A few days ago, we asked you–more specifically, our female readers–to take our women’s golf survey. Our aim was to learn more about our female readers, its own experience with fitting and how they comprehend the options( or lack thereof) available to them. We are also among looking for some insight into how we might do a better undertaking providing information to the fastest-growing segment of golfers.
Our standard surveys receive upwards of 10,000 responses. This survey received 778 responses of which 147 of those were disqualified because the respondent wasn’t a woman. If nothing else, we learned here i am opportunity.
Before we dive into the charts, here are a few notes from the demographic section.
The highest female participation group by age includes golfers between 55 and 64 followed by 25 to 34. Between 35 and 54, participation drops-off by a few percentage points. Female were significantly less likely to answer the annual household income question than boys. Nearly 25 percent preferred not to answer. Virtually 25 percent of respondents don’t maintain a handicap index. Among those who do, the highest percentage have indexes between 15.1 and 20 followed by the 25.1 and higher group. The greater percentage( 23 percent) plays 11 to 25 rounds per year. Nearly 13 percent play-act more than 100.
Women are often cited as the fastest-growing segment in golf and, with a COVID-driven uptick in participation, we wanted to see what that looks like.
Simply over 28 percent( the largest group in the results of the investigation) of respondents have been golfers for three years or less. 27 percentage have played golf for five to 10 years. Nearly 13 percentage have played for 16 to 20 years.
I suspect that if we asked men this issue, we’d probably encounter a different result.
The majority of women( virtually 70 percentage) report “fun” as the main objectives. 16 percentage listing” playing competitively .” Just over one percent list “networking” as their primary reason for playing.
The female members on our staff were curious and, appreciating how engaged the women at my golf-club are with league play, I was, too.
57 percent of women say they don’t play in leagues.
Perhaps notable: nearly half also report playing at a public track where league options aren’t as prevalent as private and semi-private fraternities.
Practically 40 percent participate in outdoor leagues. Three percentage playing in both indoor and outdoor leagues with the former likely being primarily in cold-weather climates.
With that out of the space, let’s move to the juicy part of our survey where we dig into fitting and a little bit more about the equipment that female golfers are using.
I’ll admit to being pleasantly surprised here. Virtually 52 percent of respondents ought to have fitted for something in their containers.
At 20 percent, off-course stores account for the highest percentage. The majority of “other” answers fell into the off-course category as well, so the actual percentage is likely a bit higher still. Nineteen percentage were fitted on-course. Manufacturer demo days account for 10 percent. Custom fitting chains( Club Champion, Cool Clubs, True Spec and TXG) account for a much smaller percentage( about 10 percentage mixed) than they do with male golfers. Big-hearted box( DICK’S, Golf Galaxy and PGA TOUR Superstore) likewise account for about 10 percent of fittings mixed.
This question( and your answers) speaks immediately to the challenges facing club manufacturers and likely fitters, too. How do you find an appropriate balance between speaking immediately to women without overtly pandering or devoting the appearing that you’re treating them differently than mortals?
The good news is that 72 percent of respondents felt their fitter was focused on their specific needs. Twenty-six percentage feel they weren’t shown enough women-specific options.
NPS scores can be difficult to quantify. Generally speaking, anything above 0 is considered OK. That said, looking at irons and driver gratification surveys, the average Net Promoter Score was 36. When we’ve asked about label atonement, the top-rated brands achieve Cyberspace Promoter Scores above 50. So, while technically 9 isn’t dreadful, by comparison, it therefore seems that wives are generally less in accordance with their fitting experience than their male counterparts.
As we did with our most recent driver and cast-iron gratification surveys, we asked golfers who were fitted whether they decided to buy the fraternities they only fitted for.
Virtually 60 percent of respondents ultimately bought the fraternities they were fitted for. As with the three men, the majority who didn’t buy( 51 percent) said the performance benefits didn’t justify the cost. There was an even divided between golfers who felt the fitter recommended the wrong fraternity( s) and those who felt the cost was too high.
With the fitting material encompassed, we wanted to know a bit more about is not simply the equipment females are playing but some of there concepts of that equipment.
54 percent play-act women’s clubs or clubs marketed specifically to women. 34 percent play what are typically considered men’s golf-clubs.
This again speaks to the challenges of the women’s market. The are necessary to gendered fraternities likely has less to do with performance and design dimensions and more to do with the individual woman buying the club.
42 percentage play-act a Tour-level ball. 28 percent play-act a “women’s” projectile.
Again, what’s the right approach for a company to take? There’s absolutely nothing from a designing perspective that makes a golf ball a “women’s” golf ball. Only like male golfers, performance-driven women are likely going to choose a Tour ball and preference-driven girls are going to play something based on that preference.
Once upon a time, that liking was soft but the Precept Lady spawned the Laddie and now everyone offerings a soft ball. More often than not, what makes a ball a women’s ball is the color–and that coloring is typically some shadow of pink.
This one came from our female staffers and, while admittedly the list could have been a thousand options long, we wanted to focus on some of the things we’d heard from women in the past.
30 percentage don’t buy women’s equipment. 26 percentage feel there’s too much emphasis on color. 11 percent feel the marking is manipulative and that women’s products aren’t really designed for women–which is mostly true-blue. 20 percentage are completely satisfied. Among all the persons who selected “other”, there were two interesting trends:
Many noted the lack of women’s options, specially compared to what’s sold to males. Many respondents said their partners buy or construct their associations or that they get the hand-me-downs.
Given that many females feel short-changed by the market itself, we wondered how they saw the quality of what is available to them.
A single missile degree tells a compelling story.
64 percent of respondents belief current women’s offerings are of lower quality than men’s.
That’s probably not true but it speaks to a belief that not a lot of endeavor goes into women’s provides. That’s a double-edged sword because, frankly, women’s offerings shouldn’t require much effort. Other than some changes to stock length and flex based on the average girl physique, there shouldn’t be much to do. Should you paint it to look like something different? Some women clearly want that while the same approach for others reeks of pandering.
This is another question driven by our female staff members who are definitely not satisfied with the current apparel gives. While putting the results of the investigation together, they told me that when they need golf apparel, they hit up the tennis section.
30 percentage say they are satisfied with current apparel alternatives which intends 70 percent aren’t. It’s perhaps interesting that there’s a near-even divided between” it’s not designed for jocks” and the most common response among the other answers which was some form of” not built for form kind”( awful fit, form-fitting for small people and women without curves ). Other often rolled answers among those who chose other were:
Sets style over role Overpriced Too casual( gym wear) Old-time and stirred for granny
Some background on this question: Five years ago or so, I spoke with a senior executive at one of the major golf brands. When I asked how his company’s women’s line was doing, he said he thought they were doing well but that it’s challenging to reach women because they don’t consume golf and golf equipment information in the same directions and homes boys do. Specifically, he mentioned that ladies don’t watch Golf Channel, read Golf Digest or frequent MyGolfSpy. Obviously, that’s not to say all women don’t get information from those stores but it’s definitely not nearly at the same rate as their male counterparts. His larger point was that there aren’t any media resources with a large female reach or a mainly female audience.
With that said, our objective here was to understand where women turn for info on golf equipment.
Comparatively, we do pretty well, but we also know we don’t do particularly well with women–and we certainly benefit from being the residence squad for this survey. 34.51 percent rely on their significant other. This aligns with the previous question about the associations females are playing.
Significant others( presumably husbands and boyfriends) are a significant source of info( and sometimes the equipment itself ). Building on that, Husband was rostered more often than anything else by those who chose Other
Not a single respondent rostered “Mom” as information sources of golf equipment info. It seems this is the one place where we don’t rely on our fathers. Sons, golf pros and the internet/ social media were also listed often.
The post Women’s Golf Survey Results showed first on MyGolfSpy.
Read more: mygolfspy.com