If ever there was a business in need of some good news, the golf industry is it. Recent industry reports have done little to satisfy those yearning for a silver lining. At last month's PGA Merchandise Show, the brutally frank state of the industry report given each year by Jim Koppenhaver and Stuart Lindsay of Pellucid Corp and Edgehill Golf Advisors, respectively, revealed that in 2014 new course construction was down (OK, we knew that was coming) and that people are walking away from the game almost faster than anyone can count them.
More good news recently came out of Kissimmee, Florida, where the latest monthly rounds played report just released by Golf Datatech shows that year-over-year rounds played in 2014 were down by 1.7 percent, compared with rounds played throughout 2013. And, oh, by the way, rounds played in 2013 were down by 5 percent from 2012.
According to the Golf Datatech report, which surveyed 2,885 private and public-access courses in 49 states (not including Alaska), rounds were down in six of eight geographic regions and up in only two (the Mountain West and the Great Plains). More specifically, rounds played were down in 32 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and up or about flat in 17 others.
The most significant losses were in Nebraska (8 percent); Delaware, Maryland and D.C. (7 percent); Alabama (6 percent); and Arkansas, Hawaii, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and Washington (all down 5 percent).
The 17 states that saw an increase in rounds played were Kansas (up 9 percent); Iowa (3 percent); Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon and South Dakota (2 percent); Arizona and Utah (1 percent); Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Tennessee (less than 1 percent).
Play at private courses was about flat for the year, while public-access facilities took the hit with a loss of slightly more than 2 percent.