Spain plays 18 holes. Spain and golf have had a special relationship since 1932, when the Royal Spanish Golf Federation (Rfeg) was founded in Getxo (Bilbao). Since a long time ago, the increasing popularization of golf and the construction of public courses has brought this sport a special position in the Spanish sports panorama.

In thirty years, Federal golf licenses tripled, reaching nearly 300,000 in the country. In 1968, the first year for which Rfeg has data, Spain had 3,203 federative licenses; Nearly thirty years later, the token reached 98,876 licenses and in 2022, federation athletes in the golf modality jumped to 293,378.

In fact, in 2021, due to the surge in demand for outdoor sports due to the pandemic, RFeg took third place in ranking the sport with the largest number of federative licenses in Spainbehind only football and hunting.

There are several factors that have led to the golf boom in Spain: from iconic players to the large number of golf courses spread across the peninsula. Spain has provided a golfer of the caliber of Severiano Ballesterosa poet of this sport who, with his work swing and his titles, amazed a generation and was a golf pioneer in the country.

Spain has gone from having 3,203 licenses in 1968 to almost 300,000 in 2022

Ballesteros is considered one of the best players in history and his titles back it up. In their exhibition there are five Match Play World Championships, two Augusta Masters titles and three in the Open Championship). Additionally, he was crowned the Ryder Cup champion five times.

After Seenplayers such as José María Oyarzabal, Sergio García, Miguel Ángel Jiménez, Carlota Ciganda, Azahara Muñoz and the newly crowned Ryder Cup champion, Jon Ramh, came.

Spain, further afield, The country is ranked fifth in the ranking of countries with the largest number of golf courses, with around five hundred facilities, as does Ireland, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Mexico, Brazil or Argentina. The country’s main golf courses are located in Catalonia, Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia and the Balearic Islands. These include PGA Catalunya Resort, Stadium Course, in Girona; RCG Valderrama, in Cádiz, and Lo Romero Golf, in Alicante.

However, Spain is far from the record of the United States, Canada, England and Japan in the number of fields. If in America there are 15,000 golf facilities, in Canada, England and Japan there are 3,000 golf courses.

Golf attracts around 1.2 million foreign tourists to Spain per year and indirectly generates 11.183 million euros

According to the report Golf as a catalyst for economic activity in Spain in 2020prepared by the IE business school, the Spanish Golf Course Association and Rfeg, golf is a tourist machine, attracting attention 1.2 million foreign tourists per year and indirectly generate 11.183 million euros. In addition, it created more than 120,000 jobs and was a catalyst for real estate investment, with real estate investment of 42,000 million euros from golf tourists.

Such was the interest and impact on golf’s economy that in late September it was announced that the Generalitat of Catalonia and the Ryder Cup organizers had come close to a position that golf event held in the Catalan regionafter negotiations failed in August.

In fact, the last edition of the Ryder Cup, with the European team winning, recorded a total television coverage of 3.7 million viewers. Although in the United States the competition was under-attended due to time changes and poor sporting results, in the UK the tournament averaged a record 785,000 viewers over the weekend, an increase of 38% compared to the competition held in 2021 in Wisconsin. (United States) and increased 25% compared to 2018.

RFEG in numbers

The organization chaired by Gonzaga Escauriaza since 2008 has ended fiscal year 2022, its profits skyrocketed to 2.5 million eurosafter finishing the previous year with positive 1.7 million euros.

The increase in federative licensing and the increase in subsidies received are the two main factors behind the increase in RFeg results. In 2022, the federation increased the number of federation licenses by 3%, from 284,776 tokens in 2021 to 293,378 federation athletes in 2022. In fact, federal revenues and sales increased to 10.8 million euros.

Apart from that, the federation too allocated income from subsidies of 1.6 million euros23% more than in 2021. The Higher Sports Council (CSD) awarded Rfeg 725,809 euros for the usual general activities of highly competitive athletes.