The Muni Golf Resilience!

Community Golf Fan,

The Municipal golf sector has a lot to be optimistic about, despite everything that’s been going on with the pandemic, rounds are up and holding strong, and perceptions of golf are improving. You’ve likely even seen firsthand that your own golf course or courses’ performance is tracking with this uptick as well.

We'll take you through some recent, positive developments, but after, be sure to check out the Bonus Section for our latest resource on increasing course efficiencies!

According to the latest available data from GolfDataTech every region throughout the US has experienced a healthy spike in 2020 compared to 2019:

The age demographic of golfers that has the highest percentage increase over the past year,according to National Golf Foundation (NGF), is the 35-49 demo, which reports an increase of play by 25% of these golfers.

Perhaps even more encouraging, is that although the 65+ demo has the lowest reported increase of all the age demographics, 13% of this age group is playing more golf, despite general pandemic concerns.

Lastly, we at Staples Golf are happy to report that both our interactions with Municipal stakeholders, as well as our internal reviews of the Municipal golf sector at-large, tell us struggling courses are breathing a little bit easier these days.

While Municipal golf facilities across the country adjust to these positive new realities, we'd like to emphasize that maintaining and improving upon these positive growth trends is what matters long-term!

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the main reason golf is up, is because other recreational activities are down because of the pandemic, so positioning your golf facility to excel when we get through this crisis (which we will!), should be front and center.

What you need to know:

• Golf is as healthy as it's ever been right now!
• Rounds are up nearly everywhere in the US
• Opportunity lies in marketing to 35-49 year old golfers
• Other recreational activities are still being negatively affected
• No one can say what the future holds, so strike while your irons are hot!

Staples Golf has remained open for business and will continue to do so, rain or shine, pandemic or no pandemic. We're ready to help your course improve its bottom-line; now more than ever it’s important for our community golf facilities to consider all their improvement options!

Until next time, please take care of yourself and each other!

Andy Staples, ASGCA

BONUS SECTION‍

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We at Staples Golf have spent a lot of time over the past 10 years working with golf courses all over the country through our Energy Efficiency Snapshot for Golf program, and have narrowed down our Top 10 Takeaways, which you may find beneficial for your course. Click here to download the paper (free of charge)!

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