The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 6
MYTHBUSTERS
What Causes Growth in Golfer Base?
3 Myths Explored
By Jim Koppenhaver
A
s the acknowledged industry fact-checker among my business
colleague network, I get weekly comments or observations
that these folks see in print or hear in conversation
asking, " Is that right or supported by any facts? " The latest one
was a podcast interviewer " sportsplaining " to my colleague that
the current growth in the golfer base hasn't been experienced since
the " Tiger Boom " . My colleague has previously heard, multiple
times and from both Stuart Lindsay and I, that Tiger's success far
outlasted and outshined the change in golf participation at the
peak of his career and offered that as feedback in his interview. It
got me thinking though that it would be a great topic for a future
article to fact-check a couple of previously-held industry beliefs
and how they (f)actually turned out.
Since I opened with the Tiger boom, let's start there. To figure
out Tiger's impact on the sport of golf (participation & rounds are
our preferred metrics), it takes a little digging and we'll have to
merge pre-Pellucid industry figures ('96-02) with when we started
tracking those measures independent of the (primarily) industry
trade associations ('03-'06). For the rounds metric, the period pre'99
is questionable as industry trade associations were using consumer
survey prior to Golf Datatech launching the first, facilityreported
rounds tracking in '99 (according to their website and
our compilation of information pre-dating our industry entrance
6 The Pellucid PersPecTive
in '01). Below is our version of the Tiger Effect scorecard prior to
his car/career crash in '07:
*
There was a correlation between Tiger's rise-to-stardom
and golf participation to the tune of ~1.6M golfers over
that decade or an annual impact of just over one-half of
one percent (not a world-beating number but, hey, he
was just one guy moving the national needle)
* We also saw an increase in rounds of ~60M or an
annual rate ~1.3% which suggests, when compared to
the impact on the golfer base, Tiger likely actually had
more of an impact on getting existing golfers to play at
a higher frequency than attracting new bodies. There is
however the diversity angle though that the new bodies
he brought were more diverse than our previous, pretty
much single flavor of vanilla recreational (and country
club) golfer
August 2024
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024
TOC
ADA website accessibility: shakedown for golf ahead?
3 industry myths on golfer base growth explored
Thin activity (10) continues, mostly lateral movement (Transactions/Listings)
July delivers setback with GPH -4%, Year-to-Date unchanged at -3%
Jun Utilization jumps (+6 pts), Year-to-Date also positive at +2 pts
Tucson, AZ: Surprising showing as the #3 strongest golf market in the US
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - TOC
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - ADA website accessibility: shakedown for golf ahead?
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 3 industry myths on golfer base growth explored
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 4
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 5
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 6
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 7
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 8
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 9
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - Thin activity (10) continues, mostly lateral movement (Transactions/Listings)
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 11
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - July delivers setback with GPH -4%, Year-to-Date unchanged at -3%
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 13
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - Jun Utilization jumps (+6 pts), Year-to-Date also positive at +2 pts
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 15
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - Tucson, AZ: Surprising showing as the #3 strongest golf market in the US
The Pellucid Perspective - August 2024 - 17
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