Dear Golf Industry Professional:
With Labor Day in the rearview mirror, the PGA TOUR yielding to college & professional football (AKA the early/silly season) and shorter days with cooler temps here in the north, the 2019 golf season is winding down. This month’s Perspective is headlined by Publisher Jim K’s (intentionally) provocative question of, “Is fun golf’s most compelling calling card?” This aligns nicely, both in thinking and timing, with a recent Golf WRX article by Barney Adams basically asserting that, for the average golfer and non-golfer alike, fun is not likely in the Top 10 answers (cue Richard Dawson & Family Feud) for the topic of “Words people use to describe golf.” To get Jim’s treatment on the topic of what might be better calling cards and pairing that up with improved onboarding programs, click on the link below:
September Perspective
In addition, our September dose of edutainment covers the following topics:
• Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay keeps you up to date on the constant state of flux in technology providers, acquisitions, alliances etc. and suggests that, no matter who thrives/survives/dies, it’s ultimately up to the owner/operators to figure out how to deploy that technology for fun and profit. Not surprisingly for Stuart, his candid advice is that none of it is “fire-and-forget” and benefit is currently largely being realized by those who put in the effort to leverage that technology and refine tactics annually by tracking results
• Contributing Writer Harvey Silverman follows his August success story (Brevard County, FL) with the flip side of Duluth MN where the city is agonizing over whether to downsize its golf portfolio by 9 or 18 holes (in a market that, by Pellucid metrics, is over-supplied by 23% or 116 holes). In an attempt to light a candle vs. cursing the darkness, he brings in examples from other cities and towns in the US where the municipality is retreating on golf and creative 3rd parties and financing are springing up to come to the rescue(?).
• Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including the August weather impact results and the July YtD Utilization. We also chart the monthly timeseries for the year of Golf Playable Hours and Utilization while our Market Focus spotlight of the Top 25 US Golf Markets falls on Tampa Bay, FL the 18th healthiest market by our proprietary, multi-dimensional scorecard. Rounding out the issue, our Comings & Goings section catalogues, classifies and comments on 11 activities during the past month which is highlighted by 4 (former) GolfNow clients that threw in the towel since our last accounting in the August issue
We recognize and thank our continuing sponsors; Troon Golf, EZLinks Golf and KemperSports. For all those service providers and suppliers to the golf industry out there with the latest-and-greatest to offer to the industry thought-leaders who read our monthly publication, might we suggest considering joining our merry little band through our most popular 12-month sponsorship program? (offered at an improved value relative to our entry-level six month sponsorship rate) Twelve-month sponsors also receive all Pellucid industry-standard reports (State of the Industry, Outside the Ropes, Monthly Weather Impact Tracking (Nat’l, Reg’l, Markets), Top 25 US Golf Markets Scorecard and National Golf Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard). Sponsorship provides monthly exposure to approximately 30K industry leaders and followers and associates your brand with Pellucid’s effort to expand intelligent thinking on today’s most challenging industry issues. For more “opportunistic” spenders, we might suggest one of our smaller-bite Ad Partner programs for those who may not be able to make a 6 or 12-month commitment (as short as 3 months are now available) or who may not need a half page or more exposure (quarter pages now available). If you’re interested in knowing more about sponsorship opportunities or our ad partner options, contact Publisher Jim Koppenhaver (847.808.7651, jim@pellucidcorp.com).
If you know of associates who would benefit from the topics and insights covered in this issue, feel free to forward this email and encourage them to register on the Pellucid website (www.pellucidcorp.com/news/elist) to join the conversation, discussion and debate.
We also continue to spread the word on Pellucid’s next-generation golf course database, the Internet Golf Course Database (IGDB) with partners Apparation LLC, Never-Search and GolfCourseRanking.com which now offers annual subscriptions for <$5K (that’s a compelling value!). IGDB now powers Pellucid’s Golf Local Market Analyzer and has added functionality to our project work like being able to tally and profile course closures within key US markets over time. While no database will ever be 100% accurate, we continue to be surprised at the quantity and range of inconsistencies in course directories out there as well as the fact that most of the major tee time providers and recommendation sites (like GolfAdvisor) are propagating these phantom facilities and errors 5-10-fold for people doing Google searches online. Talk about an “echo chamber”… For more information on our comprehensive database, updated quarterly and refreshed completely every 9 months (all 15K+ US courses), email support@theigdb.com.