Page 18 - 2025 GBC spring English

What are U.S. and Canadian Golfers Thinking in November 2024?
S I M I L A R I T I E S
78%
68%
U.S. Golfers Canadian Golfers
67%
67%
65%
64%
60%
59%
53%
51%
40%
40%
39%
43%
39% 41%
Strongly Agree Golf is
an oasis from stress
Agree that nine hole
rounds have become
more attractive of late
Strongly agree that
game improvement is
more of a priority than
YAG
Agree that there’s
great new equipment
coming to market that
I’m really interested in
Strongly Agree that
buying the right new
equipment can help
me to immediately
improve my game
Strongly agree that I’m
excited about the
current state of the
game
Plan to visit an
alternative golf
location in the next
year
Plan to play more nine
hole rounds this yr vs
last year
13 believe that we remain on the cusp
of seeing significant participation
growth, while that figure is at 47%
in Canada. A similar distribution is
observed when golfers were asked
whether they believed that those
who took up golf during the
pandemic would continue to play.
This may be in part due to varying
perspectives on how well golf
facilities have embraced new
players. The research shows nearly
two thirds of U.S. golfers concurring
that the game has become more
welcoming, relative to just over
half of Canadians who feel the
same. This observation also
manifests itself in some 49% of
American golfers vs. 32% of
Canadian golfers who indicate that
they are playing more golf with
family members than they were a
year ago.
The Canadian golf industry is
working hard to address these
opportunities. Initiatives like the
NGCOA Canada’s Take A Kid To
The Course, encourages family
participation and has successfully
introduced younger generations to
the game of golf. As Canada’s
largest junior golf initiative, this
program has been promoting
junior and family golf at member
courses for over 20 years. It
encourages courses to offer one
free round of golf to youth under
18
Golf Business Canada
16 who are accompanied by a
paying adult during the program
dates. The initiative includes an
extensive social media campaign
and provides free marketing
materials to participating courses.
Get Golf Ready also seeks to
welcome new and returning golfers
to the game. This nationally
branded adult player development
program, offered jointly by the
NGCOA Canada and the PGA of
Canada, aims to introduce new
golfers to the sport in a fast, fun,
and gratifying way, and to bring
former golfers back to the game.
The program offers a package of
five lessons designed for beginners,
providing the use of clubs and golf
balls at no cost, with instruction
from PGA of Canada Professionals.
WHERE DO FACILITY OWNERS
WEIGH IN?
Our new U.S. NGCOA Business
Pulse study, independent from the
NGCOA Canada Pulse Report, but
similar in its objectives and
methodologies, will release in the
first quarter of 2025. Among the
findings from this research, will be
a more updated look at some of the
operational, agronomic and mark-
eting trends that we anticipate
driving the year ahead. In advance
of that release, there were a number
of prior year trends that we will be
keeping an eye on.
First and foremost, will be the
impact of some of the same
economic factors discussed above
from a consumer perspective, on
overall golf facility operations. The
overall and local economy have
both lagged just behind labour
over the past few years as the most
pressing issues impacting facility
profitability. On the labour side,
finding quality staff, managing
labour costs, and staff retention
have been most pervasive,
particularly as increased govern-
ment regulation has forced
minimum wages significantly
higher. It appears that the challenge
of finding staff has begun to level
off, driven both by owners and
operators casting a wider net to
find labour, greater deployment of
flexible scheduling and a more
concentrated training and cultural
transformation focus, as well as the
proliferation of technology
adoption.
The evolving role of technology
has also become a significant place
of contention among facility
operators. Technology has met the
need to automate a number of
administrative and back-office
functions, freeing up staff to focus
on more customer-facing activities.
However, operators continue to
report frustration in learning
curves and integration of disparate
software solutions.