Hello golf stakeholders:
After all the excitement(?) of the Ryder Cup, now all we have to look forward to between now and the close of the year is the triumphant return of the Skins Game (yawn) and…the sophomore season of what’s being titillatingly marketed as TGL Season 2 (double yawn). For our core audience, the three most top-of-mind activities are the health of the Fall shoulder season (northern climes), the start to the counter-seasonal markets’ peak season and calendar year ’26 strategy and planning (everyone).
Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay leads again this month looking at the current proliferation of technology advances and options from the perspective of one who’s lived through 25+ years of change in this industry. He just finished a trip to Frisco as an invitee to the Tee Time Summit and then stayed on to see the quantity and quality of current thinking around tech and golf course operations in this year’s edition of TechCon hosted by the NGCOA. We’re going to guess that he’ll be covering that in his November Perspective contribution and, as always, it’s likely to be both entertaining and enlightening to hear his 1st-party take.
Publisher Jim K. similarly brings his message as an attendee at last month’s Golf Inc’s Strategy Summit 2025 where he both moderated a State of the Industry panel as well as attended sessions on a wide range of topics relevant to owner/operators. One interesting observation this year was there were 4 sessions relating to technology, data management and insights and all of those (concurrent) sessions were well-attended. That’s gotta’ be a first in his 20+ years of “the circuit.” His article this month however observes and opines that the relatively recent transition in multi-course golf management to private equity funding presents both opportunity and risk for the business model. He outlines what external forces and likelihoods lie on each side of that equation.
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional September weather impact (up! 2nd consecutive month) to By-the-Numbers which provides the August and Year-to-Date results for Rounds (modest up) and Utilization (also up). We’ve already compiled the September golf operations performance scorecard “preview”, courtesy of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) early-responders, and the sneak peek suggests that Rounds will continue to follow weather upward and match or exceed it producing another month of Utilization gain. 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).
GOLF OPERATIONS TECHNOLOGY
2 As tech stack choices multiply, integrating/automating tools is still the key By Stuart Lindsay
GOLF COURSE MANAGEMENT
6 Many 3rd party management companies have tricky navigation ahead By Jim Koppenhaver
COMINGS & GOINGS
10 Activity still scant (7 tracked); opens offset by closures for the month
WEATHER IMPACT
12 Sep. delivers second month of gain at +4% GPH, Year-to-Date still negative (-3%)
BY-THE-NUMBERS
14 Aug. Utilization bounces back at +2 pts, Year-to-Date erodes slightly to +3 pts
MARKET FOCUS
16 Corpus Christi, TX surprises in 2-way tie for #16 (with Boise, ID) in market strength ranking
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