A New Post-Pandemic Normal
August 13, 2021
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As the rest of the sporting world struggles to reopen under Covid restrictions, one long-standing sport has come swinging back from a decades-long decline. Golf is making new rounds with Americans young and old due to outdoor environments and the ease of social distancing. In 2020, the We Are Golf organization worked with the CDC to create Covid-safe guidelines and golf courses are now open with safety precautions that don’t impact gameplay. Local courses find themselves quickly booking up tee times as people who have spent months confined to their neighborhoods are turning out to meet up with friends for a safe round on their pristine grounds. Many players say that it alleviates the isolation and offers a return to normal they haven’t found elsewhere.
There’s no doubt that the sport filled a pandemic-fueled void. The comparisons between 2019 and 2020 show a stark contrast in participation, with 2020 landing 60 million rounds over the previous year despite all public and many private courses being closed in April of that year.
Several course owners accredited the continual windfall to a change in habits, forging golf as the new pandemic normal. The risky Friday night get-together for drinks has become a Saturday morning tee-time, offering a shared camaraderie and love of golf previously lost to newer generations and forgotten by veteran players.
The important question now is whether or not this trend will continue based on why it’s happening. The National Golf Foundation (NGF) tracks industry data and is currently touting matching numbers in much of the country for 2021 to date and a further increase in play in the upper northeast quadrant, resulting in a 22.5% increase over the first half of last year. This offers some assurance that the boost of new and returning players intend to keep their clubs polished and in use.
While some facets of the industry are still struggling, such as golfing resorts and wedding venues at country clubs, the unforeseen influx of play is bringing steady revenue to public and private courses alike in these uncertain times. The ancillary benefit in the form of equipment purchases has also been a boon for a sport that was struggling pre-covid, which has investors highly interested. The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article highlighting increased activity in the equipment and apparel sectors. From July through September of 2020, a record-setting $1 billion flooded these sectors, up 18% from the previous record set during the height of Tiger Woods’ career in 2007.
If these trends continue, and the NGF believes they will, the golf industry will be one of the few to benefit astronomically from the post-pandemic normal, re-cementing its place in the cadence of America’s favorite pastimes.
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