Pellucid reports that June's national weather once again landed in the "neutral zone" posting a 1% decline in Golf Playable Hours (GPH) for the month compared to the same period last year. This statistically flat month creates a new trend of relative calm at the national level which began in May and left the year-to-date (YTD) results also in the neutral zone with GPH remaining 2% lower through the end of June vs. the same period in 2007.
The national "calm" represents a wide range of regional results which continue to show a negative YTD breadth ratio across Pellucid's 45 regions at 1:2.5. This means that 10 regions are showing GPH gains for the year of 2% or more opposed by 25 regions with GPH decreases of 2% or more (the remaining 10 regions are in the neutral zone or +/-2%).
The fact that the national GPH remains relatively flat despite significant negative breadth means that the favorable weather is concentrated in the highest rounds-producing regions while the unfavorable weather is generally occurring in the lower rounds-producing regions. Also not fully reflected in these results is significant and long-lasting weather impact such as the floods in the Midwest which took a meaningful number of courses offline for extended periods of time.
Looking back at May's weather results vs. Golf Datatech's recently released rounds results, the industry registered a 50% Utilization Rate for the month compared to the 2007 national benchmark of 52%. This means that the 5% decline in rounds was greater than the 1% decrease in GPH for the previous month. That puts the industry for the first 5 months statistically flat on the Utilization Rate measure (51% Utilization YTD vs. the 2007 benchmark of 52%).
"The industry is benefiting from stabilization on several key fronts including weather and supply growth," says Pellucid president Jim Koppenhaver. "Despite that, rounds remain sluggish and we're not seeing much pricing power, either - probably driven by a shaky macroeconomic picture for many consumers.We're continuing to work with progressive-thinking operators to determine if this component of weather's impact on rounds can be accurately tracked and quantified."
Parties interested in more information on Pellucid's weather capabilities should visit www.pellucidcorp.com.
