Hello golf stakeholders:
It’s time for the 2nd major of the season to be contested but, as always, we’re focused on the industry of golf vs. the entertainment sector which graces Philadelphia this week (have to admit though that the LIV/PIF story has been entertaining since The Masters). In the golf operations sector, the majority of the country is now open for the season and, new this year, we’ll be tracking progress monthly via our National Essential 8 KPI Scorecard for our Publications Members and Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) subscribers. The 8 metrics are: Golf Revenue, Rounds Played, Avg. Rate/Rd, Capacity Rounds, % Utilization, Golf Revenue-per-Available Round, Avg. Peak WE Greens Fee (rate card changes) and % Effective Greens Fee (discount levels and change).
Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay leads this month sorting through the dizzying array and proliferation of AI applications and service providers. While Jim K. is playing around at harnessing AI to provide easy, accurate answers to macro questions about the golf consumer base, supply levels, rounds demand and revenue generation at the national and 200 markets level, Stuart is focusing initially on how AI will likely revolutionize Customer Franchise Analysis (CFA), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and, importantly, tracking the success of these efforts which has previously been the ultimate challenge. As Stuart explains for the umpteenth time over 20+ years, it all starts with tying customers to transactions in your PoS system; is yours/are you doing that?
Publisher Jim K. “runs the numbers” (channeling NPR’s Kyle Ryssdal’s Marketplace tagline) on the ’25 National Golfer Base Scorecard which is widely positive anchored by a net gain of >1M golfers and reaching the 27M mark for the first time since ’08 (but that was on a downward trajectory from the apex of 29M previously). The keys to the storyline are growth driven by increases in affluent golfers ($100K+), younger generations (25-44) and, unfortunately, in the Less Engageds (1-9 rds/yr) golfer cohort which now represents 58% of our golfer base.
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional April weather impact (nice national tailwind) to By-the-Numbers which provides the March and Year-to-Date results for Rounds (flat and up single-digits respectively) and Utilization (off fractionally, both rounds and weather impact being in our neutral range). We’ve already compiled the April golf operations performance scorecard “preview”, courtesy of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) early-responders, and the sneak peek suggests that Rounds will be up, following the national weather gain, which may or may not produce a Utilization gain depending on the size of the 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).
AI EATS WORLD
2 The AI Challenge: Figuring out the “right questions”
By Stuart Lindsay
GOLF CONSUMER BASE
6 ’25 Golfer Base Scorecard shows accelerated growth, generational shifts By Jim Koppenhaver
COMINGS & GOINGS
10 Slow month or lots of “secret activities”? (5 tracked, all Transactions/For Sale)
WEATHER IMPACT
12 Apr. “rains down” favorable national weather at +6%
BY-THE-NUMBERS
14 Mar. posts slight Utilization decline on flat rounds & weather impact
MARKET FOCUS
16 Dallas, TX weighs in at #24 helped by significant supply contraction
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 (http://www.pellucidcorp.com/news/elist) to join the discussion and healthy debate.
