Is golf the future of resort summer success?

I keep asking myself that question. I keep looking for an answer. I keep searching my own behavior for something that would give me a thumbs up or down on this sport being the right magnet for resorts during warmer months.

Golf isn’t new and some resorts have proved it can work, but going forward as an option for other resorts, will it work is the big question. Here’s where I’m at.

Golf vs Ski
When you look at the numbers, the challenges, the participation, golf is remarkably similar to skiing.

Closures
I wish I had a solid stat, but I’ve heard the number that over the last couple decades the average annual closures of ski areas is a “few”. If we put that at 3, with about 420 ski areas in the U.S. That’s just under 1%.

There are 15,500 golf courses in the U.S. and in 2013 157 closed. Almost exactly 1%. This trend has been going on for a decade.

Flat Growth
NSAA’s latest numbers show an estimated 53.6 million skier visits in 2014/15, the lowest number since 1999/2000. The last decade has a been a flat line.

Source: GolfWeek

While golf peaked much further in the past, the sport has seem a similar flat line in their “rounds per 18 holes” metric over the last decade.

Younger Generation
When you think about skiing, quotes like this often come to mind:

“If skiing is going to guarantee its own sustainability, it will be because skiing regains its ability to attract young people. It’s pretty simple. If we don’t recruit the next generation of skiers, our sport and business will contract when the baby boomers find themselves in doctors’ offices more frequently than on ski slopes.”

The only catch being that the original quote wasn’t about skiing, but golf. And it was written by the Senior VP of the National Golf Foundation, Greg Nathan. Here’s the original:

“If golf is going to guarantee its own sustainability, it will be because golf regains its ability to attract young people. It’s pretty simple. If we don’t recruit the next generation of golfers, our game and business will contract when the baby boomers find themselves in doctors’ offices more frequently than on golf courses.”

It sounds familiar because golf is facing the exact same challenge we are: replacing an aging, valuable group of skiers with a younger generation.

Crossover
Is there crossover between ski and golf? Yes. Is it as large as that with downhill mountain biking? I’m sure it depends on the resort, but I’ve seen numbers that suggest the crossover is much larger with golf especially among key demographics.

But I think it’s a dangerous road because in both cases, at least as far as I’ve seen, the crossover is surprisingly small. Small enough that building a summer business based on it doesn’t seem to make sense especially with both sports are trending down.

An Opening Day
With some of these thoughts on the brain I decided to book myself a tee-time for Canyons Golf’s opening day (that was partly motivated by the fact I was at Canyons opening day of skiing almost 20 years prior). The course was tough but fun with incredible views.

What I learned can be summed up with a single sentence from my father as we finished our round.

“Well, it’s really fun as a resort course…but I probably wouldn’t play it often as a local.”

Think of it like playing a pickup game with the local college basketball team. It’s fun once in a while because of the challenge, but most of the time you’d prefer to just play with your buddies and actually feel like you’re doing well.

In other words, the secret of a good resort course may make it a really poor product to sell to locals.

The Big Piece
And finally all of this must be considered through the lens of cost. Canyons’ golf course cost an insane sum to build partly due to the time, and difficulty, of doing so.

So, golf’s participation numbers are shrinking, they face the same challenges as ski, it’s incredibly expensive and difficult to build one these days, and it’s hard to build one that can draw both locals and destination guests as a ski resort might.

Golf is working for some but in my book it simply doesn’t make a lot of sense for something to create going forward.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.