Golf tops NFL and NBA, PGA Tour Commissioner says
PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan says golf, a sport that was once in a drought has become a multi-billion dollar business with levels of participation far surpassing other competitive sports.
“It’s a 70 billion dollar industry, 2 million jobs each year... you look at the data and it’s the National Golf Foundation’s data, it’s not ours, but there are 23.8 million people playing the game,” he said in an interview Thursday on the FOX Business Network.
Monahan says golf has surpassed “basketball, tennis, soccer, and football,” in terms of the number of people currently playing the sport.
“You look at last year, we’re at 2.9 million junior golfers, that’s up 25% in the last 5 years, you’ve got 2.5 million people that played the game for the first time last year, that’s something we’re really excited about,” he said.
Not only has participation never been higher, but the number of women playing the sport has also increased.
“We’ve doubled the number of girls who are playing the game since 1995, which is something we are extremely excited about,” he said.
The Commissioner attributes technology for bringing the game to more people around the world, and enhancing its presentation on television.
He added, “Like every other business, our business is evolving…you’ve got another 20 million people who are engaging the game that way, that creates an opportunity for us.”