For some reason I’ve become addicted to these Pellucid Corp reports this year. I don’t know how much this information even realistically matters to me, but I find it fascinating and the perspective is really interesting. For instance, Pellucid Corp reports in their February Perspective that last year’s total rounds played were down but so were “Golf Playable Hours.” Their point was that though last year was a bad year for golf, the ratio of rounds per playable hours was strong. In short, you can only play so much golf if weather doesn’t cooperate.
Additionally, Pellucid points out that equipment companies had a good 2018 regardless of bad weather. One would think with less golf played, less gear would sell, but that wasn’t the case. Again, don’t know how much this matters, but these are the kind of nuggets that are great to have in a fellow golf nerd conversation.
Pellucid Corp’s February Perspective
With both the major industry shows now in the rearview mirror, it’s time to start planning in earnest for the upcoming season for the northern climes while the all-weather markets are now roughly halfway through their peak season. As we had predicted in the State of the Industry, January turned in what will be the first of many favorable “comps” for weather impact as we lap the abysmal ’18 figures as our benchmark. We also have the full-year figures for ’18 now that the rounds demand tally is in and we got pretty much what we had expected; rounds down but not as much as Golf Playable Hours (GPH) so we’ll take solace in our Utilization Rate gain for the year and otherwise just forget about 2018 (except the consumer equipment manufacturers who actually did pretty well, in spite of the substandard golf weather). Publisher Jim Koppenhaver observes and comments on the fact that our industry associations have been taking a beating in the golf media over the past several months and, somewhat ironically, asks if it’s well-deserved constructive criticism or misdirected rants by various parties looking primarily to generate controversy. Click below to see how he handicaps the various recent articles and authors and where he lands:
