Kenya needs more golf courses to open up the game to the masses

Kenya Junior Golfer Kanana Muthoni (second left) is congratulated at hole 13 in their Professional challenge during The 56th edition of the Magical Kenya Open at Muthaiga Golf Club on Saturday, Feb 22, 2025. [Jonah Onyango,Standard] Kenya has about 40 golf courses, mostly around Nairobi. They are a lasting legacy of British colonial rule. The game of golf is associated with class, status, and wealth. In the US, golf is not as prestigious as it is in Kenya. There are more golf courses, and the game is accessible to more citizens, diluting its prestige, just as teachers enjoy less prestige than fewer medical doctors. The US has about 16,000 golf courses for a population of 340 million. That translates into a golf course for every 21,250 citizens. Kenya's population is about 55 million, which is one golf course for 1,275,000 people. Data for the UK shows that there is one golf course for every 27,200 citizens. We need to build more golf courses in Kenya. One good reason is that golf is becoming unreachable to most citizens. In some clubs, the entrance fee is as high as Sh1 million. Though it is costly to maintain the clubs, the high entrance fee is driven by the economic laws of supply and demand. Without building new courses, the demand will keep rising. To ration the few membership slots, clubs raise the entry fee. Some golfers love the high entry fee; they raise the prestige of the game and club and "keep others off." They fear brand dilution. We associate price with quality, except for dowry. Most golf courses are built by the private sector. In the UK, the US, and other developed countries, the public sector plays a role, too. Which county or city owns a golf course in Kenya? The private sector is not always eager to invest in golf courses as it is expensive from land to maintenance. Many golf courses in Kenya report losses. It gets more interesting: by raising entrance fees, golf courses reduce the number of golfers, making it hard to benefit from economies of scale. Why else should we invest in more golf courses? The few, particularly in Nairobi, have reached saturation point. A majority of golfers can't play during tournaments; there are no slots. Less than 300 golfers can participate on a given day. How many golfers does a typical golf club have? Would new golf courses pick up the current golfers? It is debatable whether we still want to go with the original 17 national schools despite raising the number to 105. But golfers would have choices. It is also possible that new golf courses would attract new golfers. One easy way to create new golfers is to introduce the game early in school. Make golf like football. That is easy; who said a golf course must have 18 holes? Why not fewer holes for learning the game? If we focused on mini golf courses, we could make the game mainstream. Many landowners would build small courses. It is common in South Africa. To ensure no brand dilution, why can't existing golf courses build new ones, such as Muthaiga B or Limuru B? The golfers would have a choice of the course to play on. Why are golf courses not buying land in the coffee farms being sold? Why is there no golf course around Kitengela? The most convincing reason to build new courses is population growth. They will need breathing space. And if golf is a game for the rich, we shall get more rich Kenyans as the population grows. And don't we all want to be rich? Is our dream not for our children to be better and richer than us, playing golf instead of darts? In the short run, we have a few plausible solutions before building more courses. Why can't we have tournaments run for two days and golfers choose either day? Why can't we have unpopular clubs run as franchises of bigger and more popular clubs? For example, Makuyu can be a constituent club of Muthaiga, with members paying for Muthaiga's "popularity." How about using a lottery to allocate playing slots? Will golfers get value for their money? Another solution is to use the market to reduce the number of golfers. Some golfers lose interest in the game, but prestige keeps them in the clubs. Why not allow the golfers to auction their "membership?" Prospective golfers would buy memberships in an exchange depending on supply and demand. Idle golfers would sell off and exit the game. Don't we sell shares? We can keep debating, but being right on the equator, Kenya should be a golf giant, even bigger than athletics. How can we talk of poverty and joblessness when there is so much money in golf? What prize did the magic Kenya winner take home? Addiction to golf would be better than drugs and other vices for our huge youthful population. To be sincere, we need more games in Kenya beyond the English Premier League, being a relatively young nation. Keeping the next generation busy and healthy through sports is a noble obligation. We brought them into this world, so we must take care of them.

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Kenya needs more golf courses to open up the game to the masses

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