’19 National Golf Consumer Franchise Profile Update Now Available

Pellucid announces the release of its annual update to the Golf Consumer Franchise Profile headlined by a 4th consecutive year of slowing deceleration. Following the new golfer type designations we identified and suggested in ’19 (Players, Golfers, Participants), this count and commentary only covers the Players segment (not practicers-only or golfertainment (TopGolf & clones) or simulator golf exclusives). Pellucid’s figures and analysis are also a “latent demand-free zone”; we’ll leave all the “hope and change” metrics to our friends at the NGF and associated echo chambers. For the universe of 1+ rounds in the past year, 7+ age group our tale of the tape covers the following metrics:

• Golfers and Participation Rate – Golfers again fractionally down (1%), improving the 5-year Compound Annual Change Rate (CACR) to ~-1%

• Demographic shifts – We saw a 2nd consecutive year of losses in the Mid-Career (35-54) while Early Career (18-34) lifestages we’ve been closely watching were essentially flat. Women saw a slight gain offset by the decline in Men while the low-income group ($0-$34K) bore the brunt of the decline within income groups

• Involvement Level of Golfers – This year the modest golfer erosion occurred in the Involved group (10-39 rds/yr) while Committeds and Singles gained marginally (top and bottom of the spectrum). The consumer survey-based frequency gained marginally which offset the modest players decline resulting in a flat Play Rate (rds per capita per year) vs. ’18

• 2020 projections for the golfer base size – The shallowing of the rate of golfer decline adjusts our 2020 projection which now suggests we may end the decade above 20M which would represent the softest likeliest landing relative to the 29M+ golfer start to this decade (new tagline for the failed 20/20 initiative, “we kept the golfer base above 20M by 2020”)
The Excel workbook with the summary and detail figures includes the following facts:

• Core metrics of # of golfers, Participation Rate, Frequency Rate and Play Rate (rds/capita/yr) for ’19, change vs. ’18 (# and %) and 5-yr CACR

• Involvement groups, size, change and share of total golfers for ’19, comparison to ’18 and 5-yr CACR

• Demographics, # of golfers, Frequency Rate, Play Rate for ’19 vs. ’18 and 5-yr CACR broken out by:
o Gender – male vs. female comparisons
o Age – 8 age groups and 5 summary groups (Juniors, Early Career, Mid-Career, Late Career, Seniors)
o Income – 7 income groups and 3 summary groups (<$35K, $35-$75K, $75K+)

There are two ways to order the industry’s definitive consumer franchise accounting:
1. Become a Pellucid Publications Member ($495/yr, 40% discount vs. purchasing separately) – PPM comes in two varieties, National and Local; subscribers receive all Pellucid publications as part of their annual membership. The May OtR will provide the detailed color commentary analyzing the Consumer Franchise results so this is the perfect complement to the individual report and also includes:
• Outside the Ropes (OtR) newsletter (in both versions)

• State of the Industry (in both versions)

• Weather Impact Analysis
– PPM: Geographic (Nat’l/Reg’l/Mkts) Weather Impact Tracking
– PPM-Local: Cognilogic web-based weather impact, annual user license (facility-level Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rounds, from yesterday to 10-yr Norm)
• Market Analysis/Health Ranking
– PPM: Top 25 US Golf Markets Scorecard and Health Ranking
– PPM-Local: Golf Local Market Analysis, data workbook (8-dimensional profile of 3 draw areas around the facility including demographics, # of golfers, participation/frequency/play rate, Rounds Potential Indices (Income, Age, Ethnicity), Supply/Demand balance, Supply distribution, Rounds demand and Velocity (rounds per 18-hole equivalent) by Pellucid 5 facility types

• National Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard; consumer base size, demographics, involvement groups, churn rate, projections for 2020 etc. (in both versions)

2. Purchase the National Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard via our website ($199) – Excel workbook of 4 worksheets as outlined above

For those interested in a sample of the report, you can use the Register Here for Excel Workbook Sample button on our product information page at this address [https://www.pellucidcorp.com/reports/national-golf-consumer-franchise-health-scorecard] and we’ll send it along for your review. You can order any of the above information services via Pellucid’s Online Store.