3-Minute Business Insights
After the coronavirus struck in 2020, spring shutdowns gave way to an unprecedented summer and fall in terms of play, golfer introductions and reintroductions, and robust, late-season spending.
November rounds of golf were up almost 57% nationally over a year ago, continuing an upward trend since coronavirus restrictions on golf operations were lifted.
October rounds played came in 32% higher than last year, according to Golf Datatech, raising the national year-to-date figure to +10.8%. Several multi-course operators we checked with recently told us that the surge in play continued in November, putting us on track for an annual increase of somewhere around 50 million rounds over 2019. Pretty amazing.
October rounds were up 32.2% nationally year-over-year, another record-setting increase for 2020 play.
September rounds played continued the summer momentum nationwide.
In 2009 and 2016, roughly a quarter of U.S. public golf courses admitted to being in bad shape, financially. Here's where things stand now, public and private.
Closing out the summer of 2020, August rounds played set a new standard for the biggest increase in a peak season month.
Rounds of golf were up almost 20% nationwide in July, helping the industry continue its comeback after losing 20 million spring rounds due to the coronavirus.
With more than half of U.S. golf courses shut down for most of April, national rounds played were down 42% during the month compared to a year ago.
The coronavirus had its first significant golf facility impact in March 2020, with national rounds played down 8.5% for the month compared to the previous year.
