Hitting the tropical links: growth of golf stunted by heavy price tag, limited interest.

Moving from its former position as a pastime of the privileged to one popular among the more modest classes has propelled golf to its new rank as a national sport in the United States and Canada. In both countries, golf courses adorn even the smallest towns. In the United States alone, 36.7 million people over age 5 played a round of golf or visited a golf facility in 2002, according to the U.S. National Golf Foundation.

However, in Mexico the trend has been quite different. An executive summary on golf released in 2000 by the Tourism Secretariat (Sectur) said, "in comparison to other sports, golf in Mexico has developed very little" and cited "few players and enthusiasts" as the prime impediment to growth.

BRIGHT SPOTS

But for those avid golfers who love playing under Mexico's sunny skies or near one of the nation's numerous white sand beaches, the news isn't all bad. In fact, much of it is good. The number of golf courses around the country has increased to 175 this year, up from 168 in 2000, and more are in the planning or construction phases, said Joaquin Armenta, Sectur's assistant director of sport tourism development.

Armenta said Sectur has been working with semi-private and resort golf clubs to help commercialize their services by tying them to travel agency promotions, like discount hotel stays, a new concept in Mexico that has met success abroad. Moreover, every state--except Tlaxcala--has at least one golf course, with the biggest concentration in the center and west of the nation. With 17, the State of Mexico has the most golf courses, while Los Cabos has more than any other municipality with seven, according to the Sectur summary.

The slow but sure increase in golf's popularity here has in large part come on the successful heels of 21-year-old Mexican golf sensation Lorena Ochoa, said Sonia Feher, president of the Mexican Women's Golf Association. Feher called the Guadalajara native's contribution to golf in Mexico "huge" and said her impact has been especially important on young girls who form part of the next generation of the nation's golfers.

In 2001, Ochoa became the first golfer and the youngest person ever to win Mexico's National Sports Award. The following year she quit the University of Arizona and turned pro, leaving as the most decorated golfer in school history, with 12 wins to her credit.

However, Ochoa isn't the only reason more rounds are being played in Mexico. Fernando Herana, general director of the Mexican Golf Federation, said the media have also become more interested in golf. He said professional tournaments have in recent years received more television and sports news coverage, which has helped push the number of requests to join the federation up 20-25% in the last four years.

Sectur, along with other organizations, is also promoting the Tianguis de Golf, slated for October in Acapulco. An offshoot of its famous cousin, the Tianguis Turistico, the event looks to bring together travel agents, hotel owners, club managers, government officials and others to discuss how to better promote golf and complimentary activities among national and foreign tourists.

STILL A SPORT FOR THE ELITE

Despite recent attempts to spur more teeing off around the country, there are two key factors slowing growth in an industry Sectur believes has enormous potential. The first, according to the government's report, is that the development of the nation's golf industry has been "neither ordered nor planned."

There is no basic structure to the way golf clubs are priced, where they are built, the number of holes or the type of course, reads the report, which emphasized golf fees can vary by as much as 400% for similar courses. This can lead to the conclusion that golf in Mexico is very disorganized and not taken seriously.

The other principal factor hindering the sport's advancement in Mexico is that here golf continues to be extremely elitist. The nearly complete lack of public golf courses means Mexicans must pay often-expensive membership or green fees, a tough task in a nation where 50% of the population is poor, according to a March report in Reforma newspaper.

While in the United States 72% of golfers play on public courses, "I understand the Mexican government has other priorities than golf," said Wesley Wolfe, a private consultant and former AMERICAN CHAMBER/MEXICO president who has played golf for over 30 years. Sectur's Armenta agreed, adding it's also a matter of public conscience. "If a community has extra money ... they would probably choose to invest it in something else like a [public] soccer field," he said.

CHOICES, CHOICES

So what are the options for avid golfers living in Mexico with enough cash to afford a membership at an expensive club? There are basically two: private or semi-private courses. Private clubs are by far the most popular--and exclusive--comprising almost 50% of all golf courses in the country, Armenta said. They usually offer a myriad of services and activities in addition to golf, including gyms, tennis, swimming, aerobics, yoga, restaurants and bars, children's areas, spas and others.

These clubs work something like this: To join, you must literally become a club co-owner by buying one of a limited number of shares of stock--usually under 1,000. This gives the coowner, his wife and children, up to a certain age, the right to enter and use the facilities, though most services have additional costs. The price of a stock varies depending on the club. At the Club de Golf Chapultepec, possibly the Mexico City metro area's most posh golf resort, the cost of a share runs at US$135,000, plus a US$23,000 inscription fee, said Rosario Vasquez of the club's public relations and member services department.

Because of its reputation for exclusivity, the club boasts 641 high-profile members including politicians, company presidents and ambassadors, the latter of whom are often honorary members. But simply having enough money to buy a share of stock when it becomes available is not enough. "You must be recommended by a member at the club who knows you," said Rosealia Garcia, member services director at the Club Campestre Monterrey, a private golf club in the northern industrial city of the same name. "The club does a background investigation to find out if the candidate is of high class and good moral standing ... Then he must be voted in by the stockholders."

In such lofty society, club rules reflect the membership's aversion to unfamiliar faces. "Visitors must be invited by a member and can only come two times in a month," said Vasquez, who noted the green fee costs as much as 3,150 pesos on the weekends. At the Club Campestre Monterrey visitors are allowed one entrance per month.

However, not all clubs operate like these. Semi-private clubs don't sell pieces of the company, meaning their prices are lower and that they must compete with similar clubs for members, unlike private ones that set membership limits.

Joaquin Martin Barajas, general director of the 500-member Club Campestre Chiluca in the State of Mexico, said improvements in his club's services and infrastructure and golf's increased popularity have led to a 10% rise in membership since 2000. But joining still isn't cheap. New members must pay a 150,000-peso inscription charge, and the annual membership fee runs 48,000 pesos. Unlike its private counterparts, though, the club encourages members to invite visitors, who are allowed to return as many times as they like.

SECRET OF THE DRAW

So what is it about golf that, according to the Tourism Secretariat, has 71,100 people around the country swinging clubs? Part of the draw, Barajas said, is an obligation among executives to play golf because so many of their peers do. Former AMCHAM President Wolfe agreed that "it helps [from a business perspective] to be available" but cited other reasons that have kept him coming back to the golf course since his father first took him over 30 years ago. One of those is the camaraderie that can develop between avid players, he said. Another reason is that golf can actually be a stress reliever. "For businessmen, hitting the ball can actually help vent frustrations," Wolfe said.

Fernando Herana, general director of the Mexican Golf Federation called golf "beautiful and very challenging."

"People accept that challenge, the individual challenge of overcoming course obstacles and increasing their score," he said. Being outdoors and "in touch with nature, the trees and fresh air are also very appealing," Herana added.

The stereotype of businesspeople who golf is that wheeling and dealing with other executives or politicians occupies a large part of their time on the course, but most agree such transactions between peers are much more casual. Both Vasquez of the Club de Golf Chapultepec and Wolfe, a co-owner of the same club, called golf outings an opportunity to network and build relationships that can be useful in other arenas but not necessarily a chance to close deals.

Garcia at the Club Campestre Monterrey said golf is too expensive an activity in Mexico for the intention to be solely about making deals. "Relations with others are important but people don't join golf clubs just to do business. It would be a large investment to golf only for business reasons," she said.

But if you just happen to run into someone who might benefit from what you do, then you could be in luck, said Barajas, Club Campestre Chiluca's general director, who used the example of a marketing specialist who meets someone interested in his services.

NOT JUST A MAN'S GAME

While women make up a minority of golfers--Vasquez estimated only 50 of her club's 641 co-owners are women--they are making advances in Mexico, said Sonia Feher, president of the Mexican Women's Golf Association. "More and more women are taking up golf and it's being pushed among young girls," she said.

However, she said discrimination against women still exists, saying some clubs have rules preventing them from golfing before noon on weekends to make room for working men who haven't had a chance to play all week. Many men still consider golf to be for "gentlemen only and ladies forbidden," Feher said.

Perhaps surprisingly, Feher said she does believe women's golf in Mexico receives as much media coverage as men's and credited Lorena Ochoa as well as "good journalists who cover women's sports."

But her association is determined to improve the status of women golfers. The best way to accomplish that, she said, is to "fight to become better players and show that women can play better than many men."

Armando Saliba is the associate editor of BUSINESS MEXICO.