December 2013
| Business World Magazine | 37
fully calculate. There’s no telling how
many business deals have been secured
by virtue of a handshake on the course of
through a lost putt ... but what we can re-
port, based on a 2011 economic impact
study of the industry in the United States,
if you combine the total employment, as
well as food and beverage operations,
the annual economic impact is just shy
of seventy billion dollars.” That value,
adds Apel, puts golf ahead of the specta-
tor sports and performing arts industries
combined. However, Apel says there are
yet other “more impressive” values to
be realized with respect to the extent of
charitable giving generated from golf.
“When considering how much money is
contributed to charities through the play-
ing of golf tournaments, not taking into
account all that players individually do-
nate, but just through tournaments alone,
it equates to more than four billion dollars
... no other sport comes close to touching
that generosity,” says Apel.
Apel says that philanthropic distinc-
tion is a byproduct of the distinct nature
of the sport, its players and its fans. “Golf
is the only sport to adhere to a universal
set of rules and ethics. You have to track
your own score and call your own foul.
It is the only sport that does that, and in
turn, it attracts honest, disciplined and
ethical people. Golfers have a commonal-
ity; there is athleticism, skills and talent,
but there are also values of honesty and
integrity, they’re good at heart and will-
