A year after the third warmest February on record allowed many golf courses in northern states to get an early jump on the 2024 golf season, the more typical wintry weather conditions in those same states prevented a repeat.
On a national level, rounds this February were down just over 11% year-over-year, with declines in six of the eight geographic regions. The most significant drops were further north, where the average monthly temperature was 16 degrees colder in the West North Central (Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, etc.), 11 degrees colder in the East North Central (Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana), and almost 7 degrees colder in both the Mid Atlantic and New England Regions.
Couple the cold with higher precipitation levels — and snow on the ground — in most of those areas and it’s understandable why February play was down about 60% this year in states like Maryland, New Jersey and New York, and between 70% to 90% in states such as Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio and Michigan.
It’s important to note that even with last year’s warmer February weather that led to a stronger start to the season, February isn’t just the shortest month, but also one of the lowest-volume months for play overall.
In warmer weather states where seasonality was far less of an issue, California (+12%) and Arizona (+7%) both saw play gains compared to the same period a year ago. Florida rounds were down 2%, which is within the typical weather-related variation.
NGF provides confidential, facility-level rounds data to Golf Datatech in helping compile the free, monthly play reports on behalf of the golf industry.
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