PGA SHOW - THE GOLF BUSINESS 2015
What a game! Regardless of who you were rooting for, Sunday's Super Bowl was pretty exciting.
Last week, most of us were probably rooting for Erik Compton win the Humana Challenge. Unfortunately, Compton started poorly and couldn't quite catch up. Nevertheless, what an inspiration he is.
Just back last week from the annual PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, I'm often asked what attendance was like. It seems to depend on who you talk to and some judge the health of the game by this. For the time I was on the floor it seemed at times busy and at others not so busy. Among other meetings and activities, I attended the Pellucid "State of the Industry" presentation by Jim Koppenhaver and Stuart Lindsey.
While I find Pellucid's "macro" perspective of interest, I always think back to the NGF's days in the early 90's touting that we needed "a course a day" to meet demand. Problem is that I don't believe (especially in the case of golf facilities) that there is one big national or global golf market. Just like "all politics is local" golf markets are much more "micro" and defined, and some of the broader statistics can be misleading when applied to a specific market, submarket or property.
Of particular interest were the following conclusions:
- 3.5% of public rounds are being bartered
- Even though rounds were down 1.5% in 2014 according to Pellucid (PGA Perfromance Track says they were up 1%), PGA Performance Track projects a 3% increase in gross revenue in 2015, driven largely by Food & Beverage.
- By Pellucid calculation, utilization in 2014 was 52% of course capacity. Desired rate more like 58-59%.
- US golf participation now at 8% after net loss of 1 million golfers in 2014.
