My Top 11 Take-aways from PGA Merchandise Show

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The PGA Merchandise Show featured 40,000 in attendance, Taylormade moving back to the main floor, growth in apparel companies presenting, and lots of rain.    My focus is exclusively on the business of golf and how you can create value on a foundation that will optimize the financial performance of your golf course.  Here are my top take-aways.

  1. PGA retained Cathy Enz, Ph.D., Cornell University to develop five classes on yield management to be delivered via podcasts.  The class will demonstrate most courses underprice, and a golf course is “held captive to the dumbest competitor in the marketplace.”   Her 3-year study on Myrtle Beach market presented some compelling findings.
  2. EZ Links to buy IBS rampart rumor denied by both parties.
  3. Billy Casper Golf Management terminates the employment of Donna Hoffman, founder of Women On Course.  Women On Course has been dissolved as, according to the Company, it did not pencil.”  Likely, they will be restaging and rebranding their women’s programs.  This was a topic of great concern at Executive Women’s Golf Association Board Meeting on January 29, 2016.
  4. Dana Garmany states, “Golf will become gender diverse based on generational changes and will not be solved in the short term by policies or changes in attitude.”
  5. Jon Last releases study regarding gender:  bit.ly/1KaYMw5.  Only 30% of rounds are mixed gender.  Only 45% of men enjoy playing golf with women.  Only 61% of women enjoy playing golf with men.  41% of women have experienced general discrimination on the golf course.  PGA of America held the committee meeting to determine how to attract more qualified women to golf profession.   No answers are immediately obvious.
  6. Jon Last releases studied (http://sportsandleisureresearch.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/PGA-SIGG-Combined.pdf)  completed early January 2016 for Golf Magazine:  Video Consumption and Consumer Attitudes 2016.    Volumes of data worth deciphering.
  7. NGCOA/PGA to re-write guidelines for Tee Time USA Coalition previously published in July, 2015.   First Board meeting held during PGA Show.  Tee Time Czar to be hired shortly.
  8. PGA launches, PGA Verified, that will have independent agencies certify products starting with launch monitors and video analysis tools.
  9. Social Media – you have to be careful.  The value of each email address is $18.  Note 82% of all emails opened by phone.  The trend for 2016 is 3 minutes or fewer videos. Videos should show personal style – not merely product/price announcements.   Each golf course should have a #hastag.   Mine is now #askjjk.
  10. Dr. Bhrett McCabe, Performance and Sports Psychologist (http://bhrettmccabe.com/expertise.php)  (clients include University of Alabama football team),  “There are three drivers in life:  need to accomplish something, to be socially accepted by peers, and stability.  You are the most powerful when you are vulnerable.   You will never excel if you look for external validation.  Success only comes from internal validation.   Golfers go down the wrong path when they try to fix flaws rather than developing a focus on mastery while on the course – not on the range.”
  11. The adoption of .golf will be slow for reasons that escape me.  For example, National Golf Foundation (ngf.org) believes that a URL of ngf.golf will compromise its appearance as a non-profit association.   Go figure.   Save 30% of .golf domain by registering at www.networksolutions.golf.   Use Promo Code:  GOLFSALE.

Should you seek further insights on our research conducted at the PGA Merchandise Show, please call JJ Keegan at 303 596 4015.

They are our thoughts.

What are yours?  Comment below.

 

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