NGF: Course closings outpaced openings in 2010

For the last several months, I've been occasionally posting items via our Twitter account* that I have termed "News for the bright side." There's plenty of bad news out there for those who want it, so I figured when I stumbled upon good news about the golf course management industry, or just good news in general that might impact our business, I'd share it with out Twitter followers.

* What? You're not following us on Twitter? What's wrong with you? Don't you know all the cool kids are using Twitter, and in the golf course management industry, there's no cooler Twitter feed to follow than ours? You need to get on Twitter right now! It's free to sign up, and once you have, you just search out @GCM_Magazine. Trust me ... you'll feel much cooler once you do.

Unfortunately, the following does not fall in the "bright side" category. The National Golf Foundation reported today that in 2010, golf course closures in the United States outpaced openings, marking the fifth straight year that we've lost more courses than we've gained. The NGF reported the opening of 46 18-hole equivalents last year (frankly, that's more than I would have guessed) vs. a total of 107 closings. From 2006 to 2010, the NGF reports a net loss of 220 18-hole courses, or roughly 1.5 percent of the total supply.

The NGF released a few other tidbits of information that, along with the course openings/closure data, will form the foundation of the 2011 edition of their "Golf Facilities in the U.S." report that is expected to be released in early February.

• There were golf course openings in 29 states.
• Of the 46 openings, more than 60 percent were daily fee facilities.
• There are currently more than 80 U.S. golf course projects under construction (excluding renovations).
• States with the most openings in 2010 were Pennsylvania, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina and Texas.
• The region with the most courses currently under construction is, not surprisingly, in the South Atlantic with 16.5 courses (who is building half a golf course?).
• The total facility count at the end of 2010 was 15,890, 167 less than the all-time high of 16,057 in 2004.
• The current number of 18-hole equivalents is 14,904.5, less than the overall number because of the large number of stand-alone nine-hole facilities (4,382)

Comments

[Pete]

It's just a matter of supply & demand. As demand keeps fading so will more courses.
Nothing new has come along to make golf more popular. Experts predict thousands of courses will have to close to reach an equilebrium point.

Let's face it, the standard golf game is not FUN!
People today want Quick, Qffordable FUN golf!! So to reverse the losing trend and create a FUN golf game!!! It's called FUN, as in enjoyment!!!! What's so hard to figure out?