Page 22 - BusinessWest April 14, 2021

Golf Retail Is Also Booming, DThanks to New Interest, Stimulus
ave DiRico says his shop is usually busy in late March and early April as golfers gear
up for a new season.
This year, the look and feel have
been different, and for many rea- sons. Golf got an unexpected and much-deserved boost last year when it became one of the few organized sports people could take part in. And it’s received another boost from the fact that Americans have been sav- ing money as perhaps never before, and many of them have also been receiving stimulus checks from the government.
Dave DiRico says many people who discovered or rediscovered golf in 2020 are coming back to buy new equipment in 2021.
“We’re seeing it at all levels, all age groups, starting with the seniors,” he said. “They didn’t travel as much over the past year. They haven’t gone out to dinner; they didn’t go on their spring golf trip to Florida. And we’re seeing more of those people buying clubs — and that’s generally not our soft spot.”
That soft spot would be younger professionals and junior golfers, he went on, adding that these people are buying clubs, too, often with the help of the
Add it all up, and March and April
have been even busier than normal,
said DiRico, owner of Dave DiRico’s
Golf & Racquet, adding that, for now,
he doesn’t see many signs of slowing down.
government.
Meanwhile, large numbers of people took up the game Continued on page 25
Retail
Golf
Continued from page 21
number with steady, incremental increases until the threshold was crossed. Then, in 2020, in a shortened year at a high-end course with longer intervals on tee times, the club zoomed past that stated goal to more than 25,000 rounds.
When asked to break down the numbers, Ballard said they reveal across-the-board enthusiasm for the game, with everything from high retention of exist- ing members, and solid numbers of new members, to greater daily-fee play.
“This is a destination course that has hosted some U.S. Open qualifiers and has some clout,” he noted. “For a lot of people that had been making day trips from Boston or New York, it suddenly became easier
to make it a regular, once-a-week trip; add to that our locals, who were able to play two or three times a week, were now able to play five or six times a week.
“It was good to see — there were a lot of new golf- ers,” he went on. “My beginner programs, including my Golf 101 program for women ... we were booked solid for most of that stuff.”
Others we spoke with witnessed similar spikes in play and similar diversity within the new and returning players in terms of age, gender, and more.
“It was across the board,” said Fontaine. “There were a lot of fresh faces, and we saw some people more often; there were some people who, before COVID, could only play the weekends ... with them working at home, they could sneak out early on the weekdays. To be honest, we hope that continues.”
Added Piecuch, “there were some new golfers, but there were a lot of people coming back to the game.
Golf
Continued on page 23
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