For most of the twentieth century golf was sold as a fixed bundle: a private membership or a green fee, eighteen holes, a formal clubhouse and a dress code. The product was the round, the customer was a fairly homogeneous affluent player, and growth meant selling more rounds or more memberships. Both of Luca Colucci's books start from the same observation: that model has not disappeared, but it has stopped being the whole market. Golf has become a multi-sector experience economy in which the game is one component of a larger ecosystem that includes hospitality, food and beverage, fashion, technology, media, travel and real estate.[pop],[btf]
For an executive the practical consequence is simple to state and hard to execute. The unit of value is no longer the round but the total experience a guest, member or traveller buys, and the competitive set is no longer only the course down the road but every other leisure, social and travel option competing for the same time and money.[pop]
The P.O.P. lens
P.O.P. GOLF organises the transformation around three structural pillars. They are useful because they convert a vague sense that "golf is changing" into three questions any organisation can audit.[pop]
- P — Participation · Who gets to play, how they access the game and what "playing golf" means. Short formats, urban ranges, simulators, social leagues and hybrid experiences multiply the points of access and lower both economic and psychological barriers. Audit question: how many ways in does your product offer, and how intimidating is each one?
- O — Omnichannel Experience · Golf now lives across physical venues, digital platforms, broadcast, social feeds, gaming and data tools. Engagement continues when people are not holding a club. Audit question: what does your customer do with you between visits?
- P — Pop Culture Integration · Golf in active dialogue with music, fashion, design, celebrity and lifestyle brands. Visual codes loosen and new narratives make the game readable to audiences who once saw it as distant. Audit question: does your brand speak a language your target audience recognises as theirs?
The book describes four catalysts that turned these pillars into momentum from the mid-2010s and especially after 2020: anti-establishment direct-to-consumer apparel brands such as Malbon Golf, Eastside Golf and Metalwood Studio; celebrities and athletes from other sports publicly adopting the game; the "Netflix effect" of the 2023 docu-series Full Swing, which put personal stories ahead of statistics; and a social media flywheel in which creation, amplification, adoption and validation feed each other.[pop]
Old golf versus new golf
| Dimension | Old paradigm | New paradigm |
|---|---|---|
| Core product | The 18-hole round | A total experience: golf plus food, social life, wellness, content, travel |
| Access | Equity membership or full green fee | Many entry points: off-course venues, short courses, tiered and social memberships, subscriptions |
| Customer | Homogeneous, older, mostly male | Fragmented niches: younger players, women, juniors, families, non-golfing companions |
| Media | Linear broadcast, golf magazines | Creators, streaming, short video, community platforms |
| Revenue logic | Dues and green fees | Diversified mix across F&B, events, retail, wellness, data, real estate |
| Facility | Golf-centric clubhouse | Hospitality-centric lifestyle hub |
Paradoxes as levers
Beyond the Fairway frames golf's historic tensions — individual focus versus social engagement, tradition versus innovation, exclusivity versus accessibility — not as problems to resolve once but as levers to position deliberately. A private club does not have to abandon exclusivity to become relevant; it has to decide where exclusivity creates value (for example in the quality of service or the scarcity of tee times at peak hours) and where it only creates friction (a dress code that repels the families it needs to recruit).[btf]
Why this matters for destinations and hotels
The P.O.P. lens is not only for clubs. A destination management organisation that markets only "great courses and sunshine" is competing in the old paradigm. A hotel that offers a golf desk but no relationship with nearby clubs, no packages for non-golfing companions and no content beyond course photos is doing the same. Throughout this program you will apply the three pillars to clubs, resorts, territories, tour operators and brands. The question will always be the same: where does each pillar create new demand, and who in the value chain captures it?[pop]
Key takeaways
- The unit of value is the total experience, not the round.
- P.O.P. turns change into three auditable questions: ways in, engagement between visits, cultural language.
- Tradition and exclusivity are levers to position deliberately, not to defend by default.