English Embrace of Tech and DEI Shows Clear Signs of Growing the Game
"Growing the game" has been a regular, and sometimes controversial, phrase in golf circles in recent years, but those behind tech and inclusion ventures in England Golf can say they've done just that.
A few years ago, when the departure of big-name players, in big-money deals, from PGA TOUR to LIV was in full swing, the phrase “growing the game” became something of a joke in social media circles.
Phil Mickelson, Graeme McDowell and LIV commissioner Greg Norman — amongst others — all spoke that phrase in the summer of 2022.
But on the evidence of England Golf’s latest annual review, the game really is growing, and it’s down to a number of grassroots initiatives that are perhaps much less sexy than LIV’s loudspeakers.
DEI — Diversity, Equity and Inclusion — has come under fire everywhere from Meta to Amazon to the US Department of Defence over the past number of months, but it’s still alive and well, and front and center, for England Golf.
The governing body of the game in England published its latest annual review for 2024 last week, and the idea of making the game “inclusive and accessible to everyone” was present in all materials accompanying the announcement.
England Golf’s commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, or ED&I in their version of the acronym, has resulted in a framework, available from the main navigation menu of its website, which declares:
“England Golf passionately believes that golf belongs to everyone. All who play, and all who aspire to play, must have an equal opportunity to do so.”
Even more prominently positioned is Golf Fore Her, a new initiative dedicated to reducing the number of women of all ages who drop out of sport, which gets a nav-menu item all of its own, with standalone pages dedicated to menstrual cycle, hormonal contraception, breast health and the menopause.
Alongside these and other ED&I programs — such as the successful Girls Golf Rocks, which is aimed at girls between 5 and 18 and has been running for a number of years — England Golf has also made significant strategic investments in technology in a concerted attempt to open up the closed-doors feeling that golfing beginners often report.
Three dedicated digital platforms have been built to cater for the beginners to members pathway:
iPlay, for those just starting out
iGolf, for golfers who want to track their progress through the World Handicap System™ (WHS) but are not yet ready for a club membership, and
MyEG, the app for club members all over England, to collate their WHS scores, club memberships and lots more besides
It might seem obvious, but it’s notable that all three levels are catered for through the same MyEG smartphone app — joined-together thinking is, after all, often conspicuous by its absence when it comes to the work of official bodies, so England Golf is to be commended here.
All these tech initiatives range from recent to brand new.
iGolf for independent golfers came into being in July 2021, iPlay followed in 2023 and the Golf Fore Her launch took place just last October.
So the burning question had to be:
Would such initiatives be successful in bringing new people into the game, and keep them playing?
The answer, to judge from the latest England Golf annual review, would appear to be a resounding yes.
This cross-pollination of DEI and technology initiatives by England Golf is credited as a key element in a record number of WHS scores submitted in its jurisdiction in 2024, which topped 10 million for the first time.
The total number of 10,213,894 was up more than 800,000 — or 8.6% — on 2023.
While the increase in scores submitted by females (just short of 6%) fell short of the increase in scores submitted by males (almost 9%), it still means almost 60,000 more scoring rounds were submitted to the official system by women and girls in 2024.
Those numbers are a success in anyone’s book.
Also, that technology pathway — iPlay to iGolf to full club member — appears to be making the journey more straightforward and more welcoming for people all over England who want to get into the game.
Golf England reports that iGolf now has 54,000 subscribers — the sub is £46 a year — and 13,000 people have graduated from iGolf to full club membership since 2021.
All in all, then, golf in England would appear to be in rude health as it looks forward to 2025 and beyond.
Till next time.
Shane