The Gradual Giveback is Underway: What Will the “New Normal” in ’22 look like for Rounds & Golfers?
The #1 question posed to Pellucid, as we enter the ’22 season riding high after a surprisingly strong ’21, is “what will be the new normal post-COVID for golf?” I recently was a guest on the Golf Business podcast with Jay Karen and Don Rea and I was surprised that this wasn’t near the top of their list but we were having a great and productive discussion around our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) performance tracking progress and why more owner/operators weren’t jumping on that service and insights. Since Jay & Don are both readers of OtR, this issue will close the loop on that and inform our other subscribers as to what our crystal ball looks like for ’22 which will be the next waypoint on our path to the “new normal.”
Those of you who read the last issue know that the answer to the question of “Can we sustain the COVID peak of golfers and rounds?” was “Likely not.” In this issue I’ll discuss and show the support for what the current glidepath to the post-COVID “new normal” might look like:
- Why can’t/aren’t we maintaining the COVID levels of rounds and golfers?
- Utilization is slowly descending from COVID’s lofty heights of 65%+ but we’re still significantly up vs. our pre-COVID trading range of 52-55%
- There is still time and activities we can do at facility-level to impact where we ultimately level-off in this phase of industry history
For our subscribers, I’ll get into the support and datapoints behind our likely ’22 descent. For our Executive Summary, non owner/operator readers, consider this an invitation to subscribe to the Pellucid Publications Membership for a modest investment of $495/yr (or you can now subscribe on the $45/mo payment plan). In addition to seeing the rest of the story for this issue and the next 11, you’ll also get our definitive State of the Industry suite (55 slide PowerPoint presentation) and the monthly Nat’l/Reg’l/Mkt Weather Impact tracker.
For all our owner/operator readers out there, in addition to the above, you can see all your comparative, weather-adjusted KPIs in one place at the end of every month by joining our merry little band of GMRC subscribers. More information can be obtained here and we’d be happy to provide referrals from one or more of our satisfied participants if needed to make the decision.
