Golf in France balance In September 2018, an audit on the economic impact of golf in France was commissioned by Ernst & Young Advisory. This study focused on the levers and actors of golf: tourism, courses, equipment, institutions, tournaments and media.
ECONOMIC ASSISI
As a result, the economic weight of golf in France is about 1.5 billion euros per year! But this turnover remained almost stagnant from 2007 to 2017 (4% increase). The time has passed from the 80s / 90s when growth was double-digit! The golf sector employs some 15,000 people, 85% of whom are on permanent contracts.
HABITS SHOULD THEY CHANGE?
Being a member of a club is now less popular, the "modern" player is free of the subscription to a single club to become a consumer "nomad" of several courses by paying the green fee. This can be very advantageous with the purchase of notebooks. The average budget of a French golfer is about 1,700 euros per year (subscription, green fees, equipment).
COURSES
The number of courses has not changed since the explosion of their construction between 1985 and 1992. However, nine-hole courses and "Pitch and Putt" are popular. Why this craze or interest? Maybe less time-consuming and financially more affordable.
FRANCE IN QUEST TO BECOME A "GOLF DESTINATION"
For tourism, France does not appear as a golf destination as are Portugal, Spain, Morocco, Tunisia or Turkey. Although the world's leading tourist destination, French golf does not enjoy the excitement of Disneyland Paris, the Eiffel Tower or the Louvre Museum.
ATTRACT MORE LICENSES
The FFG accompanies young high level players to hope to reach the first places in the world and thus arouse public interest in golf and consequently increase the number of licensees who rise slightly each year since 2016 to reach 412,726 in 2018 . One out of two licensees has been golfing for more than 10 years, but habits are changing.
SPONSORING
In the United States, 143,000 professional and amateur tournaments annually raise more than $ 4 billion for charitable organizations. In France, sponsorship golf receipts do not exceed € 8 million, ie less than 1.5% of golf course receipts.
PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS
To survive it is necessary to know how to renew itself, the golf does not escape the rule. Continue the democratization of golf especially with the disappearance of the strict dress code imposed. Strengthen links with companies in terms of seminars, networking and of course sponsorship / partnership and offer innovative corporate activities such as brainstorming, relaxation or team building.
Ensuring the digital shift, it is clear that for 72% of golfers around the world, digital platforms will have a positive impact on the development of golf. Under 29s are 78% to consume golf information on social networks against only 39% of over 50s.
YouTube's golf channels play an important role in democratizing this sport. By broadcasting free physical exercises, equipment tests, biomechanical analyzes, or even advice on choosing your next tourist destination. Youtube channels inform a community of tens of millions of people. The first ten Youtube golf channels alone account for almost half a billion video views.
Virtual reality is also appearing at golfers' homes, for example, the launch of Aguila Golf, a virtual reality software for playing golf in the United States. Always confidential today, it is a response to the weather hazard cited by 34% of players as a brake to practice.
The golf courses are also looking to develop this type of digital experience to attract a younger audience like the Bluegreen Perfect Line program which has integrated some practices to a technology allowing players to know in real time the distance (carry and total ), the speed of the ball, the height, the spin or the accuracy of their shots.
Handigolf school of Fontcaude This is a first in Languedoc … On April 13th, the handigolf school of Montpellier-Fontcaude officially opened its doors. Sunny baptism in the presence of the actors of the project and the mayor of the commune of Juvignac, also sponsor, and especially of a dozen disabled people who discovered the game, the joys of swing and the pleasures of putting, supervised by Benoit BOZIO, one of the club's pros, recently trained in handigolf …
Also featured is Orianne LOPEZ, a multiple-time Paralympic and World Champions in Athletics and now a Doctor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, who has kindly agreed to be the school's patron. Orianne was all niv
Smiles also on the side of the director of the golf, Olivier RENTET and the mayor of Juvignac, Jean-Luc SAVY, seduced by the values of integration that carries this project.
Also present: some prescribing doctors, invited by Pascal BATTISTELLA, handigolfeur and Montpellier doctor, who started his network to ensure the success of the operation. They will be able to bring their patients to the golf in search of rehabilitation, just like the prosthetists, represented that day by Frank POUJADE (Marcenac-Ducros), himself budding golfer, who already knew to convince future followers …
The school will offer them six hours of free initiation then preferential conditions if they want to start, with equipment lent for three months.
So complete success for the organizers (Michel DREUX, president of the Departmental Golf Committee of Hérault and Richard HOULMONT, his reference handigolf, Marie-Annick CARRÉ, president of AS de Fontcaude), Handigolf partners, and for the local handgolfers who have been mobilizing for several months, with the punctual but precious help of Jean-Pierre RICHARTE, who came expressly from Miramas to present a paraglider.
To them all, as well as to the other sponsors - CNDS, Montpellier University Hospital, Occitanie Golf League -, a big thank you. And long life at school
SNOW GOLF AT VALBERG On Sunday 17 February the first Valberg Snow Golf of the season was held under a spring blue sun and sky! Shirts and short-sleeved polo shirts were out for the most optimistic!
Christian GUEMY, President of the Sports Club, technically assisted by the ski lifts service of Valberg, had for the occasion prepared a course of 5 holes on which the players had to adapt not only to this new forms of Pars 3, 4 and 5 but also get used to the instability during the swing !! Indeed, on the snow and more groomed, the pace is important. The pace of the swing must adapt to the precarious stability of the player. Nice lesson of rhythm: too fast and it is the slip assured, too tense and it's the hook that wakes up …
Despite these difficulties, all in all, the players had a great day where the discovery, for some, and the joy of being with a club on the snow, for others, was the main leitmotive of their presence and their participation.
No ranking, but a prize-giving provided distributed by lottery with the help of Leo
SNOW GOLF AT VALBERG Snow Golf in Valberg
Christian GUEMY and Hervé BESSI who wins the gift at Domaine des Remparts Marrakech
Golf rock wine and their stars Wine, a subject that many sports professionals, musicians, actors and others have come to discover, has more than a love for the table.
One of the biggest names in golf so far related to the industry is Greg Norman.
Golf, rock, wine and their stars
Greg Norman Estates is no longer a small fish in the wine pond, but a whale of the wine industry in Australia, California and Argentina.
Then the legend of golf Chi Chi Rodriguez. The golfer owns a label in California, Amador County, thanks to a collaboration between Chi Chi and the Californian company Robledo Family Winery.
Golf, rock, wine and their stars
The wine takes its name from its vineyard, Tchipatchi Vineyard, so named for Chi Chi and his wife, Pat.
To complete the list of top golf professionals, we add David Frost for his South African wine,
Golf, rock, wine and their stars
Gary Player for his own South African and American collection,
Golf, rock, wine and their stars
and Luke Donald, as a partner with wine mogul Tony Terlato
Luke Donald
(as Jack Nicklaus), to create another cabernet monster from the Napa Valley.
Jack Niklaus
As the list is long, with even more athletes, musicians and rock stars, two draw our attention and go towards excellence including one who always swing an "easier" golf club than anyone else on the course: Ernie Els and the other is the current number one rock music in the United States: Jon Bon Jovi.
This is "The Big Easy" itself, Ernie Els, from his South African winery and rock star Jon Bon Jovi and his wine Diving into Hampton Water whose winery, the Chateau de l'Hospitalet, is located in the south of France.
In the case of Ernie, he initially partnered with John Engelbrecht, a long-time friend, and his family to create South African wines that truly represent his country of origin.
Ernie Els
From his Guardian Peak to the red labels, to the red Ernie Els Signature and the mix "Big Easy" Shiraz and the packaged white Chenin Blanc, the golfer is well positioned in a fantastic retirement project.
For the music icon, Jon Bon Jovi and the famous French winemaker, Gérard Bertrand,, have joined forces to launch a brand of high-end rosé wine, Diving into Hampton Water now available on the US market and which has received the American award for the best rosé wine 2018.
Jon Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi and his son Jesse began to explore this idea as a real business, designing bottles and relying on concepts. They were finally presented to Gérard Bertrand by a mutual friend and the three quickly developed a common vision, to create a unique rosé, uniting the essence of the relaxed lifestyles of the Hamptons and the South of France. "We had tried rosé everywhere," says Jesse. "But when we visited Gerard, we realized that there is a whole coastline in France that produces some of the best-kept secrets on Earth."
Fans of the Ryder Cup or rock! May you find a wine worthy of your palate.
Long Drivers European Tour were found for two days where" it settle the argument with guns"! In fact, we have been able to rub what is the best on European soil in distance to the reader. CVs of breathtaking distance records!
PLAYERS AND THE GAME FORMAT
A dozen of these strikers clashed during the day Saturday, with Friday being reserved for training. By a series of two players on each starting area each player has 1 minute 30 to hit 4 balls and try to land the longest drive that must be on the fairway! In case of failure, out of bond or in the rough, a 5 ° catch-up ball is played in order to stay in the course.
CHOICE OF THE HOLE
The difficulty in Taulane resided in that the hole chose, the No. 5 Par 5 uphill, a width of more than 46 meters with two water hazards! Major difficulty that put more than one of our gladiators in difficulty.
ERRORS AND DISTANCES COLLECTED
When you send the ball over 350 meters, the power and precision do not always mix! Volvik bullets often went to the lake on the right of the fairway. Indeed, we have been able to notice that the error is committed more often with the slice or the push but less hook. The player looking for the maximum power and the perfect shot relies on the "authentic swing" to hit at least one good ball: "to be present at the moment" ... which lasts only the time of a swing whose speed oscillates between 230 and 240 Km / h ! A title of comparison the Pros are in a range of 180 to 190 km / h and amateurs between 130 and 140 km / h ...
The distances with this Saturday in Taulane are more than honorable, because reminder that the conditions to be filled to beat the 433 yards of Robin HORVARTH given the strong headwind that blew throughout the competition., There was distance of 365 yards or about 333 m
SPEED AND EQUIPMENT
One thing is for sure is that we have to do to swingers and not to tapers! It is sometimes difficult to follow the ball, which is sent (by the best) at a speed of about 350 km / h! To reach these speeds and these distances, the material used is in the standards of what is done in the trade, the shaft does not exceed 48 inches and according to the more or less stiff players! No lengthened shaft or oversized clubhead!
ONLY STRIKERS?
To the question or the remark that we could justly or wrongly ask ourselves: they do not know what to do: to bang! This is a mistake, because we were able to observe the n ° 1 Martin BORGMEIER who was warming up approaching the hole n ° 6 at a distance of about 50 meters and his little game was far, very very far from being ridiculous, untied swing, perfect posture and flag balls! All in all they practice golf and have indexes around 10, Martin BORGMEIER is 5.
A LOCAL AMATEUR INVITED: Matthieu MORASCHETTI
It should be noted that in the twelve competitors, the organization had invited the « rooky » of Golf Méditerranée, Matthieu MORASCHETTI of the Royal Mougins Golf Club, who teamed up with the German Alex LANGE, we invite you to listen on www.facebook.com/golfmediterranee the latter's interview about Matthew.
The trip to the Domaine du Château de Taulane was really worth it and for two reasons, at first meet players whose sense of clan and tribe can be compared to surfers with their codes, their attitudes extra-virile, a little out of step with the traditional golf., he knows how to make the show! In a second time, to go on the lands of the domain of Taulane, it is to cross a border which separates you from the daily to a perfect and sweet moment. For many golfers Taulane is an unmissable spot with its course designed by Gary Player, his hotel the Castle and the Manor, its spa, all the ingredients are there for an unforgettable stay.
