Golf Has Found a New Normal Amidst Covid

Golf Has Found a New Normal Amidst Covid

At Pacific Portfolio Consulting, we want to increase your value of time. As a firm with nearly 30 years of experience providing multi-disciplined financial guidance to individuals, families, and institutions, we have access to a wide array of solutions with proprietary processes to create a plan and strategy focused on the best possible results - which means more time spent on what you value. 

Pacific Portfolio knows that the true importance of wealth is ensuring you can spend time with those who matter the most and doing more of what makes you feel fulfilled. One of those activities may be to play a round of golf with loved ones or colleagues.

Much to the delight of course owners and players throughout America, golf is on the upswing for the first time in nearly two decades. After sporting and recreational industries shut down in March of last year, the We Are Golf organization submitted covid-safe guidelines to the CDC in hopes of getting players back on the green. By May, public and private fairways alike were opening around the country and offering an escape from the mounting isolation with regulations that didn’t impact gameplay. 

Local courses were shocked to find themselves inundated with new and returning players, quickly filling up tee-times. Veteran players were teeing up with novices, families were coming for get-togethers, and people who hadn’t played in over a decade were flocking to the fairway for a safe rendezvous on the back nine. 

Due to the ease of social distancing, golf promptly began filling the covid-sized divot left in the recreation industry. Despite most courses being closed in April of last year, a monumental 60 million surplus rounds of golf were played in 2020 compared to 2019. Course owners are delighted that people are forging a new normal on their greens. They say the usual Friday night drinks have become Saturday morning tee-times and players are remembering the love of a game they hadn’t played in years. 

Will this unprecedented influx of players continue? The National Golf Foundation (NGF) thinks so. They track industry data for all things golf-related and are reporting a 22.5% increase in rounds played in the last six months over that same period of time last year, especially in the northeast quadrant. 

While the rush of new players is bringing steady revenue for course owners and keeping them afloat, some parts of the industry are still struggling. Resorts that specialize in destination golfing and country club weddings have yet to recover, but they’re hopeful that vaccinations and looser travel restrictions will bring this portion up to par soon. If that is the case, industry numbers will skyrocket yet again. 

Another boon for the sport comes from equipment and apparel. The Wall Street Journal recently ran an article on how investors can cash in on this unexpected phenomenon by buying stocks in sporting goods sectors. A record-setting $1 billion was spent in the third quarter of 2020, far surpassing the previous record set in 2007 during the height of Tiger Woods career. 

The NGF is closely watching the data for the next six months to see if these trends continue. If so, this could be the beginning of a new heyday for golfers, re-cementing the sport’s place among America’s preferred enjoyments.