Hello golf stakeholders:
By the time you read this The Masters will have been contested and decided and it’s on to Easter with the northern climates largely still seeking Spring weather.
Publisher Jim K. leads this month with a joking poke at tariffs before touching on two topics that matter more to the industry for the ’25 season; the DC time change debate, which actually had a Senate Committee hearing this past week with Jay Karen testifying, and the likely importance of factoring in weather impact when “scoring” your results (and, for us, the industry’s) given the way the Q1 weather shaped up for our 12-month season geographies (including our GMRC portfolio results).
Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay weighs in with cautionary remarks that the COVID halo is likely to be “less bright” in ’25 and operators are going to once again have to sharpen their focus, their tools (CRM) and pencils (budgets) to succeed, moreso than in recent years where rounds and rate/revenue increases were relatively simple. We are hearing differing stories from our GMRC participants with some having continued success in pre-bookings/season passes etc. which provide a demand preview so it appears that, as always, “your mileage may vary.”
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional March weather impact (ouch, 3rd consecutive down month to open the year) to By-the-Numbers which provides the February and Year-to-Date results for Rounds (off) and Utilization (up). We’ve already compiled the March golf operations performance scorecard “preview”, courtesy of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) early-responders, and the sneak peek suggests that Rounds will take a hit, but not as steep as the GPH drop which would produce a Utilization gain. If you want to know those numbers on a regular basis, you can either participate in GMRC (course operators) or sign up for a Publications Membership (everyone else).
INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE
2 TARIFFS By Jim Koppenhaver
SEASON OUTLOOK
6 You’ll likely have to “make your own luck” in ’25 By Stuart Lindsay
COMINGS & GOINGS
10 9 Activities; Transactions continue to rule and (a little) “new dirt”
WEATHER IMPACT
12 March GPH “less ugly” at -7%, QJ.”really ugly” at -15%
BY-THE-NUMBERS
14 Feb Utilization again up double-digits (+11 pts), YtD also up (+12 pts)
MARKET FOCUS
16 Fresno, CA weighs in #12 in market strength; supply slim down heavy contributor
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.
For those of you who would like our recently-updated complete US Golf Markets Strength Scorecard, it’s part of the Pellucid Publications Membership which can be ordered here (not available as a solo report). Delivered in an Excel workbook format, it provides key facts on all 207 DMAs for both the Size rankings (Rounds, Golfers, Holes) and the Strength scores and rankings (Pop Growth, Income Growth, Play Rate (Rds per Capita per Yr), Pub Golfers per Pub 18-hole equivalents and % Utilization). While the size rankings may not surprise you, there are guaranteed surprises when we factor out size and score every market by strength!
