BRITS NEED TO ‘MASTER' THEIR GOLF CLUBS

Press release 10th April 2008

As golfing eyes turn to Augusta National for the 74th US Masters, home insurer LV= suggests that the odds of the UK producing the next Tiger Woods are low, because although nearly one in five households (19%) has at least one set of golf clubs, half (50%) have not been swung in the past six months.

With the average set of clubs costing as much as £480**, dormant UK golfers have as much as £1.1billion* worth of clubs lying idle. The US Masters, which tees off on Thursday 10th April, might provide just the inspiration the UK's armchair golfers need, to dust off their clubs and take to the fairway.

Moreover, it's not just aspiring golfers who leave their sports equipment gathering dust. The research by LV= found that over £10.4 billion worth of tennis, squash and badminton racquets and bicycles have not been used in the last six months. Nearly half of all homes in the UK have at least one bike (48%), yet four in ten bike owners (40%) admit they haven't sat in the saddle in the last six months. 

And although angling is often dubbed the UK's biggest participation sport, according to the research some 57% of ‘anglers' won't have caught a thing in the past six months, as they haven't even used their fishing rods!

Despite the high cost of sporting goods, the research shows that over 1.9 million people leave their sports equipment open to theft, by storing it unsecured in the garden, in an unlocked shed or on display in the car.

Emma Holyer, spokesperson for LV= home insurance said: "It's easy to forget how much it costs to replace sporting equipment such as golf clubs. We tend to think that the most costly things to replace are jewellery or electronics, but sporting equipment can cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds for specialist kit."

"People using sports equipment outside of the home should ensure they have personal possessions insurance cover. This not only covers items like mobile phones, money, laptops and bags, but also sports equipment when it is away from the home. As electronics become increasingly difficult to sell on, some thieves are now targeting sporting equipment as it's easy to sell on the black market."

LV= home insurance includes as standard £2,500 cover for items kept in outbuildings and £1,000 for contents in the garden.