PART 4: How To Engage Millennial Golfers

This is part 4 of a series of articles written by the GOLF 20/20 Ambassadors highlighting ways for the golf industry to engage with 18 to 34-year-olds and promote the game to millennial golfers. Read the rest of the series.

According to the National Golf Foundation, the participation rate among 18 to 34-year-old golfers has decreased by 30-percent since the early 1990s. However, the average rounds played by today's millennial golfers has increased by 2.1 since 20 years ago.

This would suggest that avid golfers are still playing as much as ever, but the casual weekend hacks have found things to spend their time and money on that doesn't include golf. Here are a few ideas for golf courses and the industry to attract fringe golfers in the young adult demographic:

Support both your home team and nearby golf courses by teaming up with local football, basketball and hockey teams to offer promos and discounts on tickets, apparel, etc. when playing local courses. You could also have team viewing parties at the golf course clubhouses to bring in revenue for the clubs during sporting events. Fans of both golf and other sports would want to get into this!
Have “teen” day or “fun” day once a month at the golf courses. This would involve playing cool Top-100 music at the course, water guns at hot courses in Arizona/Florida/California, and having food and beverage discounts. We would need to work with the golf courses to see how much we could do per site, but we could assure them that having more people in the crowd would make them more business!
As I had mentioned in my previous post, tournament coverage needs to be tailored to the younger and less dedicated fans, too. This point is the largest and most expansive segment I suggest. This would entail working with the golf bodies of the PGA, LPGA, Champions, and Web. Com Tours. The ideas range from promos and giveaways on the course -- the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship did a great job with throwing our footballs on the par 3 -- to having online segments for younger viewers of the game. The best example would be having the Golf Boys have a special segment only found by the followers!

Golf needs to be more exciting for the younger fans! TPC Scottsdale 16 gives fun to all #GOLFIS @nextgolfer

— Lauren Conder (@Spider_girl21) July 18, 2014