Written By Jeffrey Reed
As the 2024 golf season comes to an end in Southwestern Ontario, so, too, does the area’s most comprehensive golf survey: the 2024 London & Area Golf Survey, conducted by LondonOntarioSports.com. With more golf courses and practice facilities in London and area – per capita – than anywhere else on the globe, valuable, updated information on playing and spending trends will be presented to the local golf industry and to local golfers.
Middlesex County is proud of its 13 golf courses, plus numerous practice and teaching facilities, and venues housing indoor golf simulators. In fact, Strathroy’s Caradoc Sands Golf Club won the prestigious London Ontario Golf Heart Award in 2022. Presented annually since 2011 to a member of the Southwestern Ontario golf community who gives back to golf while growing the game, the Heart Award includes 2003 Masters Tournament winner Mike Weir as a past winner in 2014. Caradoc Sands was honoured for creating community spirit and for its philanthropy.
Golf is more than a game here in Middlesex County. The golf industry is a major economic player, contributing millions of dollars annually to our local economy including money raised for scores of not-for-profit groups. Across Southwestern Ontario, there are 13 private golf clubs, 112 semi-private and public clubs, 20 stand-alone outdoor golf practice centres, numerous public golf ranges housed at local clubs plus a growing number of indoor golf simulators and practice centres. Golf retail at pro shops and big-box stores is another strong contributor to local coffers.
In 2016, WQLN-TV in Erie, PA produced a documentary about the City of London. I contributed as an ambassador for local golf and spoke about our participation rate, our 100-plus golf courses and how the game betters our communities. You can view that documentary at YouTube here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw6NOqMgh-8&t=652s or search Our Town London WQLN.
The 2020 London & Area Golf Survey, conducted by LondonOntarioSports.com, mirrored many of the same findings from the three previous looks at local golf: a 1991 study and 2023 study, and 1999 survey, all from the City of London.
The 2020 survey, which included participants from across London, Middlesex County and Southwestern Ontario, revealed that 78 per cent of respondents considered themselves avid golfers, as opposed to casual golfers, with half of all respondents playing 40 or more rounds per season. These findings are in line with the 1991 study, conducted by Canadian Golf Marketing, which stated there were 81,000 golfers in London, 29,000 of whom were recreational golfers, and the balance avid golfers. That study reported, in most other municipalities, those numbers are reversed.
Still, 55-per-cent of all 2020 survey respondents said the golf industry failed when it came to growing the game. The 2024 survey will hopefully provide some fodder for local clubs to do just that.
You can take the survey until Nov. 30 at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2024LondonGolfSurvey.
Award-winning writer
Jeffrey Reed has covered Middlesex County sports since 1980. He is publisher and editor of LondonOntarioSports.com. Reach him at
jeff@londonontariosports.com.
