There has been much talk about a ‘golf boom’ in the UK over the last few years, certainly since the COVID pandemic, with numerous studies reporting significant increases in participation numbers and the number of rounds played.

This has been welcome news for the industry, and it’s encouraging too that growth is being witnessed in other parts of the world, as seen by UGOLF, Europe’s largest – and the world’s fifth largest – golf club management company.

UGOLF is a subsidiary of the Duval Group, a real estate development, management and investment firm which employs more than 5,000 people worldwide and recorded more than €1 billion in revenue in 2022. Golfers might not be familiar with the name, but UGOLF’s work behind the scenes is playing a significant role in boosting golf participation and introducing the game to people from all different demographics around the world.

‘Growing the game’ might be something of a buzzword, but not for UGOLF, whose mission statement is simple: ‘Driving growth, on a global scale’. It is this ethos that is seeing UGOLF enjoy great success, with 20,000 new players introduced to the game in 2022 alone.

Together with its recently launched global division – UGOLF International – the company currently owns or manages an impressive 118 golf clubs worldwide. These include many venues in France, with others spread across Spain, Germany, Madagascar, New Caledonia, Egypt, French Polynesia and Rwanda.

In France, where UGOLF operates in excess of 100 clubs, the company has had a major impact on golf participation. According to the Fédération Française de Golf, 70 per cent of all new players in France were created by UGOLF in 2022, a figure that highlights the potential for growth in all corners of the world.

Nathanaël Pietrzak-Swirc is director of UGOLF International. After obtaining a golf management diploma and seven years’ experience in the golf industry, he joined the company in 2014, before graduating as a certified club manager in 2018.

“UGOLF has been growing the game of golf in France for more than 40 years and is now a key figure in the French and European golf market,” said Pietrzak-Swirc, who has served on the board of the French Golf Managers’ Association, as well as being involved in the MCO association in Europe.

“Having spread our wings to Spain, Germany and beyond Europe, our aim is to take our unique formula for success to far reaches of the globe. We are excited for what the future holds as we enter a new era with the launch of UGOLF International.”

In France, the UGOLF Academy provides a strong platform for beginners, called USWING Program, the benefits of which include unlimited collective lessons, a set of clubs and course access for an accessible price of €99 per month. It is not the only initiative, but it’s certainly proved one of the most effective in attracting a young audience, as well as those who previously would have viewed golf as unattainable.

UGOLF Avignon Chateaublanc is a success story well worth shining a light on. The club was launched in 1987 as a public-owned entity, but found itself losing approximately €100,000 a year with an average of 450 members. UGOLF took over in 2009, and within three years it had become a profitable business with the club reaching 1,000 members. That number has now grown to 1,200 with 310 beginners in the USWING Program and 120 juniors in the golf school.

Numerous other positive case studies stand out, including in Spain, where UGOLF started to make its mark in 2019, with three courses in Murcia. During the first year, rounds played were up by nine per cent. After the pandemic hit, the clubs were well equipped to deal with the surge in demand that came their way.

Despite international travel grinding to a halt, in 2021 these clubs boasted a 22 per cent growth in green fee traffic. A year later, 74 per cent growth, all of which came from a healthy mix of sources, including members, tour operations, residents and societies.

Perhaps one of the greatest success stories to date is Rwanda.

Kigali Golf Resort & Villas was opened in 2021, the country’s first golf club, and UGOLF played a significant role in developing the site and consulting on the project with the local government owners. Membership has grown from zero in the first year to over 500, with the local community fully engaged and onside with the club.

To get to this position, UGOLF implemented its ‘USwing’ program in the academy where, on top of the membership, students received a free golf bag and lessons, two of the biggest barriers that prevent new players getting into the sport.

A number of other initiatives have helped to encourage those in the local community, especially children, to try golf, including local outreach projects and a collaboration with PSG and Arsenal FC on youth activation. Two local professionals now have full teaching agendas and are kept busy with a weekly group of 25 different school children, who all get taken to Kigali to try the game for free. The club has become the heart of the community.

“Africa as a continent is a really interesting market, and we are pretty sure that it will grow and improve a lot in the next ten years,” said Pietrzak-Swirc, who took charge of the company’s international expansion in 2021.

“We can also see a great interest in pan-African golf tourism and have had a lot of exchanges with African countries.”

UGOLF International is set to take its unique formula for success around the world from 2023. Over the next three years the company’s aim is to break into the top three of the world’s largest golf operators. What works in one country, or one club, may not work at another. One of the strengths of UGOLF International’s model is its adaptability – it is not a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Every club and market is assessed, which leads to a bespoke solution.

“It is our company policy to look at each opportunity on an individual basis, even if it might be strange for a French company to manage a UK golf club,” explained Pietrzak-Swirc.

“We believe that, especially with our model of academies, we can bring something different. I even have a bet with one of our general managers who is Scottish that, within three years, we will manage a golf course in Scotland.”

As for the future and the golf industry as a whole, Pietrzak-Swirc is positive about what lies ahead. He added: “My feeling is that the golf industry is going to evolve into a much more professional structured world.

“If we do a parallel with the hotel industry, 50 years ago less than ten per cent of hotels were managed by professional companies. Nowadays, that figure is more than 65 per cent.

“In the golf industry, ten per cent of the 38,000-plus golf courses in the world are managed by golf operators so there is clearly a big potential to evolve and change.”