Dear Golf Industry Professional:
The final major for the year has now been contested and is in the rearview mirror and all that remains is the (yawn) FedEx Cup. Contrived and tortured as it may be however, it has served the purpose of the PGA TOUR which is to extend interest in the season, rope in a few more sponsors and give them a wild card in TV rights negotiations when the regular season ratings are trending downward when the contract comes up for renewal. But we digress…
In the less-rarified air of basic golf course operations that we live in daily, this month Stuart headlines with an article advancing the thought that all golf courses are “snowflakes” with their own unique opportunities and challenges which either subject them to the downward industry drift or offer opportunities which prove “that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” Golf course operator Wayne Yamaguchi makes an even starker assessment outlining his view that there are a third of courses that will survive, a third that won’t make it and a third “on the bubble” as it relates to public golf. And you thought Pellucid had a corner on the brutal (but likely) truth market. Read Stuart and Wayne’s “read” of the industry green by clicking here:
In addition, the August issue covers the following topics in our pursuit of monthly information and entertainment for our readers:
• Publisher Jim Koppenhaver for the second month stays in the golf consumer equipment category realm and suggests that 2017 sales trends suggest that the direct-to-consumer sales and distribution model may be shifting into another gear, particularly with weakness we’re seeing in golf ball sales relative to rounds demand where units sold have historically tracked in tandem. While it may not be as dramatic as Dollar Shave Club upsetting Gillette’s apple cart over the past 5 years, anyone who doesn’t see the precarious position for the legacy equipment sales model isn’t paying attention.
• Speaking of direct-to-consumer, Editor-in-Chief Jim Dunlap takes a look at Bob Parsons’ continuing plan to “take it to the consumer” (both literally as well as monetarily) and the surprising fact that there’s a market out there for extreme performance and price. True to form for Mr. Parsons, he’s now doubling down on the premium club purchasing bet with your basic $17K club-fitting experience. While we won’t personally be on that program anytime soon, he doesn’t appear to be having any challenges filling the number of slots he had targeted among the “golf-can-never-cost-too-much” crowd.
• Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including weather impact for the July month (up!) and Year-to-Date (still flat at the end of 7 months), June Utilization (flat, rounds decline basically followed unfavorable weather), the May equipment sales figures (Off Course channel carnage continues), as well as Boston, MA as this month’s Market Focus which registers as the 15th 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 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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