Dear Golf Industry Professional:
It's hard to believe that half the 2019 golf season is now in the rearview mirror with the macro industry results landing somewhere between "not good" and "not a disaster." Trading in the "neutral zone" for weather, rounds and revenue, it's been a relatively quiet season on the key metrics and we've seen moderate numbers of supply change and course ownership as well. In light of the relative calm, Jim Koppenhaver takes the opportunity to update Pellucid's analysis and insights regarding the continued evolution of the golfertainment segment in light of the Q1 investors call on Drive Shack and figures released and how that compares to TopGolf's trajectory and relative key metrics secrecy (TopGolf being privately-held, Drive Shack being publicly-traded). To get his and Stuart's take on whether golfertainment is the future of our industry or just another channel to produce "fans" vs. "players", click on the link below:
The Pellucid Perspective - July 2019
In addition, the July issue covers the following topics in our inimitable "edutainment" style:
· Contributing Editor Stuart Lindsay opines that of the 3 major barriers to golfer retention (time, money, skill), it's quite possible that the most important and most addressable one to "fix" could be the latter and the larger concept of getting golfers to enjoyment. This could come with better integration of skill development (lessons vs. equipment), relative scoring (match vs. stroke play vs. par) and elevating the social connection aspect of a round (i.e. find a game, connecting golfers via technology)
· Contributing Writer Harvey Silverman asks (and then answers) the tongue-in-cheek question of whether your course website should be secured or not. Conventional thinking used to be that if you weren't processing financial transactions then you didn't need to but, in today's world, nearly every course is processing transactions as well as the fact that search engines are now incorporating security into ranking scores using it as a "sophistication factor" that could be the difference between a 1st vs. 2nd page search result
· Plus the monthly Industry Scorecard (the only integrated scorecard of multi-source performance indicators) including the June weather impact results (off slightly) and the May YtD Utilization (down, rounds mostly follow for flat Utilization). We also chart the monthly timeseries for the year of Golf Playable Hours and Utilization while our Market Focus continues working down through our updated Top 25 scorecard with the 2nd healthiest major US golf market, Washington DC/Northern VA/MD. Rounding out the issue, our Comings & Goings section catalogues, classifies and comments on 14 activities during the past month from openings to closures and everything in between
We recognize and thank our continuing sponsors; KemperSports, Troon Golf and EZLinks Golf. For all those service providers and suppliers to the golf industry out there with the latest-and-greatest to offer to the industry thought-leaders who read our monthly publication, might we suggest considering joining our merry little band through our most popular 12-month sponsorship program? (offered at an improved value relative to our entry-level six month sponsorship rate) Twelve-month sponsors also receive all Pellucid industry-standard reports (State of the Industry, Outside the Ropes, Monthly Weather Impact Tracking (Nat'l, Reg'l, Markets), Top 25 US Golf Markets Scorecard and National Golf Consumer Franchise Health Scorecard). Sponsorship provides monthly exposure to approximately 30K industry leaders and followers and associates your brand with Pellucid’s effort to expand intelligent thinking on today's most challenging industry issues. For more "opportunistic" spenders, we might suggest one of our smaller-bite Ad Partner programs for those who may not be able to make a 6 or 12-month commitment (as short as 3 months are now available) or who may not need a half page or more exposure (quarter pages now available). If you're interested in knowing more about sponsorship opportunities or are interested in a preview of our ad partner options, contact Publisher Jim Koppenhaver (847.808.7651, jim@pellucidcorp.com).
If you know of associates who would benefit from the topics and insights covered in this issue, feel free to forward this email and encourage them to register on the Pellucid website (http://www.pellucidcorp.com/news/elist) to join the conversation, discussion and debate.
We also continue to spread the word on Pellucid's next-generation golf course database, the Internet Golf Course Database (IGDB) with partners Apparation LLC, Never-Search and GolfCourseRanking.com. IGDB now powers Pellucid's Golf Local Market Analyzer and has added functionality to our project work like being able to tally and profile course closures within key US markets over time. While no database will ever be 100% accurate, we continue to be surprised at the quantity and range of inconsistencies in course directories out there as well as the fact that most of the major tee time providers and recommendation sites (like GolfAdvisor) are propagating these phantom facilities and errors 5-10 fold for people doing Google searches online. Talk about an "echo chamber"... For more information on our comprehensive database, updated quarterly and refreshed completely every 9 months (all 15K+ US courses), contact Jim Koppenhaver.
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