Popularity
In 2005 Golf Digest calculated that the countries with most
golf courses per capita, in order, were: Scotland, New Zealand, Australia,
Ireland, Canada, Wales, United States, Sweden, and England .
The number of course in other territories increases, an
example of this being the expansion of golf in China. The first golf course in
China opened in 1984, but by the end of 2009 there were roughly 600 in the
country. For much of the 21st century, development of new golf courses in China
has been officially banned, but the number of courses had nonetheless tripled
from 2004 to 2009; the "ban" has been evaded with the government's
tacit approval simply by not mentioning golf in any development plans.
In the United States, the number of people who play golf
twenty-five times or more per year decreased from 6.9 million in 2000 to 4.6
million in 2005.
Professional golf
The majority of professional golfers work as club or
teaching professionals, and only compete in local competitions. A small elite
of professional golfers are "tournament pros" who compete full-time
on international "tours". Many club and teaching professionals
working in the golf industry start as caddies or with a general interest in the
game, finding employment at golf courses and eventually moving on to
certifications in their chosen profession. These programs include independent
institutions and universities, and those that eventually lead to a Class A golf
professional certification. Touring professionals typically start as amateur
players, who attain their "pro" status after success in major
tournaments that win them either prize money and/or notice from corporate
sponsors. Jack Nicklaus, for example, gained widespread notice by finishing
second in the 1960 U.S. Open to champion Arnold Palmer, with a 72-hole score of
282 . He played one more amateur year in 1961, winning that year's U.S. Amateur
Championship, before turning pro in 1962.
Instruction
Golf instruction involves the teaching and learning of the
game of golf. Proficiency in teaching golf instruction requires not only
technical and physical ability but also knowledge of the rules and etiquette of
the game. In some countries, golf instruction is best performed by teachers
certified by the Professional Golfers Association. Some top instructors who
work with professional golfers have become quite well known in their own right.
Instructors use a combination of physical conditioning, mental visualization,
classroom sessions, club fitting, driving range instruction, on-course play
under real conditions, and review of videotaped swings in slow motion to teach
golf.
Golf tours
There are at least twenty professional golf tours, each run
by a PGA or an independent tour organization, which is responsible for
arranging events, finding sponsors, and regulating the tour. Typically a tour
has "members" who are entitled to compete in most of its events, and
also invites non-members to compete in some of them. Gaining membership of an
elite tour is highly competitive, and most professional golfers never achieve
it.
Perhaps the most widely known tour is the PGA Tour, which
tends to attract the strongest fields, outside the four Majors and the four
World Golf Championships events. This is due mostly to the fact that most PGA
Tour events have a first prize of at least 800,000 USD. The European Tour,
which attracts a substantial number of top golfers from outside North America,
ranks second to the PGA Tour in worldwide prestige. Some top professionals from
outside North America play enough tournaments to maintain membership on both
the PGA Tour and European Tour. In three of the four most recent golf seasons,
both tours' money titles were claimed by the same individual, with Luke Donald
doing so in 2011 and Rory McIlroy in 2012 and 2014. In 2013, Henrik Stenson won
the FedEx Cup points race on the PGA Tour and the European Tour money title,
but did not top the PGA Tour money list.
The other leading men's tours include the Japan Golf Tour,
the Asian Tour, the PGA Tour of Australasia, and the Sunshine Tour . The Japan,
Australasian, Sunshine, PGA, and European Tours are the charter members of the
trade body of the world's main tours, the International Federation of PGA
Tours, founded in 1996. The Asian Tour became a full member in 1999. The
Canadian Tour became an associate member of the Federation in 2000, and the
Tour de las Américas became an associate
member of the Federation in 2007. The Federation underwent a major expansion in
2009 that saw eleven new tours become full members – the Canadian Tour, Tour de
las Américas, China Golf Association, the Korea Professional Golfers'
Association, Professional Golf Tour of India, and the operators of all six
major women's tours worldwide. The OneAsia Tour, founded in 2009, is not a
member of the Federation, but was founded as a joint venture of the
Australasia, China, Japan, and Korean tours. In 2011, the Tour de las Américas
was effectively taken over by the PGA Tour, and in 2012 was folded into the new
PGA Tour Latinoamérica. Also in 2012, the Canadian Tour was renamed PGA Tour
Canada after it agreed to be taken over by the PGA Tour. All men's tours that are
Federation members, except the India tour, offer points in the Official World
Golf Ranking to players who place
sufficiently high in their events. The OneAsia Tour also offers ranking points.
Golf is unique in having lucrative competition for older
players. There are several senior tours for men aged fifty and over, arguably
the best known of which is the U.S.-based Champions Tour.
There are six principal tours for women, each based in a
different country or continent. The most prestigious of these is the United
States-based LPGA Tour. All of the principal tours offer points in the Women's
World Golf Rankings for high finishers in their events.
All of the leading professional tours for under-50 players
have an official developmental tour, in which the leading players at the end of
the season will earn a tour card on the main tour for the following season.
Examples include the Web.com Tour, which feeds to the PGA Tour, and the
Challenge Tour, which is the developmental tour of the European Tour. The
Web.com and Challenge Tours also offer OWGR points.
Men's major championships
The major championships are the four most prestigious men's
tournaments of the year. In chronological order they are: The Masters, the U.S.
Open, The Open Championship and the PGA
Championship.
The fields for these events include the top several dozen
golfers from all over the world. The Masters has been played at Augusta
National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, since its inception in 1934. It is the
only major championship that is played at the same course each year. The U.S.
Open and PGA Championship are played at courses around the United States, while
the Open Championship is played at courses around the United Kingdom.
Prior to the advent of the PGA Championship and The Masters,
the four Majors were the U.S. Open, the U.S. Amateur, the Open Championship,
and the British Amateur.
Women's major championships
Women's golf does not have a globally agreed set of majors.
The list of majors recognised by the dominant women's tour, the LPGA Tour in
the U.S., has changed several times over the years, with the most recent
changes occurring in 2001 and 2013. Like the PGA Tour, the LPGA tour long had four majors, but now has
five: the ANA Inspiration, the Women's PGA Championship, the U.S. Women's Open,
the Women's British Open and The Evian
Championship . Only the last two are also recognised as majors by the Ladies
European Tour. However, the significance of this is limited, as the LPGA is far
more dominant in women's golf than the PGA Tour is in mainstream men's golf.
For example, the BBC has been known to use the U.S. definition of "women's
majors" without qualifying it. Also, the Ladies' Golf Union, the governing
body for women's golf in Great Britain and Ireland, stated on its official website
that the Women's British Open was "the only Women's Major to be played
outside the U.S." . For many years, the Ladies European Tour tacitly
acknowledged the dominance of the LPGA Tour by not scheduling any of its own
events to conflict with the three LPGA majors played in the U.S., but that
changed beginning in 2008, when the LET scheduled an event opposite the LPGA
Championship. The second-richest women's tour, the LPGA of Japan Tour, does not
recognise any of the U.S. LPGA or European majors as it has its own set of
majors . However, these events attract little notice outside Japan.
Senior major championships
Senior men's golf
does not have a globally agreed set of majors. The list of senior majors on the
U.S.-based Champions Tour has changed over the years, but always by expansion.
The Champions Tour now recognises five majors: the Senior PGA Championship, The
Tradition, the Senior Players Championship, the United States Senior Open, and
The Senior Open Championship.
Of the five events, the Senior PGA is by far the oldest,
having been founded in 1937. The other events all date from the 1980s, when
senior golf became a commercial success as the first golf stars of the
television era, such as Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, reached the relevant age.
The Senior British Open was not recognised as a major by the Champions Tour
until 2003. The European Seniors Tour recognises only the Senior PGA and the
two Senior Opens as majors. However, the Champions Tour is arguably more
dominant in global senior golf than the U.S. LPGA is in global women's golf.
Tipster Street.
