Survey – Your Life As a Golfer
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Survey – Your Life As a Golfer

Survey – Your Life As a Golfer

With all this doom and gloom hovering over the industry we figured it’s probably important to better understand how exactly it is that you (actual golfers) came to play this game. If we can understand what sucked the current generation of golfers into the madness that is golf, maybe we can figure out a way to lure the next generation to the game as well (at least the guys who don’t take up lacrosse).

We also wonder what, if any, correlations exist between the origins of your life as a golfer (when you started, where you started, and how often you play) and the equipment that’s in your bag today. Was your equipment destiny predetermined?

We’d sure like to find out.

The Enticement (Giveaway)

This survey is a bit longer than our previous ones (just a few more questions) so to entice you to take a whole 5 minutes out of your day to get through it, we’re going to randomly select one lucky respondent to receive a really cool prize package from the MyGolfSpy Vault. Technically we don’t actually have a vault, but rest assured, somebody is going to get something VERY cool.

Take the Survey Now

Survey Link for Mobile Users: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/YouAsAGolfer

When the Results Are Tallied. . .

We think there is some incredibly interesting information to be gleaned from this survey. We’re definitely looking forward to sharing the results with all of you. Be sure to come back to find out what we learn.

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Tony Covey

Tony Covey

Tony Covey

Tony is the Editor of MyGolfSpy where his job is to bring fresh and innovative content to the site. In addition to his editorial responsibilities, he was instrumental in developing MyGolfSpy's data-driven testing methodologies and continues to sift through our data to find the insights that can help improve your game. Tony believes that golfers deserve to know what's real and what's not, and that means MyGolfSpy's equipment coverage must extend beyond the so-called facts as dictated by the same companies that created them. Most of all Tony believes in performance over hype and #PowerToThePlayer.

Tony Covey

Tony Covey

Tony Covey





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    Join The Discussion

      Kevin McArthur

      10 years ago

      Yet another survey / competition which followers across in the UK cannot be involved in. Great website mygolfspy , based my purchase on my ADamsCMB’s and exotic 3 wood.
      Disappointed again

      Reply

      Heath R

      10 years ago

      Looking forward to the results!

      Reply

      Gordon

      10 years ago

      Daniel, I concur with your assessment, as someone in your age bracket, I am 32.
      Truthfully, once I began working my full time, post college grad job, my time on the course was limited and my budget was/ still is as well.
      We have college loans on top of all the additional costs of our previous generation, and they are no joke. The price is a factor, cos of living is a factor, it keeps me limited to playing about 2xs a month due to a tight budget. Most of my friends are in the same boat as well, some only play 2 or 3 xs a year at this point.
      However, I also HATE slow play and will often play either very, very early, or late afternoons to avoid being hung up.
      I live in NJ, and we still have no shortage of courses, but the decent ones with decent prices are tough to get tee times on. There have been many that have closed over the last 5 years and it funnels everone to fewer courses. Which increases the # of golfers and therefore increases the time of the round.
      I love playing 9 holes or 12 hole in anywhere from 1.5-2 hours… I can get in 18 if I am by myself or with my bro-in-law in 3 hours, but I am usually happy if I am done in 4 hours.
      I would like to see more courses offer/advertise 9 hole rounds, they would end up getting an increase in revenue from people with limited budgets and time and the others would still play 18.
      Someone up top also mentioned pin placements on weekends… YES!!, dont put the hole where you know its extremely difficult..if you do, just keep that to a couple of holes…not like 16 of 18…
      I’m hoping to join my local muni CC next year, but truthfully, my work schedule wont allow me to play in like 80% of the member events, so it would be more for me to just walk on and do my thing at the same late day times I do now. But it would pay for itself if I use it enough, which is of course my intention. But that might also be a factor for a lot of people.

      Reply

      Daniel

      10 years ago

      After reading the comments, I felt compled to add my perspective as many comments seem to be coming from older golfers (not that there’s anything wrong with that, I love you guys I promise). By brother and I are in our late 20s and have been playing golf since we could walk thanks to our father and am blessed to be passing the game on to my son. But as younger players the biggest hurdle I see espeically for people in our age group, is cost. Proper attire, shoes, (decent) equipment, greens fees, cart fees (where applicable), lunch, drinks, tips, etc. These things add up to a pretty expensive hobby. Budding families and college grads alike are all pinching more pennies these days than even a decade ago and the cost of the sport is hard to justify for many people out there. I know early in my marriage it was a constant argument. Luckily the career has taken off and it no longer is an issue, but I realize it could have just as easily been the other way around. And between family and golf, family is going to win, at least I think. Just my thoughts.

      Reply

      John

      10 years ago

      Rob, that a great idea and that’s why i have been doing it for years. Just played carolina national in 2hrs 15 min. due to making sure I was going out at 2pm on a tuesday. Guys just think will the course be busy if the answer is yes than don’t go.I love golf but I only golf on weekdays…

      Reply

      Rob Samson

      10 years ago

      If you are asking for a weekend tee time of 10am then you will forever be complaining about slow play. Our group of misfit muni’s block off tee times around 7:30 on weekends and weekdays. We’re home by noon and have the rest of the day to do whatever. The warriors that come to our course can play as slow as they want for all I care, we’re starting the back 9 by the time they tee off.

      Reply

      Dwayne

      10 years ago

      I played nine hours solo on the late Saturday afternoon at a local metro park, perfect weather, and ten years ago there would have been a group of golfers on pretty much on every hole, Today there was probably only six groups on the whole course. It was 8:00PM when I finished, with another hour of light left, I felt bad for the employees so I didn’t play two balls to get in sooner.

      Granted there are great young golfers across the land, but the mainstream younger folk aren’t taking it up, and those who do think golf is all about hopping in a riding cart and loading it up with beer. More beer, the more fun, right? Unfortunately, real golf is a lot harder than Xbox or Play station versions they think golf is.

      Personally, it is better for me to have easy access to golf, but this is not sustainable, courses have to make money, or they will close.

      This is happening with driving ranges, many are disappearing, and the ones that are still open are getting seedier by the day.

      Participation in golf is waning, there is no doubt about it. The only reason that courses in my area stay open is that real estate hasn’t recovered. Once that happens, look out.

      At 54, I got a limited number of years left. unfortunately, golf maybe going down with me.

      Reply

      markb

      10 years ago

      I echo your sentiments exactly. What you see is what I see. It makes me wonder what part of the country you hail from.

      I hear about crowded courses and slow play and I remember seeing it in the populous mid-atlantic corridor and on Sat or Sun mornings, but for the most part I simply never see it at any course in my area. I played yesterday afternoon and no one was on the course. No tee time, walked on, went off the back first because I saw one foursome putting on the 1st green and I hate waiting. I finally caught a 5-some of beer-soaked 20-something hackers on 17. These were not golfers, they were rent-clubs, drive-the-funky-carts-in-ponds, whoop-it-uppers. That’s the type of young folks I see on courses these days, they are not taking up the sport. They are indulging in a rare bachelor-party type outing..

      Of course, I hate getting stuck behind such groups, but realistically when I only see one per nine holes, I’m being picky. (I caught another 3 threesome of a dad and his two sons on the front and played through them fast) My typical round is 3 hours walking. It’s as if the course exists just for me. Sometimes Sunday afternoons are so slow, they shutter the clubhouse at four and go home. Then it’s free.

      How can the sport sustain itself when demand is so low?

      Reply

      markb

      10 years ago

      Picked up the morning paper in Salt Lake and read that the city wants to close 2 more public courses after just closing a third. The reason? They don’t break even because the glut of courses and dearth of golfers means the City can’t charge their remaining clientele enough to cover their costs. That’s the state of the sport today.

      Neil

      10 years ago

      I would love to see the results, especially which companies people think are on the move up and move down.

      Reply

      Nevin

      10 years ago

      Without any question, slow play is what is holding the game back these days. I think it comes back to few things: On the tours the “sports psychologist don’t hit until you are completely ready” has really slowed things down. On tour they are all playing “lawyer” with the rules so that every problem requires a rules official. People emulate what they see on the tours and that slows things down. However, In my opinion the biggest issue is golf course architecture. Go back and play the old courses designed in 20s and 30’s and you will find that they are really easy to get around fast and are fun for everyone to play. The challenges are around the greens. A golf hole should be a challenging par but an easy bogey. Now days, except for the low handicapper, everyone is one bad swing from an 8. Forced carries and water hazards everywhere really slow things down for the average player but are often in places that a pro isn’t even going to notice. We have to start building or re-building golf courses so that the average player isn’t spending the day looking for golf balls or re-teeing.

      Reply

      Bill

      10 years ago

      Pet Peeve regarding slow play…I’m playing with a group and the guy on the tee decides that it’s a good time to tell a personal story or observation holding the tee hostage.

      Reply

      Shao

      10 years ago

      Slow pace is the bane of today’s game. I never play on weekends anymore because I don’t want to spend 5+ hours on the golf course (I am in Ca in the Bay Area). I only play weekdays and try to get out as early as possible so that I may finish the round in 4 hours. I usually play alone because most of my golfing buddies don’t have weekdays off.

      Reply

      Dan Black

      10 years ago

      I think the survey should have asked why I play the clubs that I play. I have spent the past year going to demo days and then being fit for clubs. I play a Ping G25 driver, Cobra 3 wood, Cobra 2H hybrid, Cobra irons, Cleveland wedges and a Ping putter all because they were the clubs that I hit the best when I was fit for new clubs. Additionally, I think the game can always use new golfers and those of us that have been playing for some time, as well as the marshals, just need to ‘nicely’ help them learn course etiquette. Friendly advice is almost always well received. The biggest problem I have is with the ‘experienced’ golfers that spend what seems like hours reading a putt from 12 different angles and then miss the putt 10 feet left. Give me a break!! Those are the same golfers that hold up several foursomes behind them and never let any one play through. I also think more emphasis needs to be placed on playing ‘ready golf’ instead of worrying about who is away.

      Reply

      joe

      10 years ago

      Some really great posts by Neagle, Jack and Markb. My playing partners and I also play to make the game enjoyable, not just for us, but for everybody. We hardly play anymore because we just don’t have the time it now takes to play a round. Everybodys got stuff to do. Driving to the golf course, maybe 30 minutes, warm up hitting a few balls, 15 minutes. Playing the round 5 or more hours, putting all your stuff away 15 more minutes. Forget about the fun of having a beer together. You have to get on the road because it is now going to take you and extra 30 minutes to get home. Of course its really only a 15 minute drive, but it is going to take you more than an hour to do it, could even be almost 2 hours because traffic is so bad now cause you were on the golf course so long. All in all you end up with almost an 8 hour day to do a 4 hour event. Thats 3 hours for the round and the other hour for everything else. All my playing partners just usually say forget it , I don’t have the time.

      Somebody needs to do something to make golf a half day, (like it used to be) event instead of an all day event. I understand that there are a lot of places where this isnt a problem, but in many places in California it is a big problem.

      Bring on the slow play survey !

      Reply

      Gil B.

      10 years ago

      This was a rather disappointing survey in that I see similar ones almost weekly. I thought the idea of this one was going to be more thought provoking and explaining how we golfers got into the game in the first place, how, and why we continue to play the game, and how it’s made a difference, if any, in how we have evolved as players and people. Oh well. For whatever it’s worth, my older brother and I didn’t have much in common, to say the least, and we had many differences in just about everything in life. He was already playing golf and he suggested that I give it a try. We enjoyed several years of playing together until we moved away from each other. Those years were invaluable in that we got to know each other a lot better, enjoyed each others’ company on and off the course, and established a relationship that wouldn’t have been possible if not for golf. Our relationship is as solid as any brothers’ relationship could be to this day and I suspect it will until we leave this earth. This little story is just a reminder that golf in some strange ways is more about the game itself.

      Reply

      markb

      10 years ago

      I’ve taken the survey, but the questions I saw were not so much related to the theme of “why I play golf” and “how to improve the game” as they were just a standard set of demographically-separable marketing questions that manufacturers might use to benchmark their status in a competitive, but declining industry.

      But maybe I’m being cynical. I like all the MGS surveys and their published analyses and more often than not they glom onto significant little clues that mean something. These little clues are sometimes proved to be lighthouse beacons showing the path to the future.

      For example, I note that there are currently no African-Americans playing on the PGA tour. There were more AA’s on Tour in the 1960’s than there are today. Why? I think it’s because in the mid-century we still had an extensive caddy infrastructure that provided a path to golf for our less privileged youngsters. Now caddies have gone the way of the vinyl lp record and the path is erased. I see a lot about the First Tee organization on TV; the trouble is I don’t ever see First Tee kids playing on courses or grads impacting the sport at higher ranks. Where are they, what do they do?

      I tell you what I do see — I see increasing numbers of wealthy Asian imports who come to the US to go to high school and play full time starting at age 12 or younger. They are serious, dedicated, amply supplied and skilled. I see Korean companies buying Acushnet. I see our golf course architects finding work in Asia. I see that virtually all golf clubs are made in China. I see a lighthouse beacon and it’s blazing at the Far East.

      Bottom line, if we follow the beacon, there is growth for golf. But otherwise, we simply may not be able to grow in the US at the start of the 21st century, just like golf was not able to grow in Scotland at the beginning of the 20th.

      Reply

      Bigleftygolfer

      10 years ago

      This is the price of progress and true for most American industries I actually welcome the influx of Asian golfers they play the game honestly and correctly as a whole I just wish they picked up the pace. My adopted brother is from Taiwan and like most in our family he golfs and he loops in 3 hours he laughs when people tell him he is the first Asian that they have seen play ready golf! So it is not genetic it is purely cultural for Japanese and Korean golfers specifically there is a total respect culture in Japan and Korea on the golf course regarding etiquette and if we followed the same etiquette our round would also take six hours!

      Reply

      Alex

      10 years ago

      I am from New England and all the courses got destroyed here over the winter. The rates have increased and the courses are worse. People aren’t going out as often but when they do they like to make the most of it (understandable). Most rounds on Sundays are 5 and half hours, it’s brutal, but knowing what to expect is making it easier. What does everyone think, is it better for the course to lower the rates and hopefully more people will golf more often or raise them to get the most out of people for the less times that they do show up?

      Reply

      Jack

      10 years ago

      I watched some of the NCAA this week. Those kids are excrutiatingly slow. The pros need to speed up and set an example. Golf courses need to do a better job of marshaling and not set weekend pin placements in the toughest location.

      Reply

      Neagle

      10 years ago

      Joe, blame that on the Pros and TV. I understand they make there living with golf and that one putt could mean the difference between 1st and 2nd and big money. The USGA needs to set rules different for amateurs and Pros, like they do in other sports. The group I play with most of the time have set rules that we all agree to make the game more enjoyable.
      I also blame average golfers who think they are pro golfers taking 6 practice swings on the tee and taking way to much time to read a putt. You would think they are feeding there family with the money there going to win from there buddy’s.
      I know this is going to ruffle a few feathers, but just my two cents.

      Reply

      joe

      10 years ago

      I agree with you Chris, Not really so much a decline in numbers of people you see on the course, but rather a big shortage of actual golfers.

      In California at least the golf course is the new party place. A place to waste the as much time as possible doing everything except hitting the golf ball.

      Reply

      chrisG

      10 years ago

      Done, but as a UK resident a couple of questions weren’t directly relevant, so I answered with UK equivalent in mind…

      I don’t really see the decline TBH, the courses I play are as busy as they were 10 years ago and a 4 ball still takes about 4 hours. The only sign is it’s easier (and less expensive) to get a round on private courses than it used to be, so perhaps they are struggling?

      Reply

      David W

      10 years ago

      I think you nailed it. The only courses in my areas that seem to be struggling any more than they were many years ago are the private courses. There are too many quality courses now to play the same one over and over every day.

      Reply

      RoverRick

      10 years ago

      If I would have known there was going to be a test today than I would have studied. I guess that is what I get for skipping class yesterday to play golf.

      Reply

      Temple M

      10 years ago

      Please send my prize via FedEx. I am waiting at my front door.

      Reply

      joe

      10 years ago

      Wish there was a question about why you don’t play as much as you used to for those of us that checked the box for I play less than I used to. Wanted to be able to say something about the horrendously slow pace of play and that is what keeps me and all my playing buddies from playing more.

      By far the biggest problem with the decline of golf is with the pace of play.

      Reply

      Bigleftygolfer

      10 years ago

      Amen Joe!

      This is soooooooooo true I can’t remember the last time I was asked to play through and I play to scratch and can easily complete a loop as a single in under 1:30! At my private club a round for a full foursome use to take 2:45 to 3:15 now a good pace is 4:15 just insane for country club golf the worse of it is usually it is one slow foursome holding the entire course up and that is the group that never let’s people play through and they all stink. I sometimes play with guys/ bad golfers that can shoot 120 in less than four hours so please guys let’s keep pace with the group in front and if they are waiting and you have an open hole let them play through don’t let ego get in the way. When I am practicing and taking my time I always let the group behind me play through if I even see them wait once!

      Reply

      AWOL

      10 years ago

      I third that comment. Im not scratch but even as a 10-11 hcp i can get a full 18 done in 2.5 or less hours walking. But i never get to play a head i always get stuck behind a foursome that refuses to let me pass. My biggest issue is i cant tell you how many times i watch large groups not play ready golf. I like the rules a golf but for me and my buddies we play whoever is ready first. We dont care if your one foot from the hole or off the green whoever is ready to go, goes. I get so mad watching these large groups spending 20 mins on the green trying to figure who should do what first. I also blame the golf courses and TV for this. All because the Golden Bear was all about fast greens and thick ruff. The average non-tournament golf course should have more receptable and slower greens. Because what happens you get a bunch of people that already cant putt taking even longer because the greens are running so fast or they cant get a basic chip to stay on the green. Courses have to realize that 99% of their golfers are not pro so playing at pro conditions is slowing the pace even more.

      Kenny B

      10 years ago

      Survey has good potential. Looking forward to it.

      Reply

      John Barry

      10 years ago

      Completed!!

      Reply

      Jondagcl

      10 years ago

      Cool, looking forward to seeing the results

      Reply

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