Volume 24 Issue 04
’25 Golfer base panorama:
Growth accelerates powered by generational shifts
We’ve just finished sorting through the ’25 update on golf participation via our partnership with the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA) and their annual survey of all-sports participation dating back to 1985. Over the years we’ve developed and refined a series of transformations of their annual raw survey results for the sport of golf which then becomes our annual report on participation, play, play dynamics, demographics, involvement and churn. The headline is that last year’s results are largely positive highlighted by a gain in participants (>1.5M golfers), an accelerated growth rate (+7%) and a generational shift (younger) taking some pressure off the Baby Boomers to carry the industry on their (aging) shoulders.
Once again, our April OtR issue will “run the numbers” for subscribers answering the following key questions:
- What were the “summary numbers” (golfers, rounds, participation/frequency/play rate), how did they compare to ’24 and is the multi-year trend accelerating or decelerating?
- Which demographic groups, within gender, age & income, saw growth or decline compared to ‘24?
- Across those demographic variables, which select groups drove gains in ’25, using the metric share-of-golfers point change, and what’s the storyline for those shifts?
Much to our continued amazement, the growth in the US golfer base continues post-COVID (notching gains in every year of at least 700K, the cume figures are in the full article) even though we haven’t cracked the code on any of the consumer survey-based (ad nauseum) barriers to either taking up the game or playing more frequently of time, money or skill; go figure. As we’ve often said however, our job is to report, not create, the news and the figures are carrying us upward. For our subscribers, keep scrolling down to get the supporting facts and insights. For everyone else, you can get the rest of the story one of three ways:
- Subscribe to the comprehensive Pellucid Publications Membership for $495/yr or $45/mo (annual term), subscribers get access to the following:
- Outside the Ropes monthly digital newsletter
- Annual State of the Industry report & video (75-slide PowerPoint presentation plus online access to Jim/Stuart Orlando presentation video)
- Geographic Weather Impact Tracking (US, 45 regions, 61 markets) or Cognilogic for daily/monthly 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 or $25/mo (annual term), with a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied at any time during your subscription. 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 the Golf Market Research Center (for operators wanting a combination of insights and action tools) – Here’s what’s included in an annual GMRC subscription for either $500 annual or $450 for NGCOA members (or $45/mo or $41/mo respectively):
- Full suite of Performance Tracking reports – Market profile, comparative trends report and 7 KPI scorecard for any month and Year-to-Date for data provided by facility
- Facility-level Cognilogic historical weather impact portal/reports access, Golf Playable Hours & Capacity Rounds by day in current month, by months in current year and by day-of-week in current year with comparisons to Year Ago and the 10-Yr Norm
- Facility-level Foresight 60-day Capacity Rounds forecast, select forecast weather elements (hi/lo temp, daily precip etc.), variance to last year and long-term Normal. Not infallible but better than guessing or trying to collect all that yourself and organize it manually…
- Outside the Ropes monthly e-newsletter (consider this a sample of topics and treatments)
- State of the Industry Presentation, report & video (75-slide PowerPoint presentation plus online access to Jim/Stuart Orlando presentation video)
To learn more:
- Click here for 2-page program overview or
- 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)
- Click here to subscribe for a single facility
- Email us for multiple facilities or special situations
As always, samples of all our publications, reports and services are available on the Reports and Services pages of the Pellucid website.
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