Season in Review

What a weird an wonderful (depending on who you are and where you are) season in the world of golf. A few observations...

- This was the first "crisis" year in the new recession/downturn paradigm for golf. The do-more-with-less chickens came home to roost for many facilities where budgets had been cut and experienced superintendents were let go to save a few bucks. That short-term thinking led to major turf loss, "closed for the season" signs and general disgruntlement among golfers who actually wanted to play and enjoy the hot sunny days.

- Many Northern and Transition zone facilities felt the pain of early warmth/humidity -- perfect disease conditions -- then extreme heat and heavy rains. As a result, the Poa annua just checked out. Patchy fairways became the norm around the country -- even at higher-end facilities -- and golfers were scratching their heads and looking for a patch of grass to roll their ball onto.

- Chemical manufacturers, who had been licking their collective chops early on, quickly noticed something strange about this "great" disease year: they weren't selling all that much more product than in the past few good weather years. Why? A lot of clubs in hard-hit areas simply let their fairways go after the initial damage was done. Yes they treated greens to keep them alive, but many decided not to try to save the larger fairway acreage out of sheer frustration or tighter budgets.

- For basic manufacturers and larger formulators, generic pressure obviously made margins thinner.

- For the first time in many years, guys who lost turf also lost jobs. In some cases, the agronomic problems could have been the straw that broke the camel's back (other factors may have already put them at risk). But in a few cases we've heard about, superintendents who had performed extremely well over the long term just got canned because members didn't like what happened this summer. Patience does not appear to be a hallmark of clubs in a tighter, more competitive market.

I think we're seeing the beginnings of the "new sense of normal" in the golf market. Combine what happened this year agronomically and economically with the "brown is beautiful" rhetoric being espoused by USGA and it seems like we'll begin to see a new segment of facilities who are placing less emphasis on tee-to-green lushness. Others (high-end private clubs) however, are still sticking to the Augusta National look and not putting up with any diminishment of quality because they think they can always find a better superintendent if they're not happy with what they have.

Basically, the market continues to segment itself and you should too. Think about the demographics created by this new paradigm and how your product line fits. Do you appeal to that new segment of facilities who are willing to roll back quality a bit for economic or environmental reasons? Or, should you hone in on the money-is-no-object, quality-at-any-cost clubs? Think about that as you make your marketing plan for 2011.

Speaking of which, our Media Kits are done and will be distributed beginning this week. It's time to plan for 2011...and it's time to make GCI the centerpiece of your new program.