Hello golf stakeholders:
With The Masters in its rightful place this year and in the rearview mirror (with a humble champion), it’s time to get the golf season started up here in the north and see how far out into the year we can stretch the COVIdend. Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay headlines this month with his analysis and assessment of the recently-announced Callaway buyout of TopGolf. True to form both for Stuart and the Perspective, it’s not necessarily the prevailing industry narrative about the marriage-made-in-heaven and how it will magically bridge the gap between actual and virtual golf (we resisted the temptation of trying to cleverly put actual and virtual together, like “golfertainment”). While one can’t definitively say that it’s a bridge too far, there are questions to be asked and proof points to be produced somewhere along the way as Stuart (inconveniently) points out. For his unique take and supporting facts, open this month’s issue and read on:
Our April treatment of the industry-at-large also includes:
- Publisher Jim K. again rides shotgun with an overview of what we’re learning from the pilot participants in the Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) initiative. Over his 25 years as an analyst he’s learned that interesting and meaningful projects often consist of a combination of things that are confirmed (yes, we had a great year pretty universally on rounds) as well as surprises revealed when better facts are known (like the Golf Revenue line didn’t take as big a hit as he and Stuart had projected). For the table of aggregated results for the pilot participant portfolio across Pellucid’s 7 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), head over to Page 7 for his analysis and observations
- Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including the March weather impact results (fractionally up) and February Utilization (double-digits again, made a birdie “the hard way”). We also chart the monthly timeseries for the year of Golf Playable Hours and Utilization. Our Market Focus this month continues working our way up from the bottom as we visit Cleveland OH occupying the 17th spot in the latest scorecard and ranking. Rounding out the issue, our Comings & Goings section catalogues, classifies and comments on 13 activities the vast majority again this month being transactions (as ongoing golf operations) & listings
- You’ll also see (again) references to the recent launch of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) which is now in pilot phase. That means anyone can register to be the admin for their facility(ies), get access, put in their historical Rounds, Golf Revenue and Peak Season GF Rate and test drive the Market Profile, the Comparative Trends View and the KPI Scorecard (Pellucid’s 7 KPIs on one page, compared to Year Ago and incorporating our proprietary weather for the metrics of % Utilization and Revenue-per-Available Round). Post-launch of the full product in the summer, we’ll also include market/peer group benchmarking in those markets with enough participating courses to create the blind and balanced sample. The free pilot runs until 5/31 (date extended!). For those interested in registering to participate in the pilot contact jim@pellucidcorp.com if you’re interested in “playing”
We recognize and thank our sponsors; Troon Golf, GOLFNOW and KemperSports for their continued support of intelligent dialogue on key industry issues and health metrics tracking. For all those service providers and suppliers to the golf industry out there with the latest-and-greatest to offer our industry thought-leaders audience, might we suggest considering joining our merry little band through our most popular/best value 12-month sponsorship program? Twelve-month sponsors also receive all Pellucid industry-standard reports (State of the Industry, Outside the Ropes, Monthly Weather Impact Tracking (Nat’l, Reg’l, Markets), Top 25 US Golf Markets Scorecard, National Golf Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard and US Golf Supply on Sale report). Sponsorship provides monthly exposure to approximately 30K industry leaders and followers and associates your brand with Pellucid’s effort to expand intelligent thinking on today’s most challenging industry issues. For more “opportunistic” spenders, may we suggest one of our smaller-bite Ad Partner programs for those who may not be able to make a 6 or 12-month commitment (as short as 3 months are now available) or who may not need a half page or more exposure (quarter pages now available)? If you’re interested in knowing more about sponsorship opportunities or our ad partner options, contact Publisher Jim Koppenhaver (847.808.7651, jim@pellucidcorp.com).
If you know of associates who would benefit from the topics and insights covered in this issue, feel free to forward this email and encourage them to register on the Pellucid website (http://www.pellucidcorp.com/news/elist) to join the discussion and healthy debate.
We also continue to spread the word on Pellucid’s next-generation golf course database, the Internet Golf Course Database (IGDB) with partners Apparation LLC, Never-Search and GolfCourseRanking.com which now offers annual subscriptions for <$2.5K (that’s a compelling value!). IGDB powers Pellucid’s Golf Local Market Analyzer, the Top 25 US Golf Markets Scorecard and now the GMRC as the facility master-record “backbone” as well. For more information on our comprehensive database, updated quarterly and refreshed completely every 9 months (all 15K+ US courses), email support@theigdb.com.