Enjoying an upswing
Pandemic brought about the game’s resurgence in 2020 and trend continues in 2021
Jim Richerson began his two-year stint as PGA of America president during as tense and tumultuous a time as anyone holding the post in 100 years.
Richerson also assumed the organization’s reins last fall when golf rarely was better positioned for success.
While the coronavirus pandemic raged in 2020, golf experienced a resurgence. The loss of lives, livelihoods and familiar lifestyles exacted a toll on every corner of the United States.
Golf emerged from the shadows quickly. Before long, the sport was front and center.
“Our golf professionals are as busy as ever,” Richerson said.
Rounds played in the U.S. fell by 42% during April 2020 compared with a year earlier. By year’s end, rounds were up nearly 14% annually, according to U.S. Golf Datatech. More than 502 million rounds were recorded, the most since 2007 — prior to the housing-market collapse and ensuing economic recession.
The trend has continued in 2021 as lockdowns have been lifted, vaccines are increasingly distributed and businesses continue to open up and loosen restrictions.
“It’s a safe, peaceful activity,” said Michael Bowery, director of golf at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills. “Once people got comfortable just leaving their houses —— some weren’t, but those who got comfortable going out — we started seeing a lot of golf happening.
“It started to build and build and build.”
The game’s decision-makers and course operators now push to turn golf ’s revival into a renaissance for a sport mired in a long-standing decline prior to COVID-19 emergence. Rounds played were down for 13 straight years prior to 2020.
“What’s currently existing, anybody who thinks it’s going to be like forever is naive, I think,” said Joe Dahlstrom, CEO at Paradigm Golf Group. “People are going to go back to work in offices; the stimulus is over; people will be able to go to gym, dinners, clubs.
“That is going to take a segment back.”
April, though, is a time when interest and participation can spike.
Daylight saving time and longer days allow golfers to tee it up late in the day once work is wrapped up. Greens fees drop from the winter months as snowbirds head north and rising temperatures keep away some golfers. Masters week, which concluded Sunday with Windermere resident Hideki Matsuyama making history as Japan’s first major golf champion, often gets a golfer’s juices flowing or piques the curiosity of a potential newcomer to the game.
Dahlstrom looks to turn the inevitable ebbs and flows of the golf calendar into sustained growth.
Paradigm Golf Group manages golf courses from coast to coast, including three in South Florida — Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach, Emerald Hills in Hollywood and Palm Beach National in Lake Worth.
Dahlstrom said the three Florida courses are thriving, but those in California have been less successful due to activity restrictions. Paradigm’s course in Las Vegas suffered a financial bath due to the loss of tourism while one in Maui suffered due to limitations and trepidation surrounding air travel.
“There is a segment of the golf
business that has been crushed, primarily the resortbased golf courses,” Dahlstrom said.
Overall, golf is as healthy as it has been since Tiger Woods’ rise in the late 1990s carried the game to unforeseen heights. Woods’ dynamic playing style and multiethnic makeup attracted new people to the game.
Courses and golf communities sprouted, coinciding with a rise to nearly 31 million U.S. golfers in 2003. The number was fewer than 24 million in 2017. Meanwhile, Nike exited the golf business and Goldsmith declared bankruptcy in 2016. A year later, Adidas sold off some brands.
Golf did receive a boost in interest and participation from the rise of Topgolf, a golf entertainment option combining elements of a bowling alley, an arcade, a driving range and a sports bar.
“I’ve got a number of friends who five years ago hardly played any golf,” PGA Tour star Jordan Spieth said. “I mean, high school, college friends that nowadays are trying to get out two, three times a week to play. Whether it’s just a match with each other, they don’t keep their actual score, or they’re just going out to play music and have a few beers or whatever it is, they love it.”
But the pandemic placed the spotlight for the masses on golf’s entertainment value and exercise benefits, along with the escape to the outdoors the sport offered.
“It’s an activity that can be done in a responsible manner,” Richerson said. “People can do it as a family. People can do it of all ages. It’s a great activity to learn because it’s a game for a lifetime. There’s health benefits. There’s mental benefits to get outside and be involved in an activity.
“All those reasons are why golf is thriving.”
Movie theaters, bowling alleys, health clubs, restaurants and bars were shut down. People were forced to work at home and homeschool their children. When Florida exempted outdoor activities from the shutdown 12 months ago, golf joined binge-watching TV and neighborhood walks among the most popular activities.
The sport is played outdoors and allows for social distancing. Other safety measures included removing rakes in the bunker and ball washers, keeping flag sticks in the hole and limiting golfers to one per cart.
“April we rocked right away,” Dahlstrom said. “There wasn’t much else to do. Golf was deemed to be safe.”
Dahlstrom gives a tip of the cap to GolfNow for additionally putting people’s minds at ease. The Orlando-based online third-party tee-time selling service is affiliated with Golf Channel and attuned to a golfer’s needs.
A golfer can book online and bypass the pro shop. In August 2020, the GolfNow app added SmartPlay technology to allow golfers to find a course, book and pay for a tee time, check in and head directly to the first tee box. Players also can pay for food and beverage service prior to arrival or while on the course.
A representative for the company reported total online rounds in 2020 facilitated through GolfNow were up 55% year over year while participating golf courses gained, on average, more than $148,000 in additional revenue in 2020 — a 78% increase.
Dahlstrom, a father to children ages 8 to 25, said the ease of booking through an app on a mobile device is a big reason he saw a spike in business among 18- to 30-year-olds. The key now is to keep the interest of a new generation of golfers, other first-timers to the sport or those who returned after years away from the links.
The standard, dedicated golfers remain the game’s foundation but are not the target audience anymore for the 48-year-old Dahlstrom.
At Palm Beach National, music plays throughout the property, particularly on the practice range, where golfers wear collarless shirts and are not made to adhere to a strict dress code. Carts are equipped with Bluetooth speakers to keep the vibe going on the course. After a round, golfers can play pingpong, cornhole, pool and video games in the clubhouse.
“We try to make golf inclusive and fun,” Dahlstrom said. “If golf courses don’t understand how to connect with the younger generation or even the older generation who doesn’t look or act like the traditional golfer, this will be a short-term boom for them.”
Yet at the recent golf boom’s core remains the game itself.
A game long seen as an inaccessible and expensive — if not elitist — pursuit grabbed center stage during a pandemic and captured a new audience.
Richerson aims to keep it, if not grow it.
“We think it’s something we can build on while building on the momentum of people getting into the game,” he said.