Hello golf stakeholders:
Seven days and counting until the industry’s annual Orlando confab and the conviviality of the Orange County Convention Center (only 5 days ‘til the kick-off of the NGCOA Golf Business Conference which kicks things off Sunday night); welcome to the pre-PGA Merchandise Show edition!
Publisher Jim K. gets the headline spot this issue with his preview of two of the industry records which fell in ’24, Rounds played and % Utilization; both results will be part of the 22nd annual State of the Industry review which will be presented and webcast on Thursday 1/23 from 1:30-3PM in the Media Center at the OCCC, Room W312-A. If you’re reading this, you should have gotten an email invite to register for either in-person or remote viewing (GoToMeeting). If you didn’t, those are the hotlinks to join the fun if you’re interested. For PGA members, the association has agreed to award 2 PDR credits to those who register and we validate their attendance (either venue).
Stuart Lindsay provides for lighter reading this month as he assembles a number of anecdotes over his extensive career in the golf industry and the sport itself and how he’s experienced good/bad/indifferent karma over that span of time. That begs the question of whether he believes that ’25 will manifest a continuation of the good karma that has embraced golf post-COVID.
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional December & full year weather impact (finished in the neutral zone closing with a significantly down December) to By-the-Numbers which provides the November and Year-to-Date results for Rounds and Utilization. We’ve already compiled the December golf operations performance scorecard “preview”, courtesy of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) early-responders, and the sneak peek suggests that Rounds followed weather downward but Revenue was only slightly dented. The full-year scorecard of the 8 Key Performance Indicators for the GMRC portfolio will be part of the SoI presentation. 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).
YEAR-END REVIEW
2 ’24 Will Finish with Record Rounds, “Sneaky Long”
By Jim Koppenhaver
OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS
6 Will Golf Have Good or Bad Karma in ’25?
By Stuart Lindsay
COMINGS & GOINGS
10 21 Activities;Transactions dominate with 13
WEATHER IMPACT
14 December G PH meltdown -23°/4, ’24 finishes in neutral zone (-2%)
BY-THE-NUMBERS
16 Nov Utilization declines despite rounds gain, Year-to-Date still up countering down weather
MARKET FOCUS
18 Minneapolis “represents” at #8 in current ranking; top non-12 month season market in US
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!
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