Golf Business Monitor

Titleist's mother company Acushnet is sold to Fila Korea

The Acushnet (owner of Titleist and FootJoy) Company saga started a year ago when they sold Cobra Golf to PUMA AG. In those days I thought Acushnet Company  is just restructuring and want to focus on golf balls and golf shoes. Now it seems to me that it was not enough to the owners of Acushnet Company, Fortune Brands. Unfortuantely this is in line with the declining number of US and European golf players.

The new owner Fila Korea is quite a new player in the golf industry. After the acquisition, Acushnet will remain as a standalone company through separate operation from Fila Korea. The good news is the fact that Asia Pacific represents over 30% of the world's total golf equipment spending, and that South Korean golfers are among the most passionate and organized in the game. The negibouring China is also a growing golf market. Therefore it is good that South Korea is so close to the Chinese golf market.

Although at present, golf is still recognized as a luxurious sport by most Chinese. According to the survey of National Golf Foundation, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong, the cities with the highest level of per capita consumption, have 40% of total 18-hole equivalents in China.

I hope that this Korean company will keep on investing in Titleist and Footjoy for our favour.

France selected to host 2018 Ryder Cup

What a big surprise! France was selected to host 2018 Ryder Cup. This is a great achievement to France, especially when we know who were the competitors (Germany, Spain, Portugal).

The games will be played on Le Golf National course near Paris. This is only the second time the biennial match between Europe and the United States will be played on mainland Europe. The first was in 1997, when the late Seve Ballesteros captained Europe to a single-point win at Valderrama in Spain.

There are three questions on my mind at this moment:

• How it will help to promote golf in France? 
• How it will promote France as a golf destination? 
• How much attention can get Ryder Cup in France where it is not as popular like in Spain, UK or USA?

US golfers' number close to edge of collapase

Gen Yesuda says in his article in Golfweek.com that for the third consecutive year, the number of golfers in the U.S. declined, falling 3.6 percent to 26.1 million in 2010, according to the National Golf Foundation.

The slide, from 27.1 million golfers in 2009, wasn’t unexpected in light of the heavy toll the recession has had on the sport and the economy in general.

The decline has not started in 2009, but even earlier we saw signs that something went wrong. At the same time I would not use the economic climeate as an exemption. This is just one reason among the others (+golf equipments' (golf clubs, golf balls, golf trainings etc.) prices went up). Couple of signs shown us that the way we are managing golf club membership (namely golf club membership policy) is not in favour of golf courses and golf industry itself. We also saw how such emblematic company like Acushnet Company  (manufacturer of Titleist, Scotty Cameron etc.) and Ping are struggling to be profitable.

Almost a year ago I warned people that the current golf club membership policy does not fit to the current business environment and not in favour to recruit new players to golf sport. People do not like those old-fashioned rules of golf courses of the 20th century. They expect openness, transparency and flexibility. To be a golf club member should not be a privilege but something like a fan of a Facebook page.

Here are some findings of National Golf Foundation:

• The number of “core” golfers (eight or more rounds annually) dropped to 14.8 million – down 3.6 percent from 15.3 million in 2009.

• “Occasional” golfers suffered a similar decline: a drop of 3.7 percent to 11.3 million from 11.8 million in 2009.

• The number of rounds played in 2010 was 475 million, down 2.3 percent from 486 million in the previous year. (By comparison, rounds played in 2000 and 2005 was 518 million and 500 million, respectively.)

The participation study defines a golfer as a person, age 6 or older, who plays at least one round of golf in a given year. Its results are “derived from a multi-sport study of 40,000 Americans, executed in conjunction with the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association,” the NGF stated.