for women and for juniors it’s 29-54) and there are very few ‘pay and play’ courses out there.

The majority of people will usually have lessons before they start playing regularly, not only is this costly but also the time involved as well, a course takes around 4-5 hours on average to get round alone and that’s before you add on time for the "19th" hole (aka the bar). This means if you have other commitments (i.e. other hobbies or maybe you’d like to actually spend time with your other half) then it can be hard to dedicate the time needed to become a regular player.

There are now some initiatives in place, like Get into Golf, encouraging more people to get into golf, outlining the basics, etiquette and terminology of golf. Schemes like this give people across the country the opportunity to take advantage of low cost and sometimes even free golf taster sessions giving people the chance to pursue more lessons or club membership.

As well as personal starter sessions they are also promoting work place golf, not only does it have several health benefits such as improving muscle tone and endurance but it can also reduce stress as well there has even been some evidence that golfers can increase their life span by 5 years.

Which leads us onto our questions; do you feel that enough is being done to encourage more people to get into golf? And if you are a golfer we’d love to hear about your stories first starting out and who got you into it.

If you are golf club then ESE Direct have a wide range of changing room benches, leisure matting and golf club storage lockers to suit you. We have also seen a rise in Defibrillators being purchased for golf clubs, they can mean the difference between life and death.