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greater flexibility in how they can
balance their work and personal time
now, than they did prior to 2020.
As golf finally walked the talk
of becoming more welcoming, and
accessible through the promotion
of derivative experiences, what
many considered just seven years
ago to be troubling times ahead,
has spawned five consecutive years
of flush participation and
profitability growth throughout
the industry. A game that was
perceived as unresponsive to
evolution and change has become
cool and responsive to a wider
swath of participants, more broadly
defined by the industry itself.
GOLF’S COVID EVOLUTION
Like any narrative, golf’s recent
rise in popularity, just as the prior
prognostications of its demise, may
be somewhat overstated. In our
firm’s continuous monitoring of
golfer and consumer attitudes and
behaviours, coupled with similarly
extensive work with facility
owners, we enter the second half of
this decade on quite a run.
However, there are pockets of
softness and concern that need to
be assessed and responded to.
The leisure activities that were
impeded during the pandemic
have now all come back to a point
where they become even more of a
competitive force against a
redefined and more democratized
golf environment that continues to
embrace alternative experiences
that had been historically shunned.
The proliferation of gamified
ranges, both on course and off-
course, have been met with greater
facility focus on food and beverage,
9-hole rounds and a recognition
that building longer and more
difficult golf courses does not lead
to the type of experience that the
preponderance of the newer
COVID era entrants and even some
legacy players are seeking.
Further research that we have
conducted on behalf of the USGA
and others, has also helped to
expose and break down
longstanding biases that proper tee
box selection is simply a function
of age and gender, rather than more
appropriately a reflection of one’s
swing speed and/or the type of
challenge one is seeking on a given
day.
This push towards a more
inclusive golf experience certainly
has made sense and yielded
rewards. But like any boom, there
is inevitable push back. And while
our research maintains that more
than ever, operators need to take a
hyper-local look at competition
and consumer demand particulars,
we face today an amplified push
and pull between golf’s high-tech
renaissance and its heritage as a
high touch business. Further, we
have benefited from what we have
defined to be an economic
oxymoron…a “vibecession” that
has seen consumer attitudes and
confidence hit historic lows over
the past several years, concurrent
with spending levels that defy
those sentiments.
Therefore, it behooves us to take
an informed and deep dive at where
we are, how we got there and what
that portends for the year ahead.
ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY AND
GETTING PAST A CONTENTIOUS
2024
One of the unanticipated outcomes
of the pandemic, from our
perspective as researchers, was our
initiation of a regular monthly
consumer and golfer tracking
study that we have run consistently
since North America shut down in
mid-March of 2020.
This work has afforded us with
a broad pulsing of attitudes and
behaviours that has become
increasingly polarized, particularly
through the recently completed U.S.
election cycle. Our research readily
and consistently informed us both
of this divisiveness but also in the
primacy with which economic
concerns and waning trust in
government institutions spawned a
need for escape at the same time
that there was trepidation. Even
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