The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 6

GOLF OPERATIONS'
PERFORMANCE
'24 Season Passes the 80% Mark:
Good, Bad or Sideways Year?
By Jim Koppenhaver
T
he Labor Day holiday is in the rearview mirror, widely believed
to be the end of the season for casual golfers, those
in the northern climes and the rabid football (college and
pro) fans. The full month of September is also now in the books
which, using a multi-year average, represents ~80% of both played
and capacity rounds Year-to-Date. That suggests we should have
a pretty good idea at this point as to what our year will look like
for golf operations at the national level. As of yet, we haven't seen
anyone hazard a guess at the season end results, either anecdotally
or quantitatively so...we're going to fill in the blanks for the Pellucid
faithful.
It's been an unusually quiet year with no dramatic months' results
(like +/-5% results in rounds or weather) so the good news
is we're not fighting some anecdotal narrative but the bad news is
there isn't really a clear sense of how '25 has played out. Fortunately,
with the help of our Golf Market Research Center (GMRC)
subscribers and our monthly weather impact capability, we've been
6 The Pellucid PersPecTive
tracking the quiet success of post-COVID Year 4 on the metrics
of Golf Revenue per Available Round (GRevpAR), Utilization,
Golf Revenue (GRev) and Rounds and it looks like we'll inch
higher still come December this year. Watching this year's ups
and downs and our monthly " call " for '24 has been of particular
interest to our investment firm clients as they want to be the first
to know when and if the air starts coming out of the golf industry
balloon.
One of the things that surprised me when we started compiling
the monthly submissions on Rounds and GRev 3 years ago for
GMRC was that the Rounds contribution wasn't more skewed to
the first 9 months than it is. At 80% of total year vs. the calendar
being 75% of total year, we're only 7 points " skewed " (107 index)
to Jan.-Sep.; I would have thought it to be 85% or higher but...it's
not. GRev is a slightly different story and more skewed but that's
influenced by the shoulder-season rate reductions vs. peak season.
So, for the pessimists, '24 is pretty much " baked " while, for the
OctOber 2024
PHOTO BY MICHAEL JASMUND ON UNSPLASH

The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024

TOC
Gen X holds key to next golf industry cycle
Third quarter is “in the books”; outlook for the year up, down or sideways?
Light activity (8 events), transactions continue to dominate but one “new dirt”
September delivers another decline (GPH -2%), Year-to-Date unchanged at -2%
Austin, TX: Punches well above weight at #5 in strength vs. #39 size ranking
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - TOC
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - Gen X holds key to next golf industry cycle
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 3
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 4
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 5
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - Third quarter is “in the books”; outlook for the year up, down or sideways?
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 7
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 8
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 9
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - Light activity (8 events), transactions continue to dominate but one “new dirt”
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 11
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 12
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 13
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - September delivers another decline (GPH -2%), Year-to-Date unchanged at -2%
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 15
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - Austin, TX: Punches well above weight at #5 in strength vs. #39 size ranking
The Pellucid Perspective - October 2024 - 17
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