November weather impact was unfavorable with Golf Playable Hours (GPH) down 18% compared to year ago. This slightly lowered the Year-to-Date (Ytd) weather impact to -1% vs. year ago but remains in the neutral zone (+/-2%). YtD regional breadth continues to be negative at 1:1.1 with only 15 regions having favorable weather compared to 17 regions with unfavorable weather. The weekday vs. weekend weather impact swung negative to weekends registering -2% while weekdays are flat vs. year ago.
Looking back on October rounds demand as reported by Golf Datatech/NGF to calculate % Utilization, the Utilization Rate increased 2 points to 55% (comprised of a 19% increase in Rounds Played against a 15% increase in Capacity Rounds). For the YtD period, the Utilization Rate held steady at 52% and it remains down 1 point compared to the 2009 year end benchmark rate of 53%.
Jim Koppenhaver comments, “November was a weather “downer” compared to the momentum we had picked up in October. I anticipate we’ll see a rounds decline figure in the 5-10% range when those results are released but, with over 90% of the annual rounds in the bank, it won’t have significant impact on the year end results. Speaking of October, chalk one up for the squirrels vs. the bears as facilities were able to generate a higher increase in rounds played than Mother Nature gave them as measured by Capacity Rounds. This is even more impressive given that the October weather favorability was more driven by weekdays vs. weekends. The only downside I see when comparing to the PGA PerformanceTrak revenue results is it appears that, with the 8% rate decline in Facility Gross Revenue/Round, some portion of these favorable rounds results were bought with meaningful discounting (either just late season rates or promotional rates).
