Pandemic golf boom? Data suggests it was.

Pandemic golf boom? Data suggests it was

There are more and more signs that the pandemic may have helped golf grow more than any other event in its modern history. The World Golf Report, which came out this week at the PGA Merchandise Show, didn’t do much to change that idea. In fact, it gave more weight to the feeling.

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The World Golf Report, an economic study of the global sales of golf equipment and clothing done by Golf Datatech and the Yano Research Institute of Japan since 2015, shows that sales of golf equipment and clothing grew to just over $20 billion in 2021 before levelling off at $19.96 billion at the end of 2022. Since 2019, that’s a rise of more than 30%. In 2022, the U.S. will be responsible for almost $7.7 billion of this total, which is $2 billion more than No. 2 Korea and $4.5 billion more than No. 3 Japan.

John Krzynowek, a partner at Golf Datatech, said, “It’s been a good few years.” “It’s clear that the factories have been cranking out products, and that people from all over the world have been buying them as fast as they could be made.

“The truth is that 2022 could have been even better than it was.”

Krzynowek said that the industry is still having trouble with problems in the supply chain, which, just like in 2020 and 2021, have caused deliveries to be pushed back sometimes for several months. He thinks that this trend made some people decide not to make big purchases that might not have come in until very close to the end of the golf season.

But even though interest dropped by 2.4% in 2022, golf-friendly countries like the U.S. were still at record levels. According to the data, almost 90% of golf equipment and golf clothes are bought in five places: the United States, Japan, Korea, Canada, and the United Kingdom. With a total of $11.1 billion, the sales of equipment in 2021 were 27 percent higher than in any year other than 2021 since 2014.

In 2022, the total amount of golf clothing sold around the world was almost $8.9 billion, which was about 39% more than in any year before 2021. The report says that almost half (48.1%) of the more than $11.1 billion that was spent on golf equipment around the world in 2022 came from the U.S. market. When it comes to clothing, the U.S. makes up almost 27% of all sales, which is second only to Korea, which makes up 45%.

Krzynowek said that there are other economic factors at play, such as the complicated nature of exchange rates, rising energy costs, the war in Ukraine, and even a return to non-golf activities that were popular before the pandemic, which could hurt the game’s popularity right now. But, he said, the news and overall trends are still good in most, if not all, quarters.

“Golf is definitely having a bit of a moment,” he said. “People are very excited about the game. There are more players, more rounds, and more sales. We’re a lot better off than we were before the pandemic. The golf retail business is doing much better than it was in 2019.”

Krzynowek also said that while the number of golfers has gone up in the years since the pandemic, he thinks the amount each golfer spends has also gone up in a noticeable way.

“We know that during the pandemic, many people didn’t have anywhere to spend their money, so they either saved it or found a way to spend it,” he said. “There were also a lot of government programmes. All of this adds up, and over time, it gives the golf business a boost because people were spending more time on the course and wanted new gear as they did so.” Golf Datatech will have the full World Golf Report out.