The final numbers are in for 2013 and rounds fell in the U.S. by 4.8 percent, according to PGA PerformanceTrak.
Every type of U.S. golf property showed a decline – resort properties by 1.2 percent, private courses by 4.4 percent, daily-fee tracks by 5 percent and municipal, military and university courses by 5.9 percent.
The PGA and its data-gathering partners place most of the blame on cold and rainy days and subsequent weather-related closings, for they’ve determined that on playable days last year the average U.S. golf facility attracted more play than it did in 2012 or 2011.
Presumably, that means U.S. course operators have something to look forward to in 2014. But not if you ask the former head of the USGA.
David Fay suggested that golf will forever be a niche sport and that the growth prospects touted in years past by industry promoters were mostly pie in the sky.
“I’ve always been skeptical that the number of golfers people talked about was real,” the former executive director of the U.S. Golf Association confessed to the Wall Street Journal.
Fay’s conclusion: “The industry got bamboozled.”