Hello golf stakeholders:
Well, another season is now in the books for the northern climes and the counter-seasonal markets are gearing up for what should be a “near-normal” migration pattern as “pandemic” continues its evolution to “endemic”. Golf’s continuing challenge/opportunity is that we thrived in “pandemicland” vs. pre-pandemic so will “endemicland’ look more like back-to-normal or remain elevated? Stuart Lindsay’s lead article suggests that will depend on your ability to identify customers, understand their play patterns & value to your facility and then extending that into relevant messaging to key groups. He outlines technology evolutions that are making that more possible and catching up to Edgehill/Pellucid’s Customer Franchise Analysis capabilities that have been historically handicapped by lagging PoS capabilities. Publisher Jim Koppenhaver, meanwhile, outlines the solid success of the ’22 season and asks, “Where are all the cheerleaders when you need them?” The answer is they don’t have visibility into the success metrics and the rounds results alone, in the absolute, don’t been world-beating. That’s why the Golf Market Research Center (GMRC) exists and it’s doing its job (on a small scale)
See below for the headlines for each of our recurring sections from By-the-Numbers to Comings & Goings (always entertaining commentary). We’ve already compiled the October rounds “preview”, courtesy of our GMRC subscribers, and it suggests that we’ll again get a slight “up” on Utilization with modestly higher demand against flat weather. 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).