The Pellucid Perspective - June 2024 - 4

GOLF CONSUMER
FRANCHISE
a big part of what keeps the veteran, mediocre (like me) golfer
engaged (vs. score, apologies to the USGA and other industry
purists who maintain we're all in this game primarily to get better
each year). This is the only logical explanation for the continued
growth in the golfer base in that COVID didn't alter, nor did
the sport address, any of the 3 perennial barriers to taking up the
game or playing more: Time, expense, skill level. Despite this
paradox, the golfer base continues to grow (hallelujah!).
Now let's get to the summary of the findings from our '23 golfer
survey conducted by the National Sporting Goods Association
(NSGA) which we then subsequently transform to customize to
the vagaries of golf based on our 20 years of observation:
* Our cardinal metric of Play Rate (Annual Rounds per
Capita) improved ~3% driven by a higher golfer base
and higher rounds played (facility-reported) against
fractional population growth
* The component metric of Participation Rate (% of US
population playing 1+ rds of golf in calendar year '23)
rose by just under 3%, nearing 8% of the population.
Supporting this is a continued rise in the golfer base
which expanded in '23 by ~3% marking the fourth
consecutive year of growth ('19-'23)
* The component metric of Frequency Rate (Rounds
per golfer per year) rose slightly at ~1% to just shy of
22. One of the interesting findings in the '23 survey is
golfers actually reported playing fewer rounds vs. '22 but
we know from the facility-reported rounds metric that
rounds were up slightly for the year. Several years ago
we switched in calculating the Play Rate to fusing the
consumer survey and facility-reported rounds data to
give us a more accurate read for the rounds/frequency
piece of the golfer behavior puzzle
*
Regarding changes in the gender demographics
and change in '23 vs. '22, the women were the stars
contributing the larger share of the gain in bodies as
well as having a higher % change rate than the men.
That said, we're still well within the narrow trading
range of females as a % of total golfers (20-25%) so,
while the women shone in '23 in growth, we're still far
from a substantial trend or meaningfully closing the gap
between female golf participation and their population
representation of 51%. To be clear, I'm extremely
interested in that number breaking out above 30% in my
lifetime but I'm an analyst by nature and facts (history)
are stubborn things...
* Looking at the '23 golfer distribution by income ranges,
we again saw the golfer gain concentrated in the highest
income group ($75K+) while both the <$75K groups
showed declines vs. '22. This is perhaps reinforcement
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4 The Pellucid PersPecTive
June 2024
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The Pellucid Perspective - June 2024

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