The Pellucid Perspective - June 2016 - (Page 15)

THE LAST WORD Cracking the code on Millennials L ast month my wife and I, seeking to combine business (mine) with pleasure (mutual), attended the International Network of Golf (ING) Spring Conference in the beautiful Heber Valley area of Utah, a short hop from Park City. For those who may not be familiar with ING, it is a gathering venue for various golf industry stakeholders headed by Executive Director and veteran golf writer and publicist Mike Jamison, with a predominance of golf media and manufacturer representatives and a sprinkling of entrepreneurs and individual business people with products or services to sell to the golf industry or its customers. The conferences also include a healthy dose of golf, socializing and, of course, networking. This year's Spring event had the timely theme of "Bridging Golf 's Generation Gap," with particular emphasis on ways to engage golf 's largely missing Millennials demographic. One educational session featured a discussion on the characteristics and preferences of the 18-34 Millennial age group and another consisted of representatives from companies such as TopGolf, 18 Birdies and SNAG Golf who are already bridging the gap to some degree by targeting Millennials or in SNAG's case, their children. The prevailing themes of both were that Millennials are more interested in experiences than "things," more interested in having fun than serious competition, and that the use of technology and social media will increasingly be the best way to engage them and their friends in golf. There were some interesting statistics cited by various panelists, some informative, some believable and others not so much. One in particular caught my attention, quoted by the operations director for the recently opened TopGolf facility in Salt Lake City. There has been considerable discussion regarding the role of the phenomenally successful and rapidly growing TopGolf enterprise in growing the game of golf; a recently formed strategic partnership between the PGA and LPGA Tours and TopGolf included as one of its goals a variety of competitions and promotions designed to bring more people to the game. The Salt Lake executive, Dana Berlin, a fearless soul who prefaced this and other statements with the disclaimer that he'd probably get in trouble for mentioning it (to a room full of golf writers!), said that a survey contracted by TopGolf had indicated that a whopping 24 percent (of over 13M TopGolf customers to date) had either played actual www.PellucidCorp.com golf after first visiting a TopGolf facility or were planning to. Guess if that's true, golf 's lost a lot more players out the back door than we thought, if TopGolf has propelled over 3M through the front door! And if you buy that, call me about a bridge I have for sale. Worth the gamble? An April Bloomberg News article revealed that the PGA Tour has sent out RFPs to a variety of data licensing and gambling technology companies, reportedly seeking to get in on the online gambling mecca so successfully mined by companies like FanDuel and others, pending further legislative and legal actions. When word got out, commentary began popping up decrying the idea, with opponents theorizing that the influence of unscrupulous gambling entities might lead to a Tour contender blocking a drive out of bounds at a critical juncture or missing a crucial putt. I suppose that could conceivably happen, but with the life-changing impact of a first-time Tour win or a major victory, it's hard to imagine that a gambling site could offer enough of an inducement to cause that untimely shank or yip. Of course for conspiracy theorists, there's always the possibility of some miscreant threatening a golfer's health or family if they don't go in the tank, but surely that's unlikely? The Tour's interest in gambling can't help but bring to mind Old Lefty himself. It becomes increasingly apparent that Phil Mickelson has a gambling problem. For the second time in recent months, he has been in the news for his involvement with gamblers and gambling, first with professional gambler and golf course owner Billy Walters over an insider trading charge by the SEC against Walters that Mickelson apparently made nearly $1M on (some of which reportedly went back to Walters to pay off Mickelson's golf gambling losses to Walters), and recently for a money laundering scheme by a go-between who reportedly channeled funds from Mickelson through his own account and then on to an offshore gambling site. It should be noted that Mickelson has not been charged in either case, perhaps yet in the latter, but at some point Phil might want to acknowledge that he's better off sticking to his own profession rather than trying to beat professional gamblers at theirs. Oh, well, as long as they don't mess with my $5 Nassau on Saturdays. -Jim Dunlap Guess if that's true, golf's lost a lot more players out the back door than we thought, if TopGolf has propelled over 3M through the front door! The Pellucid PersPecTive 15 http://www.PellucidcorP.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - June 2016

TOC
Fair warning to clubs and courses on classifying workers
This SNAG is growing the game, not distracting it
Benchmarking key to industry progress, but needs more components
PGA TOUR leapfrogs golf industry in applying analysis to improve performance
May golf weather impact: Flat nationally; April utilization gains
Minneapolis high on golfers, even higher on courses
Cracking the code on Millennials

The Pellucid Perspective - June 2016