Winning Back the Frustrated Golfer reports that golf’s growth has stagnated, because three million of the 26 million adult golfers in the U.S. quit each year. It’s too hard:
Winning pros make the game look easy. They usually score well below par (72 for most courses, the number of shots it should take expert golfers to play 18 holes). In contrast, only 0.1% of all golfers shoot par, says the U.S. Golf Association, which keeps rules and scores. The average score for men is 96 shots, or 24 shots over par. For women, the average is 108 shots.
Only 0.1% of all golfers shoot par.