Dear Golf Industry Professional:
The golf equipment segment of our industry continues to be the most compelling news as the sale of Golf Town and some related but uncertain transaction event for Golfsmith hit the press last week as we were compiling this issue. In the wake of the Nike departure, the equipment segment likely finishing down 5-10% based on the mid-year numbers and the retailer “shuffle” (some rumor that Dick’s might be interested in some of Golfsmith’s stores, I thought they were “deleveraging” golf in Q4 of last year?), these are exciting times bordering on a small crisis for those participating in equipment sales. Publisher Jim Koppenhaver offers his professional opinion on why this could be a great time for someone to disrupt the segment following Winston Churchill’s famous saying, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” To find out what Jim’s idea of disruption might look like and who’s a well-positioned equipment manufacturer to play the role of spoiler, click below for the current issue:
September Pellucid Perspective
In addition, the September issue covers the following topics as we strive to provide equal parts of education and entertainment:
• Editor-in-Chief Jim Dunlap weighs in on potential (real) solutions for golf’s challenge of addressing the changing “time crunch” reality of society in general and Millennials in specific. Two programs that are in early deployment (not development, they’re out there in play) are Quick.golf and GetOut!Golf and Jim provides a primer to these technology-driven tools which allow golfers to book and pay by either time (GetOut!Golf) or number of holes (Quick.golf). While still early in the game, we’re wagering our next paycheck that one or both will be more effective than the USGA’s PR campaign around “While we’re young” did launched during last year’s US Open which were entertaining but largely forgotten (wait, what were we talking about again?).
• Stuart Lindsay recounts lessons he’s learned from several of the “old masters” of course maintenance and how they’ve adhered to the basics to achieve sustained success and made courses more playable and enjoyable for their customers. Channeling Jack Palance in City Slickers, “You just have to figure out that one thing…” (OK, there’s 4 things but at least Stuart’s mentors actually named and explained them).
• Jim Dunlap also takes a look at the unique dynamics of Myrtle Beach SC and how that golf market has evolved over the years to adjust to oversupply, underdemand (at times) and new foreign owners to emerge stronger as a result of “coopetition”. As much as Jim Koppenhaver argues that it shouldn’t work in theory, it’s working for these guys and in this market.
• Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including the August month and Year-to-Date weather impact, July Utilization, June equipment sales figures challenges as well as St. Louis, MO as this month’s Market Focus which registers as the 25th healthiest of the Top 25 US Golf Markets in our annual ranking (anchoring the last spot by our semi-arbitrary 25 cutoff)
We recognize and thank our continuing sponsors; KemperSports, Troon Golf and Bayer CropScience. With all of our core summer months now behind us, we now move into the shoulder season in the north and strategic planning for those so inclined (and smart). Not a bad time to consider the Perspective as a vehicle to get your message out to our independent and progressive reader base. For those wanting to increase their brand exposure and be associated monthly with intelligent discussion on key issues, we’d suggest our successful 12-month sponsorship offering at a slight discount vs. the basic six month sponsorship rate. 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 and National Golf Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard). 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, we would 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 are interested in a preview of our ad partner options, contact Editor-in-Chief Jim Dunlap (760-212-3714, jdgolfer@cox.net).
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 conversation, discussion and debate.
As always, you can review and order any of Pellucid’s range of reports and services at www.pellucidcorp.com. We also want to bring to your attention Pellucid’s recently- announced participation in the next generation golf course database, the Internet Golf Course Database (IGDB) with partners Never-Search, GolfCourseRanking.com and Apparation LLC. For more information on this comprehensive database, updated quarterly and refreshed completely (all 15K+ US courses) every 12 months, contact jimk@pellucidcorp.com. From the numbers and details of how our industry’s consumer base is changing at the national level to our individual facility-level services including weather impact (Cognilogic) and market analysis (Golf Local Market Analysis), we’ll keep you one step ahead of the competition in this continuing challenging industry landscape.
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