After 20+ years in this industry, I see signs that golf is (slowly) closing the technology development and application gap vs. more mature industries. There are several evolving factors enabling that progress: The industry is financially healthier than in the past 15 years leading up to COVID, there is more diversity of thought and talent through increasing non-industry immigration (i.e. fewer of the “golf industry lifers” that dominated when I entered) and technology advances such as more universal broadband availability which opens up cloud applications and golf joining the “digital economy.” On the flip side, we’re still handicapped in the pace of tech advancement by, again in my opinion, our slow adoption method and curve (course-by-course, scaling from 1 to 3 to 10 courses in successive years which “starves” innovators and their capital) and our collective inability to make intelligent decisions distinguishing between leading and bleeding technology applications.
In this issue I’ll provide general observations on what’s currently available as examples of golf technologies that are leading vs. bleeding and some framework for distinguishing between the two. Hopefully we can collectively apply this thinking to accelerate our collective technology advantage to close the gap sooner to other industries that are benefitting from higher tech maturity:
- Leading – things that reduce “friction” in current processes and don’t require significant and widespread “upskilling” of current resources to successful implement it (i.e. assembly-line workers becoming supervisors of robotics)
- Bleeding – noble outcomes backed by great theory but fail at the fundamental questions of “What would I do with that and how would I commercially benefit?” (like driver-autonomous steering in current cars/trucks so you can clap to “We Will Rock You” by Queen while driving)
- Faux – new purveyors of gadgets, services and goods which have nothing to do with technology and offer absolutely nothing new but their press releases incorporate every buzzword of innovation and technology to convince you otherwise (we’ll have a “guess-the-tech” game here, I’ll provide you with an abstract from the 2 press releases, you try and guess what they’re actually selling)
I’ll close with my opinion on why the “eternal incremental” adoption model of technology discourages innovation and cost-efficiency and creates a “laggard loop” for industries with no rapid-scaling capability or history (you get providers with marginal brainpower and skills (examples too numerous to cite) or are simply irrationally stubborn (see “Pellucid”)). Hopefully we can have some fun with this potentially touchy topic though I’m sure I’m going to offend some number of readers, service providers, operators or industry veterans (I think that covers about everyone). If I can at least save a few of the industry stakeholders who run businesses the time and expense of chasing bleeding edge technology and channeling those resources into more rapidly deciding on and scaling the leading edge tech, then I’ll hopefully have made my small contribution to the industry tech adoption acceleration.
Subscribers, keep scrolling down to get the supporting facts and insights while everyone else can get in on the conversation one of three ways:
- Subscribe to the comprehensive Pellucid Publications Membership for $495/yr or $45/mo (annual term), subscribers get access to the following:
- Outside the Ropes monthly digital newsletter
- Annual State of the Industry report portfolio (75-slide PowerPoint presentation plus online access to Jim/Stuart Orlando presentation video)
- Geographic Weather Impact Tracking (US, 45 regions, 61 markets) or Cognilogic for Golf Playable Hours/Capacity Rounds for individual facilities
- National Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard (expanded data and tables underlying this issue’s summary figures)
- Subscribe to OtR, 12 monthly issues for $250/yr or $25/mo (annual term), with a money-back guarantee if you’re not satisfied at any time during your subscription. Subscribers also get access to the historical archive of past issues (last two years) via the members-only section of the Pellucid website
- Subscribe to Golf Market Research Center (for operators wanting a combination of insights and action tools) – Here’s what’s included in the current “promo package” for either $500 annual or $450 for NGCOA members (or $45/mo or $41/mo respectively):
- Full suite of Performance Tracking reports – Market profile, comparative trends report and 7 KPI scorecard for any month and Year-to-Date for data provided by facility
- Facility-level Cognilogic historical weather impact portal/reports access, Golf Playable Hours & Capacity Rounds by day in current month, by months in current year and by day-of-week in current year with comparisons to Year Ago and the 10-Yr Norm
- Facility-level Foresight 60-day Capacity Rounds forecast, select forecast weather elements (hi/lo temp, daily precip etc.), variance to last year and long-term Normal. Not infallible but better than guessing or trying to collect all that yourself and organize it manually…
- Outside the Ropes monthly e-newsletter (consider this a sample of topics and treatments)
- State of the Industry Presentation, PowerPoint presentation slides of quantitative results and qualitative trends-to-watch as well access to 90-minute PGA Show presentation video
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