According to the National Golf Foundation, April was another soft month for golf courses as rounds played were down 15.1% on a same-store basis compared April 2006, primarily due to poor weather. The year-to-date figure of -9.0% is the worst performance for the same time period in the past three years. However, because only about 22% of total annual rounds volume in the U.S. is played in the January to April time frame, there is still a lot of time to make up the deficit, if there is better summer weather. In fact, if rounds were flat for the remainder of 2007 vs. 2006, rounds would finish down only 1.9% for the year.
Where rounds were down significantly in April 2006, operators in the Northeast experienced six fewer play days on average than in April 2005 (a 24% decrease). Both the Lower and Upper Midwest had four fewer play days in April. Still, three regions are in positive territory year-to-date: Mountain, Southwest and Northwest.
