Dear Golf Industry Professional:
Masters season approaches, he media is all agush with news of Tiger’s return and his rejuvenated swing speed proving once again that “hope springs eternal in the human breast” and that 2018 will be the long-awaited turnaround for the industry at large. I love the storyline; we just need some actual causal factors (successful programs and/or consumer behavioral changes) and some actual uptick in the key metrics we care about (revenue, rounds and golfers) to make it real.
The reality of the industry in any given month can be found in the By-the-Numbers section of our humble little publication (which, by the way generally registers the fewest page views of the entire issue based on our tracking of what you look at and how long you stay there); the truth starts on page 11 of this issue. In addition to the Feb/Jan truth, Publisher Jim Koppenhaver headlines this issue with observations from recent conversations with multiple municipalities regarding their shifting perspective on how they view their golf portfolio. For a number of them, they’re now considering how to control the downside risk and how to repurpose or divest those properties where our assessment of their downside risk extends beyond their Board’s tolerance. To listen in on 3 anonymous case studies, click here: March Pellucid Perspective
In addition, the March issue covers the following topics in our own inimitable style attempting to balance insights and entertainment in equal measures:
– Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay heads west to Madison WI in what’s still considered winter up here to visit an outdoor driving range; why you ask? Because he wants to see TopTracer in action and compare it to his Orlando TopGolf experience. He believes one of these has the potential to actually help the operations businesses in golf, guess which one it is? Go to page 6 for his happy surprise and his handicapping on the revenue and relationship building potential from new technology that goes beyond “entertainment”
– Jim Dunlap builds on the upbeat theme of Stuart’s article with his treatment of a golf course turnaround in progress by an individual owner and his wife and a business partner who wanted the F&B side of the house coupled with some joint (but individual, not financed) funding. While the jury’s still out on the early comeback, the business plan is creative, incorporating some newer tools like Quick.golf, and owner Chris Davis only needs to break even on his “retirement project” so that will give him some wiggle room the majority of other owner/operators don’t have in the current golf economy. After going through our IGDB facility list all week and weeding out closed courses, I need a story like this to pick me up; maybe you do too
– Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including the February opening month weather impact results (down again) and the January YtD Utilization (way up, but result of rounds declined less than weather). We also chart the monthly timeseries for the year of Golf Playable Hours and Utilization while our Market Focus continues with the profile of Philadelphia PA (Fly Eagles Fly!) as this month’s Market Focus which registers as the 18th 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. Now that you’re either underway or preparing to open for the ’18 season, might we suggest, to additional industry stakeholders not in the above list who want to increase their brand exposure and be associated monthly with intelligent discussion on key issues, considering joining 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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