Can the Olympics put some spring back into the step of golf, a sport that has been struggling in recent times to attract new players at a fast enough rate in mature markets to replace old-timers hanging up their clubs?

We will begin to find out the answer over the next few years, after the ancient game has made its Olympic return, along with rugby, at Rio 2016.

In the meantime, just how gloomy has the situation become?

To be honest, based on statistics supplied to me by Sports Marketing Surveys Inc, a specialist sports research consultancy, there must be plenty of sports that would love to have golf's problems.

An economic impact study for Europe, compiled by the firm on behalf of golf bodies led by the Professional Golfers' Association of Great Britain and Ireland, concluded that in 2012 the game of golf contributed more than €15 billion (£12 billion/$20 billion) to the European economy.

To put this into broader context, as the report itself says: "In 2012, Spain's defence budget was €10.5 billion (£8.3 billion/$14.1 billion); the UK overseas aid budget was €11 billion (£9 billion/$15 billion) and its protection budget (police, fire, criminal justice, prisons etc.) was €16.9 billion (£13.4 billion/$22.7 billion)."

Furthermore, golf was found to be responsible in Europe for "a minimum of 180,000 full-time equivalent jobs and employee wages of not less than €4.4 billion (£3.4 billion/$5.9 billion)".

Extending the geographic scope, the study alludes to other estimates of the economic impact of golf in the United States - €52.6 billion (£41.6 billion/$70.6 billion) - and Australia - €2.3 billion (£1.8 billion/$3.1 billion).

Add it all together and you are left with a sport that makes a €70 billion (£53 billion/$94 billion) contribution to the global economy - and that is taking no account of Asia, a vast continent in parts of which the sport is both highly aspirational and popular with both genders.

Where the picture becomes less positive is in golf's rate of growth, at least in mature markets.

As the Sports Marketing Surveys Inc study explains, "the golf economy in the US has been hit by the global economic crisis"; meanwhile the €15.1 billion (£11.9 billion/$20.3 billion) figure that the study came up with for Europe was actually marginally smaller than an estimate it had produced in 2006, before recession hit.

The researcher's analysis of golf participation in Great Britain, the most mature golf market of all, maintained over a long period, found that the number of adults who had played at least one round of golf in 2013 was down to 3.36 million - equivalent to 6.6 per cent of the adult population - whereas in some years over the previous decade this figure had flirted with, and once exceeded, the 4 million mark.

The number of "core" golfers (adults playing a full-length round of nine or 18 holes at least once a month) is about 1.5 million, down from a high-water mark of close to 1.8 million in 2004, based on a two-year rolling average.

Golf contributed more than €15 billion to the European economy in 2012 ©Getty Images




"Avid" golfers, playing what is an undeniably time-consuming game, again on a full-length course, at least once a week, have halved to around 400,000 since 2001.

The average age of golfing adults in Britain is 45 - up from 41.6 in 2007, and the average age of "avid" golfers, as most of those of working age rush from pillar to post trying to make ends meet, is 63 - which at least underlines one of the sport's main strengths: its ability to be played enjoyably throughout life.

So where does this all leave us?

Stephen Proctor, one of the experts behind the Sports Marketing Surveys Inc data, who has now been studying golf markets for three decades, observes that, while participation in developed and semi-developed golf markets is in slight decline, peripheral activities linked to the elite end of the game, such as corporate hospitality and sponsorship, are showing "significant growth".

This trend, he says, is "tied into people liking to watch sports on TV".

The relative affluence of golf fans, in comparison to followers of perhaps the majority of other sports, also augments the game's appeal to many prospective corporate partners.

Could Rory McIlroy's popularity stimulate growth in golf? ©Getty Images




From which one might conclude that one effective way of stimulating growth, beyond the boost that the incipient economic recovery will in any case provide, might be to augment free-to-air coverage of the sport - particularly at a time when a charismatic young champion, in the shape of Rory McIlroy, looks on the verge of recognition as a true great in the making.

Free-to-air coverage of golf, Proctor says, alluding specifically to the United Kingdom, is now "very, very low"; the pay-television programming, he adds, though offering "excellent coverage", is "preaching to the converted".

The vast majority of the Olympic Games' enormous television audience around the world do tune in, of course, on free-to-air television.

So this is one way in which the sport's return to the Games after a more than century-long hiatus should help, even if we are only talking about a few days of supplementary free-to-air coverage once every four years.

Where Proctor expects a real stimulus, however, is in the new markets of South America, Eastern Europe and parts of Africa, where the sport has made strides in recent times, but from a low base.

He explains: "In a lot of less developed markets, financial support for sport is limited to the Olympic programme.

"Therefore all sorts of relatively undeveloped markets will now put a certain amount into golf development.

"This is potentially hugely beneficial to the game."

The gender balance of golfers varies significantly from country to country, with the proportion of women golfers ranging from about 15 to 35 per cent, depending on the market.

It will be interesting to see if an Olympic golf competition in which men's and women's competitions will take place nearly simultaneously will have any impact on this.

"Simultaneous men's and women's competitions don't happen at all at the moment," Proctor says.

"The closest we have had was this year's US Open, where the women played [on the same course] a week later."

George Lyon was the last Olympic golf champion ©Wikipedia




As for other changes that could help golf to capitalise fully on its growth potential, Proctor cites a "more open and welcoming attitude" on the part of golf facilities.

Though quite a lot of progress has been made on this front in recent times, sometimes under commercial pressure, he feels that many clubs are still "over-formal for the younger generation".

He appears somewhat sceptical about the likelihood of gimmicks, such as formats of the game with larger holes to speed up play, making much of a difference.

"Lots have been tried and none have really succeeded," he says.

"Maybe at some point someone will come up with something that works, but nobody has yet done it.

"It doesn't seem to catch the public imagination, probably because golf is a very good traditional game and, once you have played it that way, that's the way you want to go on playing it."

George Lyon, a Canadian cricketer who took up golf at the age of 38, has reigned as Olympic golf champion for a very long time, since 1904.

Whatever the wider impact of Olympic golf on the sport at large, that reign is nearly over.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed here.