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Myrtle Beach golf industry still smarting!
Prior to the economic crash, the Myrtle Beach golf industry had been in a slow but steady decline since 1998, culminating today in the loss of more than one million paid rounds of golf annually; the closing of 22 golf courses and the loss of over 2,000 golf industry jobs.
2008 was one of the worst years ever with the first double-digit decline, and 2009 was even worse with a 15-25% decline, depending on the golf course or lodging property surveyed.
Needless to say, everyone expected business to rebound in the Spring of 2010 as the economy began to turn around, but alas play was dramatically down once again.
Since 1998, the area’s so-called golf marketing gurus and their henchmen in the lodging industry, many of whom you can find listed in the Myrtle Beach Golf Association’s Lodging Basement, with now twelve successive years of round losses to their credit, have virtually decimated the once flourishing and unrivaled Myrtle Beach golf industry.
Add to that the squandering over the last twelve years of an estimated $35 million dollars in precious and sorely needed golf marketing funds on harebrained schemes, which included $11 million dollars on the PGA Tour’s - Energizer Senior Tour Championship fiasco; the squandering of an estimated $20 million dollars to build and operate the TPC of Myrtle Beach and their most recent multi-episode travelogue of dopey and embarrassing episodes called “The Myrtle Beach Road Show” on the Golf Channel, which was overnight dubbed “The Myrtle Beach Road Kill” by golfers and golf industry movers and shakers alike, and cost the Myrtle Beach golf industry an estimated $1.3 million dollars.
All had hoped that things would turn around for the surviving Myrtle Beach golf courses, and for a while it appeared that they were, but despite the tripling of the Myrtle Beach golf advertising and marketing expenditures the Myrtle Beach golf industry continues to flounder badly.
To add insult to all of this misery on the links, golf itself appears to be battling to remain relevant in today’s “instant gratification” society.
TV golf ratings, which were already in the toilet prior to Tiger’s antics, are now, even with his return, only up in the 50+ demographic, while the all-important 18-34 year old segment is tanking. Add to that the economy still struggling, along with the crazy weather in the Mid-Atlantic, North East and the Great Lakes areas, and the outlook for Myrtle Beach golf thus far in 2010 has fallen dramatically short. Needless to say, all of this is indeed cause for great concern, not only for Myrtle Beach golf but for the entire golf industry as a whole.
