How Golf Will Be Impacted By The Olympics, Part II

(Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

This is the second of a four part series on how golf’s acceptance into the 2016 Olympics will affect the financial health of the industry as well as the game itself.

The first part of this four part series explored how golf course designers would benefit from the explosion golf is bound to see as a result of being included in the 2016 Olympic Games.

So, what do people actually need to play the game of golf…other than money?

Well, first they need a place to play, which is why the course designers will be the first ones seeing their bank accounts substantially grow as a result of golf in the Olympics.  

Next, people need equipment to play this game, which is why companies like Nike, Callaway, Titlist and Taylor Made are now licking their chops.

As mentioned in the first part of this series, golf in America has not experienced any growth whatsoever in at least five years.

The number of golfers in America has remained stagnant, and these days you’d have a better chance of finding a unicorn in your local wooded area than a golf course construction site in America.

But, believe it or not, there is a world outside of the California coast and the northeastern shores of Maine, and that other part of the world is where we are likely to see an explosion in the game of golf as a result of the Olympics.

Just look at the affect basketball had in the years following the original Dream Team’s appearance in the 1992 Olympics games in Barcelona.

How many good international teams do we now see competing in the Olympics that didn’t even play basketball a mere 17 years ago?

In 2004, just 12 years after the original Dream Team steamrolled their way to a gold medal in Barcelona, the American team could only muster a bronze medal in Athens.  Granted, a group of five-year-olds could have bound together to make up a better team than those 12 individuals that made up the 2004 USA Basketball team.

But, team unity issues or not, they actually lost to Puerto Rico and Lithuania, narrowly defeated Greece and Australia to advance to the medal round where they were eventually defeated by Argentina.

A decade earlier, a single loss by the USA basketball team at the Olympics would have seemed almost comical.

How many great international players have begun popping up in the NBA over the past five to ten years?

These days you can’t be considered a legitimate NBA Basketball team unless you have at least one smooth shooting European on your team.

Golf will experience a level of growth similar to that of basketball.

There are over a billion people in India yet there is currently only one public golf course and one public driving range.

China, also has over a billion people, not to mention the fastest growing economy on the planet.

Hmm, a virtually untouched market of more than 2 billion people that are about to be further exposed to the game of golf…heck, the equipment companies have just hit the lottery.

Golf’s growth will certainly be accelerated as a result of its inclusion in the 2016 Olympic games, which is, of course, a great thing for the game itself.

And when the game of golf grows, so too do the pockets of those who make a living in the golf equipment industry.

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