This month, SGB Golf’s exclusive series of country summaries from the BGIA’s report on The European Golf Apparel and Footwear market lands in Austria

The golfing culture of Austria is minor yet growing. The country boasts a population of 8.3 million, yet little more than 1% of the population play golf – an estimated 100,000 people. However, most of Austria’s 150 golf courses have been built over the past 17 years, and the Austrian Golf Association predicts the country will have 210 courses and 170,000 golfers by 2015.

SGB Golf’s exclusive series of country summaries from the BGIA’s report on The European Golf Apparel and Footwear market heads into the Czech Republic.

While global economic problems have slowed the growth of golf in the Czech Republic in recent years, over 43,000 Czechs were registered as golfers in June 2009, and the sport’s popularity is trickling down from the country’s political, business and cultural elite, through the upper middle class. While the Czech Golf Federation was the 20th largest sports federation in the country in 2004, it had risen to 8th by 2008, and a KPMG survey in 2007 showed the Czech Republic to be the leading Eastern European country in terms of golf participation.

Continuing SGB Golf’s exclusive series of country summaries from the BGIA’s report on The European Golf Apparel and Footwear market, we move into Turkey

In part eight of SGB Golf’s exclusive series of country summaries taken from the BGIA’s report on The European Golf Apparel and Footwear market, we focus on the Scandinavian outpost of Iceland

Although Iceland has a population of around 313,000 – equivalent to a mid-sized European city, like Cardiff - golf happens to be the most popular participant sport on this northern Atlantic island. Over 10% of Iceland’s inhabitants play golf – approximately 35,000 regular players - and the claim to fame of Iceland’s Golf Federation is that the country boasts the most golf holes per capita in the world.