Every sport is unique in its own way because it nourishes and enriches the players with knowledge, skills, experience, and confidence. One sport that stands apart from the rest is Golf. Famous for its uniqueness and testing player’s skills and patience, Golf is gradually gaining popularity all over the world.
Golf traces back in 15th century, which is said to have originated from Scotland where the players hit a pebble over sand dunes and around the tracks using clubs or bent sticks. Around 17th century golfers grouped together the first four short holes into making a circle of 18 holes. The player has to hit the ball in all the holes with minimum number of strikes. According to the course, taking about 18 holes may burn half of your day and is a game taking much longer, time-consuming, and pricey. Thus, taking time off from work and leisure time to play is considered a luxury and in this way got coined as a game of the rich. This uniqueness has led to the developments setting in popular trends in Golf
Golf is one of the games that was played on high-quality well-manicured courses. Golf is a sport, after all; it has the prerequisites for high physical tenacity, usage of muscles, patience, mental capacity, and therefore a game well suited for competition.
Like other sports, Golf has evolved over time. It has remained a gentlemen’s game with rules and a disciplined format. For the past several decades, Golf has become more popular due to its media courage and unique style and class. Let’s explore the popular trends in Golf in 2024 observed around the world.
Tours and Pro Game
Golfing events and tours are becoming hugely popular for the participation of the skilled, experienced, and renowned players of the game often called ‘Pro’. Such skilled players include individuals like Tiger Woods, Xander Schauffele, Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Hideki Matsuyama, Lexi Thompson, Cristie Kerr, So Yeon Ryu, and so on. These golfers have displayed various qualities of high patience, poise, control, tenacity, and focus in the game. Several MNCs also have shown very keen interest in sponsoring the tours such as American Express, Cisco, Rolex, Lexus, etc. The celebrity golfers began and influenced the popular trends in Golf as they were inspiring.
Growth in Apparatus Industry
Golfing became a popular sport, and so was the demand for playing apparatus. The Golf ball rollback will maintain absolute internet monopoly. The global golf equipment market had reached USD 7.48 billion in 2022 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.0% from 2023 to 2030. Several design houses and studios are introducing new designs thereby driving popular trends in golf.
The key influencers driving the global market are golf tourism, rise in number of golf courses, and growth in number of high income people with disposable income. Furthermore, more women players on the golf courses are also expected to witness a tremendous hike in the next few years. The key players of this sector are also investing in developing new-age golfing equipment that might help propel this market and popular trends in golf.
New Golf Boom
Golf is most certainly on a roll in 2023 as over 26.6 million played on courses and 18.4 million off course.
Golf continues to grow strongly, with more than a third of the U.S. population playing the game in some form, including a record 26.6 million on-course participants and 18.4 million exclusive off-course participants. The demographic profile of golfers is changing, as participation by women was up by 25% since four years ago and by ethnic minorities by 43%, boding well for the future. Golfing exerts an important economic influence, contributing $101.7 billion in the US economy from now to 2022, according to a wide range of consumer interests that raise demand for golfing travel and equipment. The impact of popular trends in golf has contributed to the rise in number of people playing golf.
New Technologies
With the modern technology, golf enthusiasts can practice and play using economical and advanced golf-simulators. Technologies have made things easier and adaptable driving popular trends in golf.
The simulators use cameras and sensors that can trace the golf ball trajectory at high speed to simulate the real experience of a golfer. From SkyTrak to OptiShot, there are home simulators in infinite varieties for every budget and level. Home golf simulators are increasingly popular because it allows a golfer to practice all year round regardless of bad weather. Virtual reality is making this possible for people to even train with almost real-life simulation in a golf environment. VR golf training systems from companies like Golf Scope and PuttView are enabling players to practice swings, alignments, and putting in a virtual environment. Wearable technologies, smartwatches, and fitness bands form the popular trends in golf, as they are some of the most used monitoring tools for any golf enthusiast, as they monitor golfing-related metrics, such as performance and health.
Features on models of the Garmin Approach series and Apple Watch include GPS course maps, swing analysis, and shot tracking are influencing popular trends in golf.
Millennials’ Popularity
Today, the largest age segment of high income is millennials i.e. born between 1981 and 2000. They are fast learners and adapt very quickly to new situations while always attending classes. Recently, it was discovered that this age group had reached a new high in average rounds played annually while average spend per round climbed by 28 percent over the past five years. Eager to explore the new, millennials have been attracted to the popular trends in golf, that requires patience, accuracy and stamina.
Golf also became ‘very important’ for 60% of millennial golfers. The reason is mainly the impact of the Covid epidemic.
Golf Fashion
Golf fashion is changing fast, and there are some new trends along the way to keep you looking great on the course. Popular trends in golf reflect bold, brilliant colors, geometric patterns, and a dash of retro-inspired designs. Mixing and combining different textures and materials will also be trendy. Try several approaches to see which one fits best in respect of the personalities of the players and helps them to feel at ease.
The Impact of Popular Trends in Golf
In a nutshell, the future of golfing fashion and popular trends in golf boils down to balancing style with technology. Whether one is a professional or just starting out, something pleasing to the eyes can now be paired with high-performance items on the green-sporting moisture-wicking materials, UV-protective apparel, and tech-savvy accessories. So, time to get into trend and fly above that level of golfing fashions.
