NGF: "A New Norm, Or An Old Norm?"

Joe Beditz and the National Golf Foundation continue to monitor the state of golf, the business side and pandemic-related upswing. His latest looks at the numbers of golfers per 18-hole course showing a balance “that existed 20 years ago, when golf courses were more economically successful, as a whole, than they’d been over the past decade or so.”

Given golf’s trajectory pre-pandemic and the sport being one of the few industries to experience a deceleration of trends, he notes the increase in wealth as a huge driving factor. But there was also this:

And there’s one other very important consideration: a decidedly positive media narrative about golf in non-endemic publications, such as Esquire, Adweek and the Wall Street Journal. It was only a short time ago that headlines blared golf was doomed. Today, pundits are raving about golf’s renaissance like they haven’t since Tiger’s heyday. We’ve assembled some of the more notable positive stories about golf, which you can read here. 

I don’t miss reading and posting all of the stories declaring bowling, cycling, hiking or bowling-while-hiking as the “new golf “.