Despite the U.S. economy suffering through its worst recession in 80 years, rounds at U.S. golf courses in 2009 were off less than 1 percent from the previous year.
According to the year-end Golf National Rounds Played report issued by Golf Datatech, rounds at year’s end were down 0.6 percent from 2008. The report is compiled with the cooperation of the National Golf Foundation, National Golf Course Owners Association and the PGA of America.
Poor weather in December pushed the total for the month to 14.7 percent below December of 2008. But since December rounds make up only a small portion of annual play, the weak total didn’t significantly lower the overall number for 2009.
For the year, four of the report’s seven regions reported slight gains, led by the West North Central, which was up 3.1 percent. The Pacific region was level for the year.
Play at private clubs fell 1.8 percent, while public course play was down only 0.3 percent, according to Golf Datatech.
Metro areas enjoying the largest gains for the year included Pittsburgh (+6.9 percent) Cleveland (+6.6 percent), Minneapolis-St. Paul (+4.0 percent), Columbus (+3.8 percent), Las Vegas (+3.4 percent) and St. Louis (+3.3 percent).
Most significant declines were reported in Birmingham, Ala., (-9.3 percent), Atlanta and Charleston (-9.1 each), Miami/Ft. Lauderdale (-5.4 percent), Myrtle Beach (-5.0 percent) and Denver (-4.0 percent).
Median course revenue, tracked by the PGA PerformanceTrak survey, was down 5.3 percent for the year. For December, overall revenue was off by 8.1 percent.
Here are per facility gross revenue numbers for U.S. courses:
Dec. 2009 Dec. 2008 Change
Median golf fee revenue $22,389 $ 26,008 -13.9%
Median merchandise revenue 8,940 10 ,139 -11.8%
Median food & beverage rev. 26,430 28,415 – 7.0%
Median total revenue $86,629 $ 94,300 – 8.1%
YTD 2009 YTD 2008 Change
Median golf fee revenue $781,634 822,967 – 5.0%
Median merchandise rev. 130,274 147,051 -11.4%
Median food & beverage rev. 383,463 405,029 – 5.3%
Median total revenue $1,640,633 $1,737,475 – 5.6%
Source: PGA PerformanceTrak