Can anyone tell me why there is so much money in golf??

Because there are people, a lot of people, who both play it and watch it on telly?

Phil Mickelson reportedly being paid $200m to play in the new LIV series?!?

This is more "why is there so much money in sport washing oppressive regimes" than why golf.

Loads of rich pensioners like golf (my FIL for one). I can appreciate the skill in the game but it's not for me.

$200M is the total prize pot I think but still a lot even when split among the players.

Golf is an easy game for men to play regardless of their fitness levels. This is not the same as saying it is easy to play well however wealthy men can walk around a golf course chatting to friends and customers, claiming to be playing a sport without any real need to prepare. These people won't be very good because they haven't prepared but being rich they hope to buy their way to being better. After spending lots of money on new kit they are encouraged to fly to expensive and exclusive places to play. It is like a cheap version of the yacht club - a chance to show off your money and appear to be active and exciting.

My father in law plays (since his retirement) and he’d spend every last penny he has on playing it, buying significantly more expensive stuff to play it fractionally better, watching everything and anything about it on PPV or whatever it takes.

I still don’t get the obsession, but I can see he loves it.

One of the participants - possibly mickelson - was interviewed and wittered on about '...golf having done so much good throughout history'.
He wasn't challenged on that outpouring of utter verbiage; what a bag of bollocks.
The LIV competition is nothing other than sports washing.
It's nothing more than money-grabbing by the participants.
Tawdry.

$200M is the total prize pot I think but still a lot even when split among the players.

No, BBC reporting that Michelson is getting $200m and Dustin Johnson is getting $150m in appearance fees. $25m prize fund, Winner gets $4m, last place 120,000 or something.

To stop all those fairways/greens being turned into estates. 😉

I ride past a golf course on my my to the local trails, every single time I see golfers I want to do the Klaxxon jackass scene and sing Bob Marley- One Glove!

Mate of mine, a German judge, or rather fella of GF's mate, plays golf.

Golf in Germany is still very much a rich man's game.

No pay and play courses.

You need to complete a a Platzreifeprüfung (I kid you not.... exam to see if you know how to conduct yourself on a gold course (and people wonder why this place annoys me so ****ing much)).

Went to the driving range with him for a laugh. He was kinda upset that me, a lowly, mere carpenter could hit the ball with a three iron a darn sight further and straighter than he could with his fancy drive. I was only allowed on the driving range, not the course, because I haven't completed an exam nor been recommended to be a member.... This club was just outside Munich and the joining fee alone was several thousand euros. I used to pay £9 for a round BITD.

I like the game, not so much those that play it. It's a nice way of spending a few hours outside, but then again the driving range is good for that.

My old man played lots until his health meant he couldn't walk around the course. Lots of gammon types, Essex wide boy ****ers, UKIP candidates..... But then again his club is near fake tan central so is to be expected.

he’d spend every last penny he has on playing it, buying significantly more expensive stuff to play it fractionally better,

Sounds a lot like most mountain bikers

Lots of very wealthy finance companies seem to want to throw investors money at it for some advertising and nice days out for directors

The people who play it are rich, as in 1 percenter rich, therefore advertising revenue is ridic

Sounds a lot like most mountain bikers

Certainly sounds like me. I’m not into golf but have customers who are and I don’t understand it but they really do enjoy it much as I enjoy mountain biking. Are there more of them and hence more money?

Not sure if golf in the UK is as elitist as in other countries.

Plenty of pay and play places where you can play a round for under £20 on a weekend.

The only golf club near Munich where you need not be a member of any other club to play (but still have to have your Platzreife) still costs 40€ for a round. Yearly fees are crazy.

Plenty of plumbers and plasterers vans in the car park of my dad's club...

Interestingly, golf in the us has a very different image to over here. Ive been in phoenix during golf week a couple of times and the whole city comes out to party, the opposite of what you'd expect here..

You know how you’ve bought into carbon fibre, 29” wheels, dropper posted, 12 speed, single ring, boost etc etc etc

Same thing. A carbon fibre shaft on their big ****ter is probably 0.1% better

I find the idea of watching golf absolutely incomprehensible, but blokes called Oly who wear polo shirts, own BMW’s with private number plates and live on soulless estates of 4 bedroom detached Lego houses love this shit

Hang on, why ask about the money in golf? Have you seen the state of football?

My father in law plays (since his retirement) and he’d spend every last penny he has on playing it, buying significantly more expensive stuff to play it fractionally better, watching everything and anything about it on PPV or whatever it takes.

I still don’t get the obsession, but I can see he loves it.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people say the same thing about bicycle obsessed family members.

As above, wealthy guys play golf. Sponsors are paying to get the attention of those wealthy guys.

Hang on, why ask about the money in golf? Have you seen the state of football?

at least football is accessible and (can be) exciting to watch. unlike formula one where many many talented engineers are employed to chuck money down the drain. for the record i have no interest in football, but i’m interested in F1 results.

my dad is scottish. he played golf until he was physically unable to. i can understand the appeal, but beyond the driving range it isn’t for me.

he and his expat scottish pals only got into the local, english, club because one of their wives got invited to join (as a ladies member) by someone she met through the WI or the church or something similar. the 70’s were a simpler time, until you end up with a bunch of glaswegians in your fancy club.

perhaps more amusingly, my sister married a scratch golfer (from up north) who after the union, was always my dad’s partner for the “invitation”. as a result my dad’s name is all over the boards that record the winning of such illustrious prizes. the posh chaps aren’t impressed and consider my brother in law a ringer.

i’d sooner ride a yeti than join a golf club (in england) winkface

Lots of very wealthy finance companies seem to want to throw investors money at it for some advertising and nice days out for directors

Theres an entertaining episode of Revisionist History about cross referencing two data sets - one a golf equivalent of Strava where players upload their stats - the other being the measures of performance of the companies they're the captains of. Theres a pretty perfect inverse relationship between how keen on golf these people are and how well their companies perform. The keener the golfer the poorer the share performance and more bancruptcies they've presided over

The bosses of Leerman Bros all went on a golf jolly on the Friday before the bank tanked  the following Monday - the biggest corporate failure in history on the horizon and they still felt a bit of golf was the bigger priority. Now they run and own golf clubs and those fail too.

Same thing. A carbon fibre shaft on their big ****ter is probably 0.1% better

yeah, but it's only 0.1% better if you get everything about the stroke absolutely perfect. If you don't hit it perfectly it's 20% worse.
Unfortunately the sort of people who buy into this are only capable of doing a perfect stroke 5% of the time. Or less.

Bit like cycling really...

Only real interaction I have with golfists is an ex-girlfriend's son who was a pro in the 00s.
He started playing so he could get some time with his dad, who was a mad keen golfer. And also CxO of a big corp based in London.
The sad thing about the (w)hole gig was that every time his son reached a major golfing milestone his dad would suck and stop speaking to him for a few weeks. It happened a lot because in 30 years of playing golf, daddy dearest had never amounted to anything, son was playing off scratch before he'd even joined the senior ranks of the club IIRC.

Not sure if golf in the UK is as elitist as in other countries.

Plenty of pay and play places where you can play a round for under £20 on a weekend.

It certainly has a big elitist element with members only clubs where you have to be the right sort of person to have a chance of getting in. But the UK also has loads of low entry cost courses that are just pay and play.
I used to play quite a bit and really enjoyed it and I played in jeans and trainers with a set of clubs that cost £100. Paying £10 to play would have been on the high end for any courses I played at.

It may have eased off a bit now but growing up in the stockbroker belt in the 90's the golf club was basically seen as the place where the 'serious' business types did their networking, well away from the lower classes and where you're unlikely to be overheard.

Cue all the greasy pole climbers getting into golf almost as a way to further their careers. If the MD or CEO invites you for a round at their club you had to be able to make a good show of it if you wanted that promotion.

The actual game seemed distinctly secondary.

It’s not know as “green heroin” in China for nothing. And have you seen fuel prices recently? Follow the money.

Local council course near us is about to close, but my dad and I both started playing on pay to play council courses. I've not paid for decades and gave my clubs away on FB last week - had half a dozen enquiries, so obviously popular.

It's not as elitist in the UK as people like to think. Depends how up your own arse you are, as with most things.

Loving the comments about paying silly money for marginal gains and image on a mountain bike forum. Hello kettle, I'm a pot 🤣🤣

One of the participants – possibly mickelson – was interviewed and wittered on about ‘…golf having done so much good throughout history’.

I heard this too and did a double take. It was Mickelson.

Churchill called golf "A good walk ruined."

Alexi Sayle called it "A good **** ruined."

I love golf, wish i could still play just now but had to stop due to hip impingement, new hip coming this year so may go back to playing.

Not sure why there's so much vitriol for it on here, i used to play at a club where the guys i went round with were pretty normal folk, joiners, plumbers, etc, loads of pensioners but they stuck to their own days/rounds, yes you had some rich, but they tended to be more self made, so owned a plumbing/joinery/garage. There were some proper wealthy folk who were muppets, but they avoided the normal players most of the time anyway.

Kit wise, i find mtb costs more for me in the long run, fitness wise, a round of golf tends to be a 6 mile walk, carry the bag and it's getting you out and doing stuff, not to mention the actual golf bit.

I also like watching it, because you can see the skill and accuracy at work, the top golfers battling it out and seeing the outstanding shots, as well as the bad ones.

The new LIV series is basically the Saudi tourism board, when I say tourism I mean willy waving. That's why they are getting paid crackers amounts. It's a way of saying "don't look at the bad stuff, look at all this money".

Thankfully some of the press are asking the right questions and making the golfers feel awkward for at least 30 seconds.

https://twitter.com/Mockneyrebel/status/1534494437077835777?t=DxBM-PFbCy0kJYZNWLh7NA&s=19

TBH, it's more of a 6 lane motorway than a maze...

To be honest, they're having a real go at this LIV tour about the Saudi backing, i'm not sure why it's such a central thing, as Saudi backing is in almost every sport, they own football clubs, they put a fortune into the likes of F1, the World Cup is also coming up without much bad press.

If i had a guess, i'd say that the negativity around the LIV tour was a concerted effort by the PGA and other golfing associations, it's a bit like the UEFA / Superleague thing.

I take the piss out of a mate for playing golf - probably not fair. If you’ve never tried it, it’s a fiendishly difficult game to play. A few hours walking around trying to find your ball, of which you spend what, maybe ten minutes or less addressing and hitting the bloody thing? 😀 It’s not for me, but I might give it another go when I’m less able to run, etc.

Anyway, I don’t think this is about golf, the game. It’s about regimes with more spare cash than most western economies can even dream of, using it to sports-wash their regimes. Boxing. Football. Motorsport. Horse Racing. Players getting shorty when they’re asked difficult questions. Press conferences “moderated.” Interviewers who ask difficult questions being ejected and barred from subsequent PCs. The return on investment isn’t counted in percentage profits here, it’s access to wealth, it’s the parties on yachts in the marinas near the courses and the chats about what block of super expensive apartments in London are going to be bought for loose change to keep the money safe and clean.

I’m not a fan of the sport itself but like a lot of others, I watch the Ryder Cup, maybe the Masters and the Open highlights and draw my conclusions about the players from the interviews I hear during those tournaments. I have to say, I’m surprised with how wrong I’ve been about some of them. I had no idea what ****s some of them really are.

Go to Scotland and you'll observe golf is very accessible, and a darn sight less elitist than most sports.

It's less shoppingtastic than cycling I'm sorry to say.

I'm with Alpin.
Being on the Swiss German border, all the German golf emporiums are full of Swiss golferists doing golfery with their golf bats.

Not about the money at all. No pay to play here.

The LIV tournament isn’t even televised, it’s some pro-am format. I’m not really sure how it’s enhancing saudi reputations either. The faces on the players being asked difficult questions is great. Be interesting to see if Joshua gets as much grief for his fight in Riyadh

Like cycling; golf got a boost in lockdown, I think after a bit of declining interest, there's been a surge. It's wildly popular again. I think I read a stat a while back (probably an airline mag or something) that 1 in 3 adults in the US will read about, watch, or play golf actively. In advertising alone, there's probably no other non-Olympic sport with that sort of reach.

he’d spend every last penny he has on playing it, buying significantly more expensive stuff to play it fractionally better,

Sounds a lot like most mountain bikers

I couldn't believe he'd written that without clocking the irony.

So mayhe - with the sums involved - cycling isn't the new golf quite yet?

They're working on it though...
https://www.thesauditour.com/en

I dont play Golf, have no intention of.

The game itself looks like quite good fun, i can see the skill involved up to a point, and furhter, ive seen incredible shots on youtub and thought "is that REALLY all skill, can human fast twitch muscle really (remotely via a long ish bat) hit a ball 100m+ and sink it into a hole < 3" wide?"

But i know too many peoiple who play golf who are grade A nozzles.
White range rovers, trophy wife, My Daddy is going to sue your daddy, the whole package.
its a business thing. Its Linkedin for deals you wouldnt want to write down.
Yuk.

Its not about the game, i wouldnt fit in there (or want to). I'll stick to push bikes. Those guys are infalliable heroes, to a man.

carry the bag

LOL! Who actually does that any more, I thought everyone had remote control trolleys?

It’s less shoppingtastic than cycling I’m sorry to say.

Nah, same woo and marginal gains to be had over getting actual lessons and building skill. It's every bit as bad as cycling but for some reason travel insurance actually covers clubs properly (or did when I last had it).

Be interesting to see if Joshua gets as much grief for his fight in Riyadh

I can kinda understand boxers/MMA fighters taking the money - in their game you have a short shelf life, and it's a case of making your money and getting out before you suffer permanent damage, so grabbing easy cash makes more sense (even if the cash is unethical).

Golfers and footballers less so, IMO, so it's only right that multi-millionaires like Eddie Howe and those golfers face awkward questions about who pays their wages, when they don't need the money and could easily make shed loads elsewhere.

In advertising alone, there’s probably no other non-Olympic sport with that sort of reach.

It's been in the Olympics since 2016 😁

LOL! Who actually does that any more, I thought everyone had remote control trolleys?

Again, it's a sport that is accessible to all, but those who don't earn fortunes can't buy all the kit, same in cycling, we don't all hit the trails on santa cruz bikes. When i last played (about 3 years ago) the only person who had a remote trolley in our group was a joiner, and the remote trolley thing was a bit useless then, maybe better now, but carrying was just easier.

Be interesting to see if Joshua gets as much grief for his fight in Riyadh

I kind of agree. Yes, on the face of it a Saudi backed sports tournament is a bad thing. But so many other elements of sports sponsorship or venue choice is just as shitty and tawdry. Unless you are the PGA and have an vested interest in this being seen as next level of bad it's just more of the same. Not saying it should be happening but loads of people should have grown some principles in other sports too and plainly haven't. So these guys are just added to heap of self serving obscenely rich sports mercenaries.

I'm 50 and I still don't 'get' sponsorship. Beyond the sports manufacturer personal sponsorships which is obvious and works, I just don't see how it's worth the outlay in terms of return. Have I, a pleb, had my purchasing choices influenced by the brands that sponsor teams or events - maybe I have and I'm too stupid to realise. I guess Rebull is an example of why I'm wrong - they must spend bazillions on all the sports they are involved in but would as much expensive fizzy cough mixture tasting gob be sold if they didn't? Do wealthy (and therefore you'd imagine financially astute) golfist fans change their carefully worked out banking, auditing or investment choices based on the bank or audit company sponsoring a golfering competition? Even if you go there and get invited into a corporate tent and have a warm glass of fizz. And in a tribal sports like football - put your name on a shirt and yes the fans of that team might think warm thoughts about you. But the vast vast majority of people who care about football loath your team - whichever team that is. Wouldn't just as many Man City, Leeds or Liverpool fan consciously or subconsciously avoid any brand on the front of a Man Utd shirt as Man U fans spending money on their stuff that would not have otherwise?

Then there are the vanity sponsorships - Inios - how much money is he investing across a bunch of sports? How can there possibly be a return there for a brand there very few will consciously associate with a purchasing choice; but perhaps he just does not care.

"People have been shit for ages so we probably shouldn't start telling them they are shit now" seems like a very odd mindset.

Trying to approach from a objective perspective, we have a group of people who want to participate in a outdoors activity that requires driving out of town to access large enough space with facilities to support said activity. Activity requires specialist equipment that changes with technological advances and fashion and is marketed by brands and professionals.

Could be either bikes or golf

Quick google suggests golf is the 10th most popular sport in the world with 450 million participants, if you presume they pay £1000 for bats and £3000 for fees, travel etc then you get a very large number. I bet i'm way under on the cost of both, and the 200m comes in at 0.01% of it. All the other 9 sports above require a lot less upfront equipment costs to participate (mostly single bat or ball sports).

Anyone got a firm idea of how much a set of clubs and green fees cost?

I can kinda understand boxers/MMA fighters taking the money – in their game you have a short shelf life, and it’s a case of making your money and getting out before you suffer permanent damage, so grabbing easy cash makes more sense (even if the cash is unethical).

Golfers and footballers less so, IMO, so it’s only right that multi-millionaires like Eddie Howe and those golfers face awkward questions about who pays their wages, when they don’t need the money

Not sure about your numbers here. Eddie Howe is currently on £3M a year. Anthony Joshua's lifetime earnings are in the hundreds of millions. He has already earned enough that his kids and grandkids could live in luxury without ever doing a day's work, and that's without the £100m+ that he's reputed to be on course for in Saudi. It's not like he's going to be worried about keeping the heating on in his old age.

At one point (just before the Lloyd Insurance problems) the most high stakes sport in the country. The residents of East Bergholt lost in excess of £70m due to the phrase, "fancy a round of golf?"

It's also the sport of choice for most of the major construction companies from my experience of site visits in the late 2000's.

So here goes, I am am a member of a golf course near Kidderminster with an annual fee of £900 for a seven day membership.
My clubs and trolley cost £1700 a year ago and Will last me for many years to come.
Amongst our group of twenty or so regular players there are two plumbers.a sparky ,two retired carpenters,a retired train driver and various guys working normal jobs.
Plus a retired bank manager.
My Banshee rune cost £4200 a few years ago.

I love watching golf

The Masters is the best sport event on TV and I'm a football season ticket holder who loves Mountain biking and Cricket

Golf doesn't have to be expensive in the UK, I had a lodger years ago who played all the time, he was a minicab driver. FIL, who is far from cash rich, was president of his local club and he doesn't live off much more than the state pension (own house though). Blind in one eye and handicap of 6.

So here goes, I am am a member of a golf course near Kidderminster with an annual fee of £900 for a seven day membership.
My clubs and trolley cost £1700 a year ago and Will last me for many years to come.
Amongst our group of twenty or so regular players there are two plumbers.a sparky ,two retired carpenters,a retired train driver and various guys working normal jobs.
Plus a retired bank manager.
My Banshee rune cost £4200 a few years ago.

You don't obviously expect to win any friends here by coming up with blindingly obvious facts do you?

The residents of East Bergholt lost in excess of £70m due to the phrase, “fancy a round of golf?”

What is the backstory to this?

Do wealthy (and therefore you’d imagine financially astute) golfist fans change their carefully worked out banking, auditing or investment choices based on the bank or audit company sponsoring a golfering competition? Even if you go there and get invited into a corporate tent and have a warm glass of fizz.

I expect it does have an effect in the latter case. Its all about building personal relationships and now strip clubs are frowned on got to go for sport instead.
In theory it gets used for internal staff motivation as well with various freebies being made available to staff. I say in theory cos where I work supports some golf but I dont know anyone who pays attention. Was the case with the football and I think tennis before.

thanks sargey

as i suspected, golf can be more or less expensive to participate in than biking and who am i to judge people who want to have a walk with a bit of skill based competitive interest, in some nice surroundings with a pint at the end.

Don't know much about golf, but if one of these oil states somehow created a Morzine/Whistler level bike park and ran it in the winter, I'd be there in a heartbeat.

Got to love how many golfers 'big' themselves up. Worked with many, and constant prattling on about handicap - yeh played for years but still on a 15.

Only one guy I worked with didn't say much about his golf, other than he played at weekend. He didn't go on about he hit this shot, that etc etc. Out of curiosity, I asked him what his handicap was....

'Scratch' he said - I was like, wow so you are rather good then !

Most golfers are full of hot air, bit like e-MTBers....... 🙂

My old golf membership was about 1100 a year, via monthly direct debit, there were cheaper courses nearby, and of course more expensive. The reality is that 90% of golf courses are fighting for survival, they're owned by members or whatever and staying afloat year by year, counting on members to help where possible. The guys i played with helped out now and again at the club, and got stuff for it, beer tokens or discount, hence why golf clubs like having plasterers, joiners, sparkies, etc as members!

There are a lot of very exclusive golf clubs around London and elsewhere that tend to set their joining fees very high (some in the £100k's!), that's basically to have an exclusive club like any other, this day and age a lot of footballers and so on are part of these.

Then there are the vanity sponsorships – Inios – how much money is he investing across a bunch of sports? How can there possibly be a return there for a brand there very few will consciously associate with a purchasing choice; but perhaps he just does not care.

Look at all those green sports he's sponsoring, look how green Inios are!

If you dig enough you'll find a link in most areas, be it Saudi/UAE/Qatar/etc, or Russia, or China, we all use stuff and enjoy stuff that is basically paid for, sponsored or supported by 'bad' money.

Again, with the whole bad press around LIV, i feel it's being pushed more by the PGA and golf in the wider context, rather than a real concern about Saudi money, i think the PGA have had it all their own way over the years, and this worries them.

Not sure why people are comparing golf to football. Footballers play golf to relax after playing football, that's what me and my mates did. Its not a physically taxing game just frustrating.

Don’t know much about golf, but if one of these oil states somehow created a Morzine/Whistler level bike park and ran it in the winter, I’d be there in a heartbeat.

Can't think of anywhere worse TBH.

All the tackiness and lack of authenticity of Vegas but without the vices to see you through, no ta.

In advertising alone, there’s probably no other non-Olympic sport with that sort of reach.

I think it's a a bit more specific than that.

1 in 3 people might be exposed to golf in some way shape or form. But I'd put money on that 1/3 also being very heavily corelated with the top 1/3 of the wealth. And the level of interest probably carries on that correlation. Which is why it's so valuable to advertisers.

Compare and contrast 3 fairly "rich mans" sports that require an upfront investment in equipment.

Sailing (dinghy) - club championship sponsored by, ermmm, no one. National championships by some component supplier for a few hundred quid spread across the fleet and some stickers.

Cycling - club championships sponsored by Miche (because they sponsor the whole SE crit and CX series's, and therefore by defacto the clubs rounds of those).

Golf - anything more upmarket than the council pitch and putt seems to be sponsored by the local BMW/Audi/Porche dealership.

All the tackiness and lack of authenticity of Vegas but without the vices to see you through, no ta.

Thats kind of the point, although I know it isn't for every biker.

People have carved bike trails (and ski pistes) out of mountainsides, and erected big metal lifts in a few carefully controlled valleys. Its hardly Alpinism.

But as I describe my near-annual alps holiday to non-biking aquaintances, its like Disneyland, except you control the rides yourself; and the other customers are fitter and more attractive.

Not sure about your numbers here.

Yeah, you've got a point re: Joshua's wealth. I was more referring to less well paid boxers/MMA athletes who could retire a few fights early with a big Saudi payday, thus preserving their long term health.

Its not a physically taxing game just frustrating.

I think if you’re doing it all day, most days be it playing or practising, with repetitive swings using the same muscle groups over and over, it probably is a bit more than you’re making out.

Btw, for anyone who listens to podcasts, Freakonomics’ latest episode on Sportswashing has just dropped. It discusses this subject a lot. Haven’t quite finished it, but it’s a good listen so far.

old people tend to have more disposable income than any other group. They often have all their significant costs in life covered, and so a large amount of money and time to spend. They are an advertisers wet dream.

young people tend to have very little disposable income. They have low paid jobs, high living costs (ie paying out rent monthly), and so advertisers find them easy to attract, but only to low-cost items

just look at the progression on costs of bikes to observe this. looking at canyon, A great BMX (median age, what, 15?) is about a grand (ok I had to substitute their dirt jump bike cos they don't make bmxs), a great DH bike (median age 25?) is maybe £6k, a good trail bike is maybe (35 year old) £7.5k, and a top end road bike (median age 45?) is £11k.

There's not more technology in a road bike than a dh bike, its just the clients are richer. Golf and road riding both attract cash-rich, time-rich customers and so companies with large marketing budgets selling fancy things (boats, cars, watches) are happy to advertise there, bringing large pots of prize money in.

As both a keen cyclist and a keen golfer I can confirm that I spend far far more on cycling kit than golf equipment. It’s not even comparable

I have top end clubs, basically the best you can get. They are worth a third of my best bike.

And how many of us only have one bike..

A lot of golf clubs are struggling as they are suffering from an ageing membership on a sport where popularity peaked in the 70s. Many club members are too old/unhealthy to play - they just treat it as a social club.
A lot of member owned clubs now realise that they own some nice real estate and are selling up to developers and pocketing £100k’s each.
Also, with changes to corporate hospitality tax rules, a lot of businesses no longer spend money schmoozing clients on golf-courses. I once looked after the sales and marketing budget at a corporate that ran to £1m/yr and my first job was to take £100k out of it. It was quite easy, the 2 two corporate golf days got ditched - I had quite a lively debate with one of the directors because I asked him to show the ROI on the spend and how it contributed to the PWin for multi-million pound contacts when the key decision-makers rarely attended…
That said corporate biking days are increasingly popular where clients get escorted around a nice course with a lengthy lunch stop.

Not sure why there is so much wittering on about what it costs to be a pleb in golf vs what it costs to be a pleb in cycling etc. You are just a consumer. A non event. And a participant.

The OP's question was about the money sloshing around in the professional sport.

Btw, for anyone who listens to podcasts, Freakonomics’ latest episode on Sportswashing has just dropped. It discusses this subject a lot. Haven’t quite finished it, but it’s a good listen so far.

ta - very good so far.

Interesting statistic in the first couple of minutes - all of the annual revenue in professional sport globally is less than the annual revenue made by a single pharmaceutical company, Johnson & Johnson. Kind of puts it into perspective. I bet some of J&Js brightest and most innovative chemists would like salaries 1/100th of their sporting equivalents.

I bet some of J&Js brightest and most innovative chemists would like salaries 1/100th of their sporting equivalents.

I'm all for adequately rewarding STEM careers.

But remember that athletes are effectively the product being sold, not the employee.

I think if you’re doing it all day, most days be it playing or practising, with repetitive swings using the same muscle groups over and over, it probably is a bit more than you’re making out.

Same with cycling though. There's an entry point into both sports where you can pick up the equipment and go out with your mates without necessarily having to have committed 10+ hours a week to it for a number of years to get the fitness and skills to make it competitively.

You could pick up a set of clubs and make it through a round of golf without breaking a sweat.

And away from the traditional bridleway riding (or even the longer trail center routes), the latest demographic in cycling seems to be an influx of displaced Enduro/adventure/green lane motorbike riders, mid-40's, e-bike, thinks "BMI is a poor indicator of individuals health" pushing up / doing laps of the DH bits.

@tpbiker - Free Member

As both a keen cyclist and a keen golfer I can confirm that I spend far far more on cycling kit than golf equipment. It’s not even comparable

I have top end clubs, basically the best you can get. They are worth a third of my best bike.

And how many of us only have one bike..

I think this says more about the disposable income of golfers even after buying clubs than it does the average cyclist

I have top end clubs, basically the best you can get. They are worth a third of my best bike.

A quick google tells me that a set is typically limited to 14 clubs, and they seem to top out at between 4-600 quid each, what the hell do you have for a "best bike"?

And talking of doing business on the golf course, i reckon most of the top golf clubs have Serious Fraud Office microphones all over the place these days...

Can anyone tell me why there is so much money in golf??

Because wealthy business people will pay a fortune to swing a nice shaft at a well trimmed fairway.

A quick google tells me that a set is typically limited to 14 clubs, and they seem to top out at between 4-600 quid each, what the hell do you have for a “best bike”?

I wish it cost that much, you can have 14 clubs in your bag, you can have 10 irons at about £100 each, driver, 3 wood and hybrid at around 500 quid and then the putter. If you're buying top notch kit, those 14 clubs will be over 2k, normal level, you can probably wheel and deal and get them for 1500.

It's never cheap to get into but for most once they've got a set, it's what they use for a long time, especially irons, 3 woods, etc, folk change drivers and putters now and again, but not a huge amount.

folk change drivers and putters now and again, but not a huge amount.

The folk I work with are never done changing clubs, getting fitted for new ones, buying new grips, GPS aids, trolleys and, unsurprisingly, a never ending stream of balls.

It's exactly the same consumerist keeping up with the Jones' mentality as cycling.

And FWIW, not all of us are rocking £6k+ bikes, I doubt the value of all of mine combined even comes close to that.

you've missed out the £110k to buy a nice merc sl to nip to the club and back. thats at least £50k more than a VW T6 to fit in with the trail centre crew

If you’re buying top notch kit, those 14 clubs will be over 2k

More like 5-6k if you're looking at

"basically the best you can get."

What is the backstory to this?

One of the syndicate heads lived in the village and in the days of unlimited liability he sold the business as no risk and guaranteed profits for all the members off the back of rounds of golf at Fynn Valley or Stoke by Nayland.

Come the inevitable problems due to weather and asbestos claims many genteel types lost their houses, land, horses, art and share portfolios.

unsurprisingly, a never ending stream of balls.

I'm not sure I've ever bought a single golf ball - I generally find 2 x whatever I lose whilst looking for the one I hit!

My name is cb and I play golf!

There, admitted it. Love the game and the challenge of it, more love the walk in the countryside.

No time for check trousers or cocks, they both exist at every golf club, those things are not infectious - its a choice!

Re the LIV series, if I were one of those golfers - say Westwood at 50 years old being offered 50M just to tune up and a guarenteed 640k to play 8 events, I'd be all over it.

If anyone can point to a guilt free country I might change my opinion. UK - we haven't been angels have we - slavery, India, took our time giving women the vote, locking non bombers up for decades, Bloody Sunday, kids still in poverty even now...

USA - just double everything above.

The Saudis need t ochange but that ain't going to happen by boycotting them.