More golfers in Brazil means there still aren't too many

The Associated Press ran a story awhile back on the recent “startling” growth of golf in Brazil.

“The sport has grown at a very fast rate, it is amazing what has been happening,” said Alvaro Almeida, president of the Brazilian Golf Confederation.

Everything sounds fantastic until you bring up the numbers: Five years ago there were 6,000 Brazilians playing golf, while today there is 25,000.

Now, this falls into the category of “you can make anything look good with math.”

Brazil is a country of around 200 million people. When 25,000 of 200 million pick up a club at least once a year, this is not a golfing explosion. I mean, the U.S. currently has more people experimenting with autoerotic asphyxiation than Brazil has golfers.

Brazil is a great place for a traveling golfer to go and there are fine courses throughout the country, notably in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. But lets not lose our minds over the great golf revolution in Brazil.

Mention this great golf phenomenon to just about anyone in Brazil, and they’ll just tell you to get out of the way so they can continue playing soccer.