Dear Golf Industry Professional:
The first half of 2017 is now in the books and it’s shaping up as continued sideways movement with a couple of key indicators “leaning” to the downside (particularly rounds which are off 4% through May and June weather suggesting that won’t improve when those results are published later this month). Regardless, what’s past is past and we can focus on actions (think marketing, not discounting) that can be taken in the 2nd half to improve our lot as individual operators even if the industry doesn’t successfully make the turn.
On that topic, our headline story by Editor-in-Chief Jim Dunlap is about our declining visibility to rounds demand due to fewer operators participating in the Golf Datatech monthly collection process since the retirement of PerformanceTrak. Jim had a candid conversation with Tom Stine to discuss what’s changing and what lies ahead if the continued decline in facility participation continues. As we’ve said all along, we support any and all efforts to responsibly collect, compile and provide to stakeholders good information from which they can make informed decisions. Listen in on the conversation by clicking here:
In addition, the July issue covers the following topics in our pursuit of monthly edutainment for our readers:
• Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay asks the not-uninteresting question of golf’s governing bodies of “Are we in this together?” Much like the challenges we’re seeing in assembling a coalition of the willing to keep reliable rounds reporting afloat, golf’s various governing bodies, trade organizations and affiliated associations need to collaborate better in the future to actually get stuff done (channeling NGCOA President Rock Lucas’ comment of “#GSD”, slightly different acronym we can’t print because we’re a family publication). The net is to start thinking like the golfers we serve and exhibiting more boundary-less behavior against the key industry issues vs. PR campaigns.
• Publisher Jim Koppenhaver takes a look at the unusual dichotomy in golf equipment sales between the On-Course (happy times) and Off-Course (sad times) channels. While they historically move directionally in tandem (but not magnitude), this year they’re going different directions so Jim offers some hypotheses on what may be changing and whether it’s a long-term trend or short-term blip.
• Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including weather impact for the June month (unfortunately down) and Year-to-Date (1st half now plays to a weather draw), May Utilization (flat, rounds decline basically followed unfavorable weather), the April equipment sales figures (see Jim K’s article), as well as Orlando FL as this month’s Market Focus which registers as the 3rd healthiest of the Top 25 US Golf Markets in our annual ranking.
We recognize and thank our continuing sponsors; KemperSports, Troon Golf, Bayer CropScience and EZLinks Golf. We also cordially invite additional industry stakeholders who want to increase their brand exposure and be associated monthly with intelligent discussion on key issues to join our merry little band through our most popular 12-month sponsorship program (offered at an improved value relative to our entry-level 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 might 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 Apparation LLC, Never-Search and GolfCourseRanking.com. For more information on this comprehensive database, updated quarterly and refreshed completely every 12 months (all 15K+ US courses), contact jim@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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