Hello golf stakeholders:
Welcome to February and the pre-season of professional golf (although TGL is trying hard to change that; still not feeling it here though). By all accounts, and our observation from our 24th consecutive Orlando visit, a very successful PGA Show and Golf Business Conference are in the rearview mirror. We had just over 75 attendees to our GBC “preview” State of the Industry (SoI) followed by our 23rd annual PGA Show “full Monty” version attended by ~150 attendees (both in-person and the livestream). Once again, Jim and Stuart teamed up to run the (broadly positive) numbers, outline key trends and offer forecasts for ’26 and beyond. The full report is available either as part of the Pellucid Publications Membership (best value, everything that Pellucid publishes annually) or as an individual State of the Industry (SoI) report.
Publisher Jim K. leads this month with the question of whether the positive results, but slowing growth, outlined in the SoI represent the advent of the frothy tops of the current cycle. If he’s right, then it suggests that growth in ’26 and beyond will be tougher to come by for the average golf course operator and will require different tools and developing new muscles (customer relationship management for one) for continued success.
Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay recaps the dizzying array of new technology-based tools and services that he perused during his floor hours in Orlando. This year featured more cloud-based technology (new companies as well as one major legacy PoS provider finally making the migration), golfer services and apps and, of course, AI everywhere (and promised as transformational in everything). The increasing challenge for many of these companies is straddling the competing interests of the golfers and the golf operators. Stuart also outlines that, even for those platforms which are solidly positioned as operator-centric, there are often trade-offs in benefits and risks that need to be considered and weighed.
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional January weather impact (double-digit up, but caution) to By-the-Numbers which provides the December and Year-to-Date results for Rounds (flat/fractionally up) and Utilization (both modestly up). We’ve already compiled the January golf operations performance scorecard “preview”, courtesy of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) early-responders, and the sneak peek suggests that Rounds won’t follow the double-digit weather gain linearly but it will be an “up” start for the year while Utilization will be down to start. 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 TRENDS
2 Are We Seeing the Frothy Tops of the Current Industry Cycle?, By Jim Koppenhaver
GOLF OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY
8 Don’t Get Disoriented Amidst Dizzying Array of New Tech at PGA Show, By Stuart Lindsay
COMINGS & GOINGS
12 Playing Catch-up on ’25 activities (12 tracked) led by Transactions (7) and off-season closures (3)
WEATHER IMPACT
14 Jan. registers double-digit gain at +35% GPH, will rounds follow?
BY-THE-NUMBERS
16 Dec. Utilization another gain at +5 pts, finishes year at +2 pts
MARKET FOCUS
18 Idaho Falls, ID weighs in at #21 in Golf Market Strength, didn’t see that one coming
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.
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