The National Golf Course Owners Association Canada (NGCOA Canada) has released its “Rounds Played Reports” up to June 1, and the results are encouraging for most of the country.
Of the 49 major regional markets surveyed, only 10 showed declining rounds when compared to the 3 year average, with all other regions reporting varying degrees of good news.
Western Canada definitely leads the charge with BC rounds 10 per cent above average, Alberta up 60 per cent, Saskatchewan up 41 per cent and Manitoba up 33 per cent. Ontario and Quebec showed more modest increased rounds played, as did Newfoundland. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and PEI were all down in rounds played, largely due to a late start to the golf season.
The accompanying Weather Score, measuring the impact of local weather on each participating golf course, demonstrates any correlation between weather and rounds played across the country. BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan experienced significantly more favorable weather conditions for golf than normal years. Manitoba and Ontario had slightly better than average weather, as did Newfoundland. Quebec’s golf weather was average, while the Maritime Provinces were hurt by a long and severe winter followed by below average spring golf weather. As expected, the correlation to weather is strong.
The NGCOA Canada “Rounds Played Reports” are derived from monthly surveys of golf course data throughout Canada, segmented into National, Provincial and Regional Reports. Each monthly report tracks the Month to Date and Year to Date for the current year and the 3 year average. Those statistics are presented in actual rounds played and the per cent change.
The Regional Reports are sent to each participating golf course with custom data to compare their own Rounds Played Report with the group data of golf courses in their local competitive market. The National and Provincial Reports are published by the National Golf Course Owners Association Canada for industry-wide use.
Jeff Calderwood, NGCOA Canada CEO, notes that “We’ve been steadily building the sample size for a couple of years allowing us to publish these Rounds Played Reports with high statistical confidence and the ability to segment the data down to 49 key golf markets. I encourage all golf course operators to take advantage of this free and valuable management tool.”
View the report here.