Passing the Mid-year Milepost: Pellucid’s Unique Perspective on Industry Performance
If you read this article on the publish date, I will be simultaneously presenting the mid-year scorecard results and insights at the annual Multi-Course & Resort Operators Retreat (MCOR or, more accurately, MCROR, ha, ha) in Monterey, CA. At Pellucid it’s our business to know and compile the industry health figures monthly from Golf Revenue to Rounds Played to Weather Impact but most other stakeholders only check in periodically at the industry level so…this mid-year summary is for that majority of you. Prior to the launch of our Golf Market Research Center 2 years ago, we relied on our Weather Impact data, the Golf Datatech monthly rounds report and, from a combination of the two we could produce the key performance indicator (KPI) of % Utilization. We were previously “blind” regarding Golf Revenue (GRev), GRev-per-Available-Round (GRevpAR), Greens Fee pricing levels/changes and discount rates. As the GMRC slowly grows, we’re now less dependent on the Datatech information to make national projections (although they still provide helpful visibility to the Private sector as well as market variances) and can create our own, independent performance scorecard for any month and the Year-to-Date (YtD) period.
In this issue, we’ll outline the “Essential 8” KPIs in our industry scorecard and where they stand at the June YtD milepost vs. ‘23:
- Performance measures; which ones matter and why
- How are we doing nationally at mid-year (actually June is historically, only 44% of annual rounds but we’re calling it midway)? The only key metric that’s down is the one we can’t control; Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rounds
- What do we compare it to? Me vs. Me, Me vs. Mkt, Me vs. Mkt Peer Group, Me vs. Immediate Peer Group
As I’ll cover in my “California conversation”, there’s broader context for this scorecard and the work done to date to produce it. For a $25-$30B annual revenue industry (golf operations), we’re woefully behind in performance measurement via standard metrics, sample size and reliable, scheduled reporting. IMO this is driven by the combination of lack of technology/automated transfer, industry willpower/collaboration/leadership and a lack of understanding regarding the challenge, knowledge and skills to build and deploy something akin to Smith Travel Research for golf operations. While I won’t take all that on in this issue, I’ll start with what we’re doing in small-scale, manual mode and what it produces as the current “best-available” scorecard for golf operations nationally through June. If you’re interested in reading the “whole story”, you can start that journey (with this issue) one of three ways:
- Subscribe to the Pellucid Publications Membership for $495/yr (most comprehensive coverage & detail) – Annual subscribers get access to the following:
- Outside the Ropes monthly digital newsletter (including this issue for starters!)
- Annual State of the Industry report portfolio (PowerPoint presentation, PDF commentary report, access to Jim/Stuart video of presentation)
- Geographic Weather Impact Tracking (US, 45 regions, 61 markets) or Cognilogic for Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rounds for individual facilities
- National Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard (expanded data and tables underlying this issue’s summary figures)
- Subscribe to OtR, 12 monthly issues for $250/yr. Subscribers also get access to the historical archive of past issues (last two years) via the members-only section of the Pellucid website
- Subscribe to Golf Market Research Center (for operators wanting a combination of insights and action tools) – In addition to an OtR subscription (hence, this issue), you’ll get the State of the Industry presentation along with the full suite of Performance Tracking reports and weather impact services (Cognilogic for historical Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rds, Foresight for the 60-day forecast for your facility location for Capacity Rds and daily key weather forecast variables)
As always, samples of all our publications, reports and services are available on the Reports and Services pages of the Pellucid website. Thanks for your continued support as an OtR subscriber!
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