Zurijeta
American golfers have played nearly 11 percent fewer rounds through the first half of 2013 compared to a year earlier, according to data released by the benchmarking services PGA PerformanceTrak on Thursday.
Whatever furloughed federal workers do with the unsolicited time off, they're apparently not playing golf.
American golfers have played nearly 11 percent fewer rounds through the first half of 2013 compared to a year earlier, according to data released by the benchmarking services PGA PerformanceTrak on Thursday.
Golfers in the Washington area track closely with the national trend. Maryland rounds are down 13.6 percent, and Virginia rounds played are down 12.8 percent through June 30.
The weather is the key culprit, with colder and wetter weather forcing many courses to shut down altogether more often than in the past. I can't speak to the meteorology of other regions, but the Washington area's spring was late to arrive and summer has been rainy and cool, at least by our standards.
D.C. has too few courses to be included in the PGA research, but the city's three public courses have seen a steep decline in rounds, said Kim Thomas, a spokeswoman for Golf Course Specialists Inc., which operates courses on National Park Service land.
"That darn weather," Thomas said. "I think that's out of our control, but we're pretty much in line with what's going on regionally."
But, she said, revenue has not fallen off as severely, thanks to resilient interest in training programs, the driving range, the snack bar and the miniature golf course at East Potomac, Thomas said.
Nationally, median revenue per course is off 2.2 percent.
The single worst month so far was in March, when rounds played were down more than 45 percent in both Maryland and Virginia.
To conduct the study, the PGA Performance Trak surveyed 2,618 member courses across the country.
Ben Fischer covers health care and law.
keith urban Dorothy Hamill hard boiled eggs Red Equal Sign maundy thursday Mexico vs USA Harmony Korine
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.