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LIVING

Southern Highlands Golf Course

However, even with this negative of limited resort and the uptick in interest, manufacturers of all things golf have
corporate play comes some positivity. For at least the last been reaping the rewards. According to a Golf Datatech
decade, if not longer, the Las Vegas golf industry was los- report, U.S. golf equipment sales reached $388.63 million in
ing resort customers to popular swimming pool day clubs July, the greatest single-month retail sales ever recorded.
and other resort amenities, but that appears to be changing The research firm first started tracking data in 1997; the
as many people are adjusting their habits when it comes to last time sales were even in the same ballpark was in June
crowded activities, whether they take place indoors or out- 2007 ($368.1 million) and June 2006 ($364 million), during
doors. “I now see golf starting to be used as the carrot by Tiger Woods’ pinnacle in the mid-2000s.
hotels to entice customers to return to Las Vegas,” Southern
Highlands general manager and Nevada Golf Alliance So, what does the future hold? Like most things in this
board member Jason Cheney said. “They are saying to cus- day and age: uncertainty. “It is hard to tell what the future
tomers, ‘we're going to get you out here to play golf on a holds, but I hope that we have gained a number of new golf-
beautiful golf course in a more healthy, outdoor environ- ers who continue once the Las Vegas economy gets going
ment’. They are using golf as a main amenity as opposed to again,” Schaper said. “I feel that we will probably go back
previously when they could use onsite amenities such as a to pre-pandemic numbers when people go back to work.
day club or casino.” People have lost a lot and need to get back earning the
money necessary to pay their bills. With my example of the
While corporate groups haven’t returned, there have been coaches, we all will go back to coaching soon and it will be
some signs that leisure resort play is beginning to come tough to have the time to play. I hope that with the down
back. But the true gauge of what is in store for the future time people have fallen in love with golf and find a way to
probably won’t come until spring or even Fall 2021, as one play once we find our new normal.”
local expert predicted.
Flatt agreed that there is really no true prediction for the
Golf retail has also seen an upswing (pun intended). With future. “No one in the golf industry knows what golf is

56 LAS VEGAS GOLF & LEISURE WINTER 2021 www.lasvegasgolfandleisure.com