A Challenging Pre-season: Is it you, the industry or the weather?
In the course of our conversations with dozens of owner/operators in the course of a month, the current theme has been, “Tough start to the year Jim & Stuart.” Our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) subscribers have the benefit of visibility (not necessarily answers), through the end of April, to the latter two questions above whereas the rest of you reading this can only answer the first. Without giving away all our secrets (and because we ultimately want you to subscribe), here’s what we know from our vantage point of the compiled April Year-to-Date (YtD) figures on Rounds, Golf Revenue and Rate for the GMRC portfolio (not big enough or balanced (by geography and Pellucid facility type) to be a reliable projection of the Total US but more than anyone else currently knows):
- Golf Revenue is up low-single digits; not killing it but…Golf Revenue per Available Round (GRevpAR) is up double digits
- Rounds are off slightly but, similarly, % Utilization is up mid-single digits; both of which point to…
- Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rounds have been down high-single digits in the GMRC portfolio’s geographies (and nationally as well for those of you keeping score out there)
- We also know that, if GRev is up slightly and Rounds are down slightly, that means Rate has been modestly up
GMRC subscribers knew both what their April YtD scorecard looked like and the GMRC portfolio summary results described above (and numbers) the first week of May after they posted their “3 Numbers” (Rounds, Golf Revenue, Peak WE GF Rate) in the GMRC portal. What they then can see for the month and YtD are:
- Monthly trend comparative report for Rounds and Utilization (integrating Pellucid’s proprietary weather impact based on the weather station assigned to their facility)
- Month and YtD 7-KPI scorecard for performance including GRevpAR and Utilization
- Access to the underlying weather impact data figures by day, week and month for historical weather and the daily, 60-day Capacity Rounds forecast compared to Year Ago and the 10-Yr Norm looking forward
- The GMRC portfolio summary results via email Excel table
Ready to get started? Subscribe to the Golf Market Research Center, $500 annual per facility (there’s also a monthly pay option at a slightly higher rate). NCGOA members get a 10% discount as part of the SmartBuy program; if you’re a member email Jim K. and he’ll send you the code before you order. We’re also working with Metolius on GMRC 2.0 which will provide automated transfer of the data (for our subscribers with their permission) which opens up more frequent reporting (daily/weekly) as well as more variables like revenue-by-dept and day-of-week etc. These PoS systems are already “wired” for Metolius and the Pellucid/Edgehill Analysis Reports (PEAR): Lightspeed, Club Caddie, ClubProphet and foreUP (with several more in process).
More information on the program can be found here:
- Click here for 15-minute video demo (you do have to register to see video; don’t worry, you’re not signing up for anything)
If further questions, email Jim K. at the above address. We still have room for ~1K more subscribers and, after that, we’ll take folks on a first-come, first-served basis (ha, ha). That said, we know ~100 operators out there that aren’t guessing at whether their April YtD results are due to them, the industry or the weather; they know the answer to all 3 and are working on changes and refinements in their ’25 programming to address the causes and outcomes they can control.
