Golf was off to a good start in 2020. Unseasonably warm weather led to an early start for golf in parts of the country typically still in their offseason during January and February. Double-digit growth in rounds played had us entering March up 15% for the year. Then the virus and associated shutdowns hit and we saw 9% and 42% drops in March and April, leaving us down 16%.
Talk about a reversal of fortune.
So how many spring rounds were lost to the virus? We estimate as many as 20 million, mostly due to forced closures but also to virus-induced anxiety. Monetarily speaking, we are looking at a loss of about $1 billion in golf course revenues alone. (This doesn’t include related losses in F&B, retail sales, events, etc.)
Can we hope to make up these lost rounds this year?
For those in the golf business, hope springs from solid performance in May through August, when nearly half of annual rounds are played. There’s evidence both anecdotal and scientific that rounds in May might be up significantly over last year as a result of a surge in demand, not only from core golfers, but from beginners and lapsed players too.
If this surge proves true (we’ll know in a few weeks when Golf Datatech releases their rounds report for May), and if it persists even partially into the summer months, then we could recoup the rounds and revenue lost in March and April. Put another way, we’ll break even with last year if rounds are up 5% for the period May through December.
Read more at the National Golf Foundation
