When you come to think of it that is the secret of most of the great holes all over the world. They all have some kind of a twist. C.B. MACDONALD
The latest COVID-19 update from the National Golf Foundation features quite a bit on the retail sector now that 97% of U.S. courses have reopened for play.
Over 80% of golf retail stores are now open, though only 12% of golfers surveyed say they’ve visited.
This longer story highlights some of the retail sector findings.
And here is the update on the course side, where the 97% number is up from 44% in early April.
The signs were increasingly there last fall and this winter that Justin Rose was breaking away from Honma a year after then-world No. 1 was signing with the company for big money.
Rose had been with TaylorMade for two decades but was lured away by former CEO Mark King, who has since been lured away from Honma to Taco Bell.
But in issuing dueling Friday afternoon statements, the hard sell was all a bit excessive.
From Golf.com’s Andrew Tursky on the breakup and what Honma had to plug…err…say.
“Honma Golf Limited (“Honma”) announces that, following a successful partnership with the former No. 1 player in the world, Honma and Justin Rose have agreed that Justin will no longer be one of Honma’s brand ambassadors. We are proud to have been a key part of Justin’s journey to regain his position as World Number 1 in early 2019, including a win at the Farmers Insurance Open in his second event with Honma equipment in play.
And now the journey has its left turn blinker on but is probably making a U-turn.
“For over a year, Justin worked closely with our team to help develop innovative and top performing lines of Honma woods and irons. His pursuit of perfection, approach to product testing and feedback has produced great value to Honma. Justin’s expert input and desire for maximum ball speed inspired our team to make the Honma TR20 460 and 440 drivers among the fastest drivers in the game. Consistently, and excitingly, our nationwide team of fitters are seeing the new TR20 460 and TR20 440 drivers produce some of the fastest speeds on the market. We wish him the very best in his pursuit of more majors and career success,” said John Kawaja, president of Honma Golf North America.”
He just couldn’t play it to his standards. But it’ll look great in your hands!
Rose, meanwhile, hopes he left behind good ideas as he chucks his Honmas and, undoubtedly, a lot of guaranteed money.
“I have enjoyed working with the Honma team and collaborating closely with them to design and develop excellent golf equipment. I was able to see firsthand the innovations that the craftsmen at Honma bring to their clubs. I am hopeful that during our time of partnership, we have laid the groundwork for Honma to continue to expand their brand. We both feel it is the right time to pursue our own paths.”
A tighter statement next time? “It happens.” More than it should.
The UK Golf Guy has done some incredible research into guest green fee spikes at the UK’s famous courses.
Given the state of affairs, with some centuries old clubs facing potential calamity and many others seeing a huge revenue hit, he argues that lowering fees and welcoming some domestic tourism could be vital to survive the downturn.
Some of the research on green fee changes is really impressive, so hit the link and give him a follow. But
I’ve looked at the increase in green fees for a selection of top courses since 2000. The average summer weekend green fee for these courses in 2000 was £88. Coming in to summer 2020, the average for that same group is over £240. Had the cost increased in line with UK inflation then the average would be only £145.
The highest percentage rises have come at three Open courses - Royal St George’s, Carnoustie and Muirfield. All have gone from sub-£80 a round to over £250. Others, like North Berwick and Cruden Bay, have seen improvements in their course rankings which will have been a catalyst for their increases.
The great Australian golfer, and professor/student of the game, Peter Thomson said that no golf course in the world should charge more than a round at the Old Course, but now a round at Turnberry is almost twice as much.
The increases have been eye-watering, but tee-time sheets have still been filled. There have always been enough visitors willing to pay the prices, while the local market has largely been priced out of playing some of the nation’s most revered courses.
The latest edition of the National Golf Foundation’s weekly survey and research once again provides interesting data for those on the business side.
CEO Joe Beditz continues to take a refreshingly honest and cautionary tone in reminding readers that the spot has a “yellow light” to reopen that could turn red very quickly with the perception of lax behavior and rules. Country clubs, in particular, are on their radar as struggling to discipline members.
Golf has been given the go-ahead because it’s considered a relatively safe activity when social distancing is maintained and other precautions are followed. But make no mistake, what has been given can be taken away. It’s now up to both golf course operators and golfers to keep golf open. Bad behavior will get noticed, and possibly recorded on a smart phone. One course in Florida was recently shut down by the local sheriff’s department for flagrant safety violations.
This isn’t just the beer cooler crowd we’re talking about. Many private club boards are struggling with disciplinary decisions concerning members who refuse to follow the rules.
This is why NGF is sending a message this week to golf courses around the country, encouraging operators to follow the excellent guidance that’s been provided by leading golf associations, and reminding golfers that it’s up to them whether golf courses continue to remain open for play.
Of note in this week’s findings, goflers were asked about comfort levels with shopping indoors (wisely and understandably not great) meaning more troubles for in-person golf retailers. And this was a good sign that most golfers are appreciating the perks of being outside while recognizing physical distancing:
If the Memorial Tournament Presented by Nationwide takes place in July, 2020, it would be the second currently scheduled golf tournament in the COVID-19 era to welcome back include spectators (the John Deere Classic is scheduled to be the first).
Appearing on the Virtual Sports Report, the Memorial’s Dan Sullivan previewed things like no grandstands, volunteers in tournament-branded face coverings and more limited television coverage. Sean Zak at Golf.com documented all of the thoughts, but this is of particular note as we try to envision tournament operations of the future.
Among the biggest changes expected at the Memorial is tracking the whereabouts of fans. While there will be fewer spectators allowed on tournament grounds — ticket sales have purposefully been slowed to keep from over-populating — each spectator badge (and the badges of tournament staff/volunteers) will have within it an RFID tag. “At any time we can know, around the golf course, how many people are collecting in a certain area,” Sullivan said.
The full interview:
The National Golf Foundation’s weekly and incredibly powerful interactive report has dropped again with more information for the industry. They’ve stepped up impressively in their efforts to highlight what’s going on in the golf business.
The NGF reports 79% of U.S. golf courses are open in some form with 90% projected by May 17.
As part of the weekly release, NGF CEO Joe Beditz was upbeat about the findings but issued this excellent warning.
As I’ll continue to say, golf has an opportunity to lead by example, showing it can be played safely and responsibly in the midst of a pandemic. Course owners and operators need to keep following local rules and adjusting to our “new normal.” And we need to continue to remind golfers that they’re playing before the biggest gallery of their lives, as well-publicized screwups could turn the yellow lights back to red.
Nice to see on of golf’s biggest companies going big with its giving back, serving up an auction of experiences to benefit three organizations.
You can view them all here including the early clubhouse leader, a Pebble Beach day fronted by breakfast and a first tee announcement by Jim Nantz, and a 19th hole playing of his backyard 7th hole.
For Immediate Release:
TITLEIST AND FOOTJOY ‘CHIPPING IN’ WITH ONLINE GOLF AUCTION
Raising Funds for COVID-19 Relief with One-of-a-Kind Golf Experiences
Fairhaven, MA (April 23, 2020) – Golfers will have an opportunity to tee it up with a top-ranked tour player, schedule their next golf lesson with a world-renowned instructor, get fit like a professional, or even experience Pebble Beach with a local resident, while ‘Chipping In’ to make a difference with the COVID-19 Relief Charity Golf Auction.
The week-long online auction, which begins today at 10:00 a.m. EDT and closes on April 30 at 9:00 p.m. EDT, is being presented by Titleist, FootJoy, Vokey, Scotty Cameron and Kjus.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from these one-of-a-kind experiences will benefit the relief efforts of three deserving organizations: CDP COVID-19 Response Fund; the United Way chapters of Greater New Bedford and San Diego County, supporting the local communities where the majority of the Titleist and FootJoy U.S. associates work and live; and, following the lead of the PGA of America and other golf organizations, the Golf Emergency Relief Fund.
Among the 12 unique golf experiences, are rounds of golf with Justin and Mike Thomas, Webb Simpson and Ian Poulter; personal instruction and golf with Butch Harmon, Peter Kostis, James Sieckmann, Cameron McCormick, Michael Breed and Brad Faxon; wedge and putter fittings with Titleist designers Bob Vokey and Scotty Cameron; and a once-in-a-lifetime Pebble Beach experience provided by the longtime voice of Titleist and auction host, Jim Nantz.
This auction is a continuation of multiple initiatives Acushnet has implemented since the outbreak, including:
• Donating more than 100,000 masks and other PPE supplies to hospitals and those in need in the communities in which we operate around the world.
• Retrofitting processes in our Massachusetts manufacturing facilities to produce PPE items and components.
• Donating 15% of all purchases made on Titleist.com, FootJoy.com, ScottyCameron.com, Vokey.com and Kjus.com, from April 8-30, to the CDP COVID-19 Response Fund.
• Participating in Rain Suits for Responders, a program to collect new or gently used golf rain suits and deliver them directly to healthcare workers on the frontlines.
“Like so many others, the Acushnet team is committed to being a positive force in support of front line health care workers, the local communities in which we operate, golf professionals, and others in the industry who have been most affected by this pandemic,” said David Maher, President and CEO, Acushnet Company. “We are grateful to our many partners, brand ambassadors and associates for their contributions as we work together to endure these challenging times, and collectively look forward to the better days that lie ahead.”
Sébastien Audoux is head of digital sports at Canal OTT and has some experience with professional golf coverage, so three of his points are of interest to those wondering what happens to sports post COVID-19.
The entire piece is worth reading, but here the points of note for the golf business…
1- The sponsorship crisis will expose fundamental business model flaws for many sports leagues
ROI is often a dirty acronym in sports sponsorship. This global crisis is already forcing companies to drastically cut sponsorship spending. If a league cannot provide evidence for the direct value they create, with analytics to support their claim, chances are they will lose their sponsors. In sports, sponsorship has often been mistaken with patronage. Patronage will mostly disappear, at least for a few years, post crisis. I see big-time sports leagues suffering from this, and new leagues emerging with innovative sponsorship ideas.
This was something we covered on this week’s State of the Game with guest Richard Gillis:
9 - Consolidation among sports league will be triggered
The need for a world tour in golf is something the industry has been talking about for more than 30 years now. The Premier Golf League might not happen but the PGA Tour will use the crisis to take over its European counterpart and it will happen quickly. The PGA Tour of Australasia, Asian Tour and others would benefit from being regrouped under the same umbrella, as well. We might see other mergers and consolidations happen, NBA and Euroleague? UCL becoming a semi-closed league in a new joint venture with the biggest football clubs in Europe?
On that topic, The Guardian’s Ewan Murray noted how the idea of the Premier Golf League hasn’t gone away and may even be more viable due to changing world circumstances.
Anyway, back to Audoux’s piece, he does end this on a bright note that seems logical: sport will be even more valued. At some point.
10 - The future is bright - Overall, sport will be a big winner post crisis. We miss it so much that it actually increases the value of pro sports for the years to come. Leagues will be forced to undertake the changes they kept postponing, schedules will be revised, enemies will start working together, weak leagues and sports will die and be reborn under better leadership. Content will add more value than ever to all sports properties.
The National Golf Foundation has updated its COVID-19 survey page for the week of April 6-12, 2020.
Since the various graphs and data pieces posted cannot be hyperlinked, I’ve grabbed a couple of note.
For starters, it’s an older demographic that is okay with golf courses closing to play during the pandemic.
The south is home to most golf course openings:
Like the LA area effort to help some of the last tradespeople in golf, The Outpost Foundation is offering to match $50,000 in donations. Out-of-work caddies are at the heart of their effort.
The foundation is the product of the highly successful Outpost Club.
Here’s what they are doing
Our Emergency Relief Fund provides emergency funding to independent contractors in the golf industry that face unforeseen expenses that cannot or will not be covered by insurance or other means. Your generous donation will help members of the golf community who rely on gratuities such as caddies, locker room attendants, and outside services workers as they grapple with the hardships resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. We stand with those in our community and are committed to “taking care of our own.”
The Foundation will match the first $50,000 donated to the fund to help the greater golf community during the COVID-19 pandemic. With your help, we hope to increase our reach and the amount of aid we can provide to those in need.
KEYT’s Dave Alley profiles th effort by San Luis Obispo’s Straight Down to switch its business into mask and gown-making for frontline workers in central California.
The effort is the brainchild of Straight Down’s longtime owner, Mike Rowley.
"I called Alan [Alan Iftiniuk, French Hospital Medical Center President and CEO], he's been a great partner and friend, and I asked, do you need any masks?" said Rowley. "He said we can take all the masks you can get."
Soon afterwards, Rowley checked to see if his manufacturer in China could help out.
"We made a call to them to see if they can make us masks, and they were able to," said Rowley. "So we're able to get to the county hopefully 72,000 masks here in the next week, and 30,000 gowns."
The link above includes the story version that aired on KEYT with more from Rowley. Definitely worth checking out and noting yet another of golf’s great small companies chipping in.
The Athletic’s Daniel Kaplan explores the future of sporting events when fans can return and considers what hurdles there may be to attendance.
For anyone putting on an event, some of the notions are surely daunting and while professional golf may not face some of the seating issues other leagues will be forced to consider. But admittance will likely lead to a new kind of security featuring thermal cameras, digital certification and other measures that will likely require significant investment.
From Kaplan’s item (not behind The Athletic’s normal paywall):
“Whether it’s a digital certificate or a wristband, that typically sounds really bad, but this has actually been done before,” said Mark Miller, CEO of TicketSocket, an event management and ticketing platform that works with sporting events, food and beer festivals, races and obstacle runs. “Certain kinds of events you have had to have had a health check … to provide certain records because otherwise, you were a liability.”
Miller is referring not to fans, but participants in endurance contests, whether for Spartan races or marathons. But the concept of liability is similar. A marathon organizer does not want to let physically unfit competitors into the race. Now, does a team or event want a sick fan who could infect others?
There are of course complicated logistical and privacy issues. How and when do fans buying tickets send over their medical proof? And what if they don’t want to? Surely there are medical and personal privacy laws that come into play, though in a post-pandemic world such laws might come under scrutiny.
The good folks at Seamus Golf briefly shut down their store to move full time into mask making, and they’ve since reopened their online store for orders. And now, you can buy much needed (Made in the USA) masks that will also help fund the company efforts to get more reusable masks to those on the front lines.
While I know Seamus would much rather be making cool golf gear, their timing is excellent for all of us. With some form of facial coverage now suggested by doctors, the task force and local governments, it does not take a great leap of vision to see masks as an essential way of life for some time, perhaps even to gain admittance to a concert or sporting event when a form of normalcy returns.
But in the short term, they are offering two options: $100 for five masks with five going to front line workers, $200 for the same package and a Yes Sir! putting cup.
Protect yourself, protect others and help first responders protect themselves.
GolfDigest.com’s Sam Weinman chats with Summit Golf Brands’ creative director Billy Draddy about their move into N95 masts. The Wisconsin-based manufacturer of Fairway & Greene, Zero Restriction and B. Draddy golfwear designed a prototype mask and has had it approved for emergency-care workers near its Wisconsin plant.
From the Q&A:
Q: So a part of you is busy with that and part is surely paying attention to what’s happening in the world. At what point did you realize you might be able to help?
A: A week ago Thursday, we got an email through our customer-service department from one of our customers who had suggested that we could make masks for emergency-care workers. I spent the weekend developing a first prototype. We got on a conference call on Monday to discuss, then looped in our Wisconsin warehouse team who would be responsible for executing. I sent my first prototype out to them. Then through our in-house embroidery and heat-sealing machinery developed two prototypes that we then took to the Wisconsin Emergency Management Agency.
Yet another small company with a passion for the sport doing its part. Well done!
In other news, Seamus Golf has reopened their online store after spending the last week focused on mask-making that continues on. Requests can still be made by emergency workers at SeamusGolf.com.
During his World No. 1 reign, Justin Rose’s contract at Taylor Made expired and in 2019 he opened the season with a Honma bag and clubs. The lucrative deal did not require Rose to adopt Honma’s driver, but he did anyway and won his first week using the clubs in PGA Tour action.
Way back in mid-February all seemed well, even as Rose has slipped to No. 13 in the world and failed to capture the glory of his first PGA Tour event with Honma (a 2019 win at Torrey Pines). From the chat a few weeks ago with Golf.com’s Jonathan Wall.
And the team has just been so excited to respond to the challenges that I’ve been throwing at them. Every rendition of the product just seems to be getting better and better and better. And obviously to win pretty much first time out with them at Torrey was awesome last year. And I’ve got admit I didn’t have my best year last year from a mechanics and a swing point of view, and sometimes you’ve got to blame the Indian not the arrows, but I feel like I’m really beginning to get back on track here. The whole team’s been just so responsive and the new, I’m sure we’ll get to it, but the new TR20 stuff is even better.
“Responsive” popped throughout the interview, almost as if there has been more back and forth than normal.
Then last week Rose was spotted with a Taylor Made driver and this week at Bay Hill, the bag has seen a total turnover from Honma to mostly Taylor Made, reported Wall.
And now this…
Spoke to Honma this morning and, out of respect for Arnie’s event, was told there won’t be an official comment until Monday. Expect statements from Honma and Justin Rose at that time.
— Jonathan Wall (@jonathanrwall) March 5, 2020
Geoff Shackelford is a Senior Writer for Golfweek magazine, a weekly contributor to Golf Channel's Morning
Copyright © 2022, Geoff Shackelford. All rights reserved.
