The slight downward trend in the number of golfers in the U.S. continued in 2008, falling 3% from 29.5 million in 2007 to 28.6 million in 2008, according to the annual golf participation study of the National Golf Foundation (NGF). For research purposes, a golfer is defined as a person, age 6 or above, who plays at least one round of golf in a given year. The study of 42,000 Americans was fielded by Synovate, a global market research firm in Chicago, Ill.

Decreases were seen in both the Core and Occasional golfer categories. Core golfers (age 6+, eight or more rounds a year) dropped from 17.3 million to 16.6 million. Occasional golfers (age 6+, one to seven rounds a year) dropped from 12.2 million to 12.0 million.

Nevertheless, 4.0 million golfers either approached the game in 2008 for the first time, or returned after a hiatus. These were offset by 4.9 million “lost golfers” who played in 2007 but not in 2008.

“There is a natural turnover of participants not only in golf, but in virtually every sport,” says Joe Beditz, NGF President and CEO. “We are definitely attracting new and former golfers from a large pool of latent demand. The challenge for the industry is to slow the loss of existing golfers while increasing the retention rate of those who come in each year.”