The Niggle Podcast

It was an unexpected, but heartening, consequence of the coronavirus catastrophe. As nations took the tentative steps of opening up after lockdown, and people grasped for any semblance of normality, golf was able to step into the breech – the perfect sport for social distancing. First in England, and then across the rest of the UK as each country returned cautiously to the fairways, we saw a membership boom as golfers – lapsed, new and casual flocked to sign up. In Scotland, clubs reported increases of more than 100 per cent of new people joining but few of those could still compete with the astonishing figures at Moray Golf Club. They’re close to accepting 300 new members and the applications are still arriving on secretary Stevie Grant’s desk. So in this NCG podcast, we sat down with Stevie to find out how they did it, how lockdown affected the Lossiemouth club, and whether the new faces will be enough to see them through what still remains an uncertain time for the golf industry.