Heading east at 35,000 feet from this week’s GCSAA conference and show provides a little time to reflect on my observations of the pulse of the golf industry as we prepare for the meat of the 2024 golf season in most areas of the country.
Last week, I attended the PGA Show in Orlando which was held concurrently with the NGCOA (Golf Course Owners) conference. While I’ve not yet seen any statistics, the attendance seemed quite robust and back near pre-COVID levels, along with a cautious optimism about golf’s immediate future. With NGF reporting rounds up again in 2023, many courses and clubs embarking on enhancement/improvement projects and even some new construction, the vendors at the PGA Show were busy touting their new products and owners seemed optimistic.
In Phoenix, at the GCSAA show, there was a similar optimism among those vendors supplying the turfcare professionals, contractors and architects, albeit with continuing challenges acquiring equipment due to supply chain issues.
Of course, as a golf industry “veteran” of 35+ years, these two weeks are always about renewing the many long term relationships I’ve developed as well as making new friends, several we look forward to assisting with a variety of consulting services to help golf courses and clubs enhance their operations. Seeing some of the new technologies in the industry, along with the many progressive ideas to help grow the game is exciting. It’s also nice to visit a warm weather location and sample some new (for me) golf courses.
I was privileged to present, as part of a panel discussion to the American Society of Golf Course Architects on how these esteemed professionals who play such a large role in making our game challenging, fun and interesting can “think like owners” to ensure not only that golf is also economically viable. In that discussion, my fellow panelists, architect/owner Robert McNeil along with Steve Van Newkirk and Dave Nicholls of the Troon Golf team covered everything from coordinating economic analysis into the design process to how to enhance economics with things like innovative and expanded practice facilities, short tees and separating “required” improvements from “desired” improvements.
We talked about how a club’s culture should be understood and integrated into the design process and considerations when a club might be ripe for a repositioning in the market. Much of the discussion centered on Return on Investment (ROI), which for a golf course and club can be both financial/economic or experiential. With so many renovation projects under consideration, planning or underway, the need to establish realistic and logical goals, and how this should be considered in the design process.
The PGA Show is like a candy store for golfers and operators. In addition to all the new clubs, training aids, apparel and other golf related items there were a variety of tools for golf course operators. Technology is now being used to monitor pace of play with items such as the Tagmarshal System which uses GPS to monitor the position of players on the golf course and helps analyze problem areas and players with graphics and can alert the pro shop when things get backed up.
Among the things I saw on the GCSAA show floor that were really cool, included the USGA’s new GS3 smart golf ball and “Deacon” app which measures putting green quality, not just by speed, but also, smoothness, trueness and firmness. I suspect this will become a great tool for achieving high quality putting surfaces at a variety of speeds by enabling the collection of data and quantification of a heretofore subjective (other than Stimp reading) analysis.
Another thing that caught my eye was the eCutter electric hole cutter from Golf Machines, which seems as though it would make the job quicker and easier, and helps avoid poor cuts and raised edges. Autonomous mowing equipment seems very much a part of the future. I attended a seminar on this and the economics and enhanced conditions that result are hard to argue with, not to mention that they’re quiet. I wrote about these last year in an earlier post. I also attended a seminar for superintendents on communications with ownership/club boards. In my ASGCA presentation we also talked about the benefits of developing a detailed golf course maintenance plan as a “common ground” for use by both “sides” whenever questions about course presentation and budget impact comes up.
Whenever I attend major golf industry events, I continue to be impressed by the positive attitude that pervades this industry. Whether times are good or challenging, the passion is ever present. Everyone seems happy to be doing what we get to do. Industry professionals generally seem to understand that for the game to grow the culture needs to broaden to those groups that are underrepresented and that each club and course has its own unique culture that warrants consideration in marketing, operations, planning and design.