Some signs point to health in golf business
The complaints seem to be everywhere, the signs way too ominous. Golf is in a decline. Participation is down and courses are closing. The game is too expensive and takes too much time to play. Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy had to go find new equipment because Nike stopped making clubs. New courses are sprouting about as often as day lilies in the desert.
The game is spiraling downward, perhaps even stuck in a black hole, the detractors claim. Perhaps. But, while those factors are indeed evident, they don’t seem to accurately reflect what is going on with the game and the people who play it.
Sure, courses have been closing and participation is not at the high-water mark the game enjoyed in the early 1990s when new courses were mushrooming in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere. But what has happened is courses are now seeing a return to the level the game enjoyed before the 1990s explosion, with rounds slowly on the increase and people enjoying golf on and, yes, off the course.
“We’ve really been holding steady with rounds the past couple years,” said Travis Lindsay, owner of Birdsfoot Golf Club in Freeport. “And people seem to buying more additional things when they’re here, spending more money and hanging around longer. I notice they’re less sensitive and we don’t have to do as much to entice people to come.”
Birdsfoot had 32,041 rounds in 2017, slightly fewer than the previous year when the course did 32,428 rounds. But Lindsay said they had their best year financially because they didn’t have to discount their rounds to get people to play. Birdsfoot’s best year for participation was 2015 when they had 33,842 rounds, but that was when the club used the GolfNow online booking agency that bartered rounds and offered drastically reduced prices.
Birdsfoot highest rate is $59 on weekends, but they offer lower prices and online specials during the week.
“Not only were they getting those trade rounds, but everyone was looking at golf as a commodity and not at a particular experience they were getting,” Lindsay said. “If you can give golfers a good experience, they’re willing to pay for it through good conditions and a nice layout. It’s exciting to play here. We’ve seen that response in the past couple years.”
Olde Stonewall Golf Club in Ellwood City charges the highest greens fee for a non-resort course in Western Pennsylvania — $75 to $100 per round out of season, $150 in-season (May 1-Oct. 5) — but golf professional Sean Swidzinski said participation has been on the increase the past five years. Olde Stonewall had approximately 16,500 rounds in 2017.
“At least from our small segment in what we do, we’re seeing the game definitely growing,” Swidzinski said. “Where we’re seeing a big portion of growth is with the young players. Our junior clinics and family memberships continue to grow.”
While the numbers of people who played golf on a real course fell to 23.8 million nationally in 2016 — the lowest ever recorded in the Tiger Woods era — the National Golf Foundation is beginning to look at the bigger picture in terms of growth: People who might be interested in golf but not necessarily playing on a real course.
That includes those who go to driving ranges, play on simulators, or the latest craze, TopGolf, a golf entertainment complex with food and drink that is coming soon to the South Fayette/ Bridgeville region. According to the NGF’s 2017 report, the number of off-course golf participants grew to more than 20 million, an 11-percent increase. Of those, 8.2 million never played on a golf course.
“Green-grass golf participation remains an essential measure of golf’s vitality, and we will continue to measure and report on it the way we always have,” NGF president and CEO Joe Beditz said in the report. “But we decided it was time to add offcourse participation in order to track the dynamic growth we have seen there, and which we believe will continue.”
Another sign of golf’s growth: The number of so-called “committed golfers” grew for the second year in a row, to 20.1 million golfers. Committed golfers are described as those who call golf either their favorite activity or one of several.
“I don’t know if more people are playing more rounds, or, on the younger side it’s definitely new players,” Swidzinski said. “But it seems like our rounds in terms of numbers continue to go up last couple years.”
King’s cause
Betsy King, who won 34 times on the LPGA Tour, including six majors, never dreamed she’d be traveling so many times to Africa in retirement.
But she made her 18th trip to the continent last week as part of her non-profit, Golf Fore Africa, which raises money to improve water conditions and bring clean water to African nations.
“I didn’t envision in my later life I’d be going to Africa as much as I have,” King said over the phone.
King will host a fundraiser clinic and dinner May 20 at Diamond Run Golf Club that also includes former LPGA Tour players Missie Berteotti of Upper St. Clair and Kristy McPherson and World Golf Hall of Famer Carol Semple Thompson. Tickets are $100 and available at the Golf Fore Africa website.
King became involved with fundraising after she and other LPGA Tour players went to Rawanda and Zambia with World Vision in 2006. She was so moved by the experience she decided to get involved with World Vision to help bring clean water and better water systems to Africa.