With 29 million golfers in the U.S. and two million taking up the sport each year (1), it's no wonder that Americans turn to the Yellow Pages for more information on where to make a tee time. In fact, according to the Yellow Pages Association (YPAT), the "Golf Courses - Public" Yellow Pages heading ranks 58th out of more than 4,000 headings and generates nearly 39 million references annually (2).
According to the National Golf Foundation, 73 percent of the approximate 16,000 golf courses in the U.S. are open to the public. The state with the most public golf facilities is Michigan with nearly 700, followed by Florida, California, New York and Texas (1).
"As golfing baby boomers retire over the next 20 years, they are expected to add 100 million rounds of golf per year to the 500 million already being played," said Jim Kass, director of research for the National Golf Foundation. "As golfers age, their play frequency increases because they have more time and less family and work responsibility. The nine million golfing baby boomers currently between the ages of 43 and 61 will soon begin retiring in numbers. So, rounds should gradually increase over the next 20 years."
Yellow Pages advertising has proven to be a powerful and effective medium for golf courses, which represent a $11 billion industry (3).
"Historically, owners of golf courses have relied on print and Internet Yellow Pages to help generate business because of the medium's high return on investment - the average local display advertisement generates nearly $52,000 in revenues annually (3)," said Larry Small, director of research of YPA. "More than 91 percent of Yellow Pages searches for golf courses result in a transaction (2)."
For more information on specific Yellow Pages headings, visit YPA's Web site at http://www.ypassociation.org.
(1) - National Golf Foundation
(2) - 2006 Knowledge Networks/SRI
(3) - 2006 CRM Associates
*The top 12 most frequently referenced headings are: Restaurants, Physicians-Surgeons, Automobile Parts, Automobile Repairing-Service, Pizza, Attorneys-Lawyers, Automobile Dealers, Dentists, Hospitals, Plumbing Contractors, Beauty Salons and Insurance.