Page 13 - BusinessWest April 1, 2024

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Course Correction
Golf Industry Continues to Build on Pandemic-fueled Momentum
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
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Golfers, regardless of their skill level, know the impor- tance of getting off to a good start.
Indeed, often — but not always, obviously — the first few holes, and even the first few shots, will set the tone for an entire round.
And when it comes to the business of golf, and a specific season, the same is generally true. Usually — but, again, not always — a good start can pave the way to a solid year.
And in recent years, with winters ending early, area courses, especially those with the desire and the means to open before the grass starts growing in earnest, have been able to get off to great starts.
“We’ve had some early springs, and this one is even earlier, and that has helped a lot of courses; for most, this is bonus time,” said Jesse Menachem, executive director and CEO of the Massachusetts Golf Assoc. (MGA). For decades, he noted, players in this area set their watches to Master’s weekend (mid-April) for when to get the clubs out of the cellar and start hitting balls; in recent years, they’ve had to recalibrate and start in mid-March.
“We’ve had some early springs, and this one is even earlier, and that has helped a lot of courses; for most, this is bonus time.”
But fast starts in the spring, and even the late winter, are not the only things going right for a golf industry that was in many ways on the ropes in the years leading up to the pandemic. Indeed, a surge that resulted from COVID, when there was little else that people could do for exercise and socialization — they couldn’t even play tennis — has had real staying power, said Menachem and others we spoke with, with the MGA’s leader noting a 1% increase in the total number of rounds played last year. That’s a modest hike, to be sure, but the needle is still moving in the right direction.
Bobby Downs, head professional at the Country Club of Wilbra- ham, said the upswing that started during COVID has continued and even accelerated in some respects, with membership as high as it has been in many years.
“We could take in a few more people, but we’re at a point, just under 400, where we’re very satisfied with the number we have here,” he said, noting this number would have been a pipe dream just five years ago.
Melissa Aitken, CEO of the Country Club of Pittsfield, a Don- ald Ross course that can trace its roots to 1897, cited similar momentum.
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Melissa Aitken says the surge in the sport, and business, of golf enjoyed during COVID continues four years later.