Hello golf stakeholders:
The first month of golf rounds’ “core tertile” (4 consecutive months of May-Aug which represent nearly 50% of rounds played historically) is now in the rearview mirror and the rounds and golf revenue held up well vs. the elevated base of ‘22. Our readers and followers know that this has been weather-aided success but a win’s a win as far as golfers-across-grass and green in the till go.
Looking ahead to the key months of Jun-Jul, Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay does some 2nd level math and analysis on Pellucid’s proprietary 60-day Capacity Rounds forecast to help you understand whether the favorability will hold, increase or decrease (hint, it’s the middle choice). Can you say 15M more capacity rounds in Jun-Jul than in ’22 for the US? For extra credit, he also did the Canada calculation and they’re forecast to see a 5M Capacity Rounds windfall (Don Mackay keeps advocating for not forgetting our northern neighbors).
Publisher Jim K. takes his nose out of the numbers this month to ask the rhetorical question of whether the (completely) unexpected merger of the PGA TOUR, LIV and the PIF will actually do anything to improve the fortunes of stakeholders in what he defines as the Play sector (read the article for the definition) or for the good of ordinary golfers or for the LPGA and increasing golf’s gender diversity. The obvious answer is “no” but he does outline a course of action that the PGA TOUR Commissioner could consider to create his own variety of sportswashing; actually committing to and investing in a strategic plan and program concepts that would have tracking and accountability and, possibly, actually grow the Play sector which is the largest revenue contributor to the industry (who knew?).
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional May weather impact map to Comings & Goings (always entertaining commentary). We’ve already compiled the May rounds “preview”, courtesy of our GMRC subscribers, and it suggests that we’ll see rounds and revenue up but not as much as Capacity Rounds which will translate to another slight decline in Utilization. If you want to know those numbers on a regular basis, you can either participate in GMRC.
