After strong gains in March, April was a disappointment for golf courses as rounds played were down 15.1% on a same-store basis, according to the National Golf Foundation. NGF attributed the weak results primarily 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, NGF noted, 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.
Rounds were steeply down in the Northeast, dropping 38.4% for the month, as the region experienced six fewer play days on average than in April 2005. Only the Southwest and Northwest regions saw increases in play for the month, up 5.2% and 2.1%, respectively.
