We hear the excuses all the time about how rounds played lag because of the weather. It's too hot. It's too cold. It's too wet. It's too dry. In a month that even Goldilocks would conclude was just right, rounds played in April still lagged behind the weather.According to Golf Datatech's Monthly Golf Rounds Played Report, play in April was down by 1.7 percent nationwide despite an overall increase in the inventory of optimal playing conditions. Golf Playable Hours, Jim Koppenhaver's (Pellucid Corp.) measure of acceptable daylight hours in which one could play golf, factored against climatic influences that are unfavorable for playing golf, were up by 2 percent nationwide for the month.
According to Datatech, in the seven geographic regions into which it has divided the country, precipitation was up significantly in two, down substantially in two and were insignificant, plus or minus less than 10 percent, in the remaining three. An increase in the availability in dry, daylight hours doesn't always mean golfers are going to play more golf. In fact, it seems those conditions rarely translate into more play.
Monthly rounds played have risen only twice in the last 28 months, with the last increase coming in October 2013 (3.7 percent). Before that, one has to go all the way back to November 2012 when the industry was bolstered by a whopping 2.6 percent boost in rounds played.
According to Datatech's April report that measured rounds played at 3,705 facilities in 49 states (all but Alaska), rounds played were down in 27 states, up in 21 others and flat in another.
The greatest gains were in Minnesota, where rounds were up by 51 percent. Double-digit gains were realized in 10 other states: North and South Dakota (27 percent); Colorado (23 percent); Indiana (16 percent); Idaho, Montana, Wisconsin and Wyoming (14 percent); Louisiana and Oregon (11 percent).
Double-digit losses occurred in 14 states: Maryland and Rhode Island (23 percent); Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont (18 percent); New York (17 percent); Arkansas (16 percent); Hawaii (15 percent); Delaware and Maryland (14 percent); New Mexico (13 percent); Ohio and Virginia (12 percent);
The silver lining is that rounds played, while still down, were not down as much as they have been earlier this year. As a result, year-to-date rounds played, which were down by 4.8 percent through March, improved slightly in April to 3.4 percent through the first four months of the year compared with the same period in 2013.