Welcome to quarter four of the calendar year which, for us in the northern climes, means great Fall golf and, for warmer weather destinations, the beginning of their tourist season. Beyond the Perspective facts and figures in each issue, our Publications subscribers and Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) participants have seen the August FINAL report of the Essential 8 KPI scorecard covering: 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); see below for links if you want to join that merry band of outlaws, “be in the know”, have exclusive visibility to weather-adjusted metrics (Utilization and GRevpAR) and the critical revenue/pricing results for the month and Year-to-Date.
Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay leads with Part II on his assessment of the growing simulator golf sector and the hurdle rates for successful retail and on-premise installations (the Utilization figure needed is likely lower than you think). The other current tailwind for simulator golf is the current high Utilization for green grass is potentially creating an “overflow” situation (for certain times and within select markets) which simulator golf is happy to fill.
Publisher Jim K. takes a look at a subset of the 2026 golf course transactions outlined in a recent industry report to determine if there are current biases in purchases by investment levels and Pellucid-defined facility types (Premium, Value, Price). That partial view of the buy/sell market suggests that Premium Performing assets are the current favorite but he points out there’s a limited supply of them and it’s waning. The obvious follow-up question is “What happens when this pool is drained?” Do buyers shift and start looking for “value plays” or do they go to the sidelines and the industry digests the 100-200 transactions of the past 2 years?
See below for the headlines to each of our recurring sections from the regional September weather impact (3rd consecutive down month) to By-the-Numbers which provides the August and Year-to-Date results for Rounds (down and slightly up respectively) and Utilization (both fractionally 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 again follow the month’s weather decline; the key metric of Utilization will tell us whether it results in an outperform or underperform. 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).
DIGITAL GOLF
2 Digital golf revenue & profit math is compelling if done right
By Stuart Lindsay
BUY/SELL TRENDS & PATTERNS
6 Investors currently prefer Private & Premium Performing assets, what comes next in ’27?
By Jim Koppenhaver
COMINGS & GOINGS
10 8 Activities led by Transactions but 3 “plants” add to supply
WEATHER IMPACT
12 September posts 3rd consecutive decline at -8%, YtD slips into negative territory
BY-THE-NUMBERS
14 August Utilization up marginally, YtD “threatens” +1 pt
MARKET FOCUS
16 Myrtle Beach SC weighs in at #30 in Golf Market Strength; slimmed supply since ’15 has helped
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