NGF Survey Of U.S. Courses And Clubs: Where Golf Is Open For Business, Consumer Confidence And Other Notes

The National Golf Foundation has been busy surveying course owners as well as studying other data to give an update in the U.S. golf industry as of March 31, 2020.

From President Joe Beditz’s letter explaining the effort:

 To begin with, over the course of this past week NGF conducted a telephone poll of just over 1,000 golf courses nationwide to objectively assess the impact of the coronavirus on golf course operations. We’ll continue to poll courses in the weeks ahead so we can track these effects and as we more fully turn our attention to studying the human and business impacts of this pandemic.
 
The findings of our golf facility poll are the centerpiece of a new COVID-19 webpage we’ve created that also provides key data regarding which states have placed restrictions on golf, course operators’ perceptions, consumer research that reveals how playing and purchasing behaviors have been affected, and other interesting information. Click here to see the results of our poll and check out the rest of the site: www.thengfq.com/covid-19

Among the topics covered in the survey research:

—As of March 27, 2020 an estimated 74% of in-season U.S. golf courses remain open despite the coronavirus pandemic.

—Golf rounds were up significantly (+15.2%) thru February.

—Core golfers who were planning on equipment purchases now suggest they'll simply delay. We'll continue to monitor this sentiment.

—Roughly 35% of independent/regional golf retailers remain open.

The one genuinely confounding finding no matter how you feel about whether golf should be played right now: the number of surveyed courses NOT restricting access to confined spaces beyond the 87% for dining areas: