It’s one of the intriguing realities of golf that less is always more on the course. The fewer the swings, the lower the score, the better the result.
Off the course, it’s a different game altogether.
Few sports have provided the kind of economic and social value that golf does, and it’s especially true in San Antonio.
From its respected First Tee program, which instills in young players a checklist of powerful life lessons, to its charity powerhouse, the Valero Texas Open, the city claims a relationship with the game that carries seismic impact far beyond the tee box.
With its roughly 300 days of sunshine a year, more than 50 headline courses in the metro area and deep historical lineage with the game, San Antonio ranks as a golf mecca. Its facilities, from the celebrated Alamo City Golf Trail to the exclusive TPC San Antonio layouts, contribute to a $70 billion national industry that employs 2 million.
But arguably, it’s the evolution of the sport as a societal influencer that lifts it into the spotlight.
The game is growing in significant areas. According to the National Golf Foundation, the number of beginning golfers in 2016 grew to an all-time high of nearly 2.5 million, an increase of almost 14 percent over the previous year.
Additionally, more than 6.5 million millennials, ages 18-34, grab their clubs each year. Add in those heading to non-traditional golf sites such as driving range/entertainment facilities like TopGolf, and the overall number of those hitting golf balls in 2016 reached 32 million, a 3 percent hike from 2015.
Importantly, those being attracted to the game — long presumed to be the landscape only of the elite — are crossing all boundaries of gender, age, race and handicap. It’s an inclusive era, driven in large part by the invaluable outreach of programs like The First Tee, the U.S. Golf Association and the PGA Junior League Golf.
The most prominent, the national First Tee program, has reached more than 11 million youngsters since it began in 1997. It has nearly 200 chapters, offering programs at more than 1,000 locations and thousands of elementary schools. Roughly 40 percent of all participants are female.
In San Antonio, The First Tee’s ambitious game plan is focused on nearly every corner of our community, including a growing Hispanic initiative, even as it counts on the ongoing financial support of local businesses and individuals to make it all happen (www.thefirstteesanantonio.org).
The jump-start provided by First Tee instruction over the past two decades has resulted in several San Antonio players leveraging their games into high school and college success. But, more importantly, the molding of young minds through the group’s core values such as honesty, integrity, sportsmanship, teamwork and perseverance has resulted in well-rounded people finding success in all their walks of life.
Golf, in all its competitions and programs, generates more than $4 billion annually for charity, nearly all of it going back into host communities. The same holds true for our Valero Texas Open, which raised an event-record $11 million in 2017.
Fittingly, the Open will direct some of that money to The First Tee of San Antonio. You should, too.
The reason is simple: On the course, less may mean more. But off the course, golf means so much more.
Richard Oliver, a director with Visit San Antonio, is a member of the Golf San Antonio board of directors.