The Pellucid Perspective - June 2020 - 7

INDUSTRY ISSUES

ENTERTAINMENT

R E C R E AT I O N

Why Doesn't Charity Begin at Home
in Golf Industry?
Is the sport of golf the only thing the "planets"
of Entertainment and Recreation share?
By Jim Koppenhaver

T

wo industry events playing out simultaneously a few weeks
ago made me stop and think about the dichotomy in our
"industry." On the one hand, we were in the midst of what
I'm hopeful was the nadir of economic impact on golf from government shut-downs of courses covering >50% of facilities in
the US. I'm talking about, "Don't even think of opening those
doors" and, in some number of geographies, "Don't bring in the
landscapers either" (not my words, that was one of the mayors of
a major US city quoted in an article; I attempted to email and
inform him that we have superintendents and groundskeepers,
not "landscapers"). On the other hand, the press, buildup and
golf media buildup for The Match II was surging and taking on
a life of its own like the fate of nations would be decided on that
epic Sunday.
As proof that I wasn't the only person noticing this stereoscopic view of the industry, Adam Schupak also penned (pecked
since we're now all-digital all-the-time) an article that borrowed
a Jay Karen (CEO of the National Golf Course Owners Association) analogy of our industry being of two planets: Hollywood and Humility, from an NGF symposium presentation
Jay had done years previously I learned. While I didn't really get
the mixing of the metaphor between glitz and glamour and a
human emotional trait, I've long told any inquiring general media reporter that to understand our industry one has to first understand that there's the golf media element (corporations and
associations) and then what I call the golf operations element

WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM

(course owner/operators and the various companies that support
those generally Small-Medium Sized Businesses, often lovingly
referred to as SMBs). In my (humble) opinion, about the only
thing they share is that their business models revolve around the
sport of golf. So my "planets" are Entertainment (media) and
Recreation (operations).
The fact that they're different planets helps explain why, a
month ago, planet Entertainment was in orbit staging a highprofile, star-studded event for a tremendous cause (COVID relief ) with television exposure (2M+ viewers according to most
tallies) and likely broader sports fans appeal given that it was
pretty much the "only game in town" for live sports for that
weekend. That's all on the good side of the ledger for golf, justice
and the American way. In another orbit was planet Recreation
inhabited largely by SMB owners and operators whose financial
health is somewhere on the other side of the galaxy from planet
Entertainment. In Adam's article, he cited GolfNow research
fielded in April among their client courses that referenced 27%
of the 1,300 respondents said their course could not go more
than 30 days without suffering "irreparable damage" followed by
50% saying they could weather a 1-3 month "storm" and the remainder (22% for the mathematically inclined or anal-retentive
variety, I count myself in both groups) saying they could ride
out a storm of >3 months on zero revenue. This is directionally
aligned with the hundreds of courses over the years that Stuart
Lindsay and I have worked with in various projects where we
THE PELLUCID PERSPECTIVE

7
http://WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM
The Pellucid Perspective - June 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - June 2020
