News
Strength in Numbers PART 2
9/1/2005
Rounds Flat, Revenues Up
The benchmarking initiative wasn't the only topic discussed at the Multi-Course Owners Retreat. Leaders from various sectors of the golf industry reported on trends directly affecting the golf operation, with plenty of good news on the health of the industry.
The consensus among the top 15 golf operators was that golf rounds were down in the first quarter of 2005, which was almost completely related to poor weather, especially heavy rains in California. The large operators reported that rounds were trending up in the second quarter.
"The pockets of distress around the country were the West, Southwest and the Northeast from heavy rain," Hinton reported. "The Midwest and Texas did fairly well. The good news was that revenue was nearly universally up with America's top 15 largest operators reporting average revenue increases from 2 to 5 percent (over the same period for 2004)."
Retail Trends
On-course golf ball sales, which correlate with rounds played, were up in early 2005, according to Golf Datatech's retail market sales research. "Overall through the first five months, virtually every category of hard good golf product was also up for 2005," Stine said. "Wood sales were up tremendously in the first quarter. The only flat category was putter sales."
Diminishing pro shops sales are often a concern for course owners. Stine said his company's data shows a "dramatic lose of retail business in iron sales from the on-course market to off-course market. This is an enigma in the golf industry. Since every golfer has to pass through an on-course golf shop to play the game, why are these (pro shops) losing business to off-course shops?"
Stine encouraged course owners with small pro shops to stay the course."“You can compete with the off-course shops," he said. "It is possible to compete. You can't carry all the brands with a limited amount space, but you can carry the leading brands. We can tell you the top-selling brands, just focus on these. You don't have to lose this business."
