Spanish golf concluded the year 2024 with 305,603 registered players, 303,913 of them amateurs and 1,690 professionals, according to the official count data as of 31 December.
This figure represents an absolute increase of 6,644 licences during the past year, which in percentage terms is 2.2% more than at the beginning of the year.
Both records, both absolute and percentage, consolidate the growth experienced over the last six years, a period of consolidation that has gradually overcome the effects of the economic crisis and the coronavirus health crisis from 2011 to 2020.
After such a complicated period, the idiosyncrasy of golf – a healthy sport, played outdoors, safe, naturally establishing safety distances – has become in recent years an attraction for many people, who find in golf a healthy activity both physically and psychologically.
This increase in golf licences marks the sixth consecutive year of growth, breaking the prolonged streak of nine consecutive years of decline experienced between 2011 and 2019, coinciding with much of the prolonged economic crisis and social changes that conditioned the development of various sectors of Spanish society for many years.
This last six-year period, with a combined growth of 12.0%, also confirms a trend that began in 2013, when the peak of decline was reached – specifically 6.0% – subsequently reduced in 2014 (-3.7%), 2015 (-2.7%), 2016 (-1.5%), 2017 (-0.5%) and 2018 (-0.3%) before giving way to growth of 0.1% in 2019 and 2020, 4.8% in 2021, 3.0% in 2022, 1.8% in 2023 and 2.2% in 2024, which outlines a curve that, in statistical terms, is understood as a turning point from that moment.
Taking a longer time frame as a reference, it is worth remembering that in 1990 there were 45,000 players in Spain; the 100,000 mark was surpassed in 1996; 200,000 were registered in the first months of 2002; by mid-2004, 250,000 were recorded and by the end of 2006, the barrier of 300,000 registered players was surpassed. The peak number of licences occurred in 2010, when there were 338,588 registered players, initiating the process of the inflection curve described earlier.
Data by Autonomous Communities
During 2024, the behaviour in the different Autonomous Communities was strong in almost all of them, with positive data being the trend of the year, with some certainly significant upward variations.
In absolute terms, Madrid, with 94,999 registered players, accounts for 31.0% of the total licences, followed by Andalusia, with 51,902, and Catalonia, with 29,702, accounting for 17.0% and 9.7% of the total registered players, respectively.
Valencian Community (22,405), Basque Country (18,233), Castile and León (14,485) and Galicia (12,633) are the other Autonomous Communities that exceed the barrier of 10,000 registered players.
The one that added the most licences during 2024 was Madrid, 2,306 registered players (2.5% more), followed by Andalusia (1,072 registered players, 2.1% more), Valencian Community (949 registered players, 4.4% more), Catalonia (470 registered players, 1.6% more), Murcia (414 registered players, 5.6% more), Galicia (374 registered players, 3.0% more), Balearic Islands (336 registered players, 4.0% more), Cantabria (149 registered players, 1.9% more), Aragon (118 registered players, 1.8% more), Castile and León (110 registered players, 0.8% more), Basque Country (106 registered players, 0.6% more)…
In percentage terms, it is worth highlighting those Autonomous Communities that have exceeded the national average growth of 2.2%. This was the case, firstly, of Murcia, with the aforementioned 5.6% increase.
Valencian Community and Balearic Islands, with 4.4% and 4.0%, are also in this prominent group, while Extremadura (3.3%), Galicia (3.0%) and Madrid (2.5%) also increased their registered players above the average.
On the opposite side are three Autonomous Communities that lost registered players throughout 2024 – Navarra and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla – although in all cases moderately or very moderately, with records not reaching 7 registered players on average per geographical area.
Women and the future of golf in Spain
It is worth noting that the number of female licences currently stands at 83,882, with an increase of 1,805 licences compared to the last year. In relative terms, this figure represents 27.5% of the total golf licences in Spain.
Of all of them, 48,920 correspond to women over 50 years old, 22,712 to women between 21 and 50 years old, and 12,117 to those under 21 years old, with special mention to the 8,173 under 16 years old.
Among the youngest, it is worth highlighting that the future of Spanish golf is based on 23,739 boys and girls under 16 years old – almost 37,000, specifically 36,727, if the age range is extended to 21 years old – which in percentage terms represents 7.8% or 12.0% of the total registered players, respectively.
It is noteworthy in this case that the base of Spanish golf continues to expand little by little, as at the beginning of 2015 there were 21,530 under 16 years old – 33,682 up to 21 years old – which in percentage terms then represented 7.6% or 11.9%, respectively.
This process of gradual growth coincides with the progressive and gradual implementation of the Golf in Schools Programme, the Friends Cup and various promotional actions among the youngest, jointly developed by RFEG, Autonomous Federations and Clubs for several years now.
