Golf and water sport on the rise (7)
I believe the answer is:
growing
'on the rise' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'golf and water sport' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'golf' could be 'g' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.) and 'g' is located in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is located in the answer.
'sport' could be 'row' (row is a kind of sport) and 'row' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for growing that I've seen before include "Developing, maturing" , "crescent" , "Increasing in size and changing" , "On the increase" , "Increasing in magnitude" .)