November saw the most significant year-over-year decline in nationwide rounds-played, in large part because of colder weather in well-supplied northern parts of the country than a year ago.
In 2020, warmer weather coupled with continued surges in engagement contributed to November’s play increasing by a whopping 57% over 2019. It was the largest YOY rounds increase for any month in 2020.
This November was expected to fall short of that unprecedented trajectory and rounds were indeed down 17.6% nationwide, according to the monthly report produced by Golf Datatech, which incorporates facility data gathered by NGF.
Weather was a major contributing factor, with winter conditions affecting play most significantly in the East North Central (-50.5%) and Mid Atlantic (-38.2%) regions. The average temperature was almost 6 degrees colder this November than a year ago in both the East North Central (home to golf-rich states Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio) and the Mid Atlantic (New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania).
For the year, total rounds of golf in the U.S. remain up 5.6% over 2020.
While play in recent months has been down YOY, it remains important to note this is in comparison to the notable widespread increases in play seen during the second half of 2020:
- July 2021 (-3.9%) vs July 2020 (+19.7%)
- August 2021 (-7.3%) vs August 2020 (+20.6%)
- September 2021 (-8%) vs September 2020 (+25.5%)
- October 2021 (-1.8%) vs October 2020 (+32.2%)
As noted previously, 2021 play overall will surpass the 2020 total by approximately 20 million to 25 million additional rounds.
