Golf rounds in the Myrtle Beach market increased in 2019. Here’s how much and the factors

Those in the Myrtle Beach golf industry have a reason for optimism.

For the second time in the past three years, golf rounds played in the market increased over the previous year.

Rounds played in 2019 increased 3.7 percent compared to 2018, according to rounds booked on the T-Links electronic tee sheet reservation system used by nearly all of the public courses in the market.

“2019 was a strong year. We had a very positive scorecard in 2019,” said Tracy Conner, executive director of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association.

The increase follows a decrease of 7.13 percent in 2018 compared to 2017, which was largely attributable to a terrible year in terms of weather for golf.

An increase of 4.1 percent in 2017 compared to 2016 was the first bump in rounds played year over year since 2004, as golf participation waned nationally for more than a decade.

The statistics in recent years are based on rounds booked through the T-Links system used by Golf Tourism Solutions’ 75 member courses on the Grand Strand.

GTS is a marketing and technology agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market. It also has 72 member golf package providers, and there was one fewer member course in 2019 with the closing of Heather Glen Golf Links late in 2018.

Rounds were down 1.7 percent last year in the three crucial spring golf season months of March-May, when nearly 1 million rounds were played. But that included a 10.4 percent increase in May, which began a run of gains in six of the final eight months of the year.

April being down and May being up can largely be attributed to Easter being in late April. The week leading up to Easter is traditionally very slow and history shows some rounds get pushed into May when it is that late on the calendar.

October has become the primary month for the fall golf season, and rounds increased 3.8 percent in 2019 to 291,500, the fourth busiest month after March-May.

Rounds increased nearly 31 percent in September despite an evacuation along the South Carolina coast in advance of Hurricane Dorian early in the month. That’s because compared to the devastating effects of Hurricane Florence and subsequent flooding in September 2018, Dorian’s damage was minimal and courses were back in operation quickly.

Florence was among the weather challenges in 2018, along with a winter freeze in early January that contributed to winterkill on many area greens in late spring and early summer, and an unusually rainy summer.

Though December was the slowest month of 2019, the weather was mild and rounds increased 37 percent to nearly 115,000.

Package rounds, which are booked through a golf package provider and traditionally include lodging, were down 4.7 percent in 2019, however, to about 720,000 of the 2.68 million rounds registered by T-Links.

Conner said golf course revenues also increased as average green fees rose slightly in 2019. About two-thirds of area courses utilize software that is designed to maximize pricing strategies.

This year is off to a promising start, as rounds in January increased nearly 21 percent to 152,690 compared to 2019 and there are 360,000 package rounds already booked through June, according to Conner, which is an increase in pre-bookings compared to this time last year.

“This is the best start we’ve had to a year in recent memory,” Conner said. “All indications are as strong as 2019 was, we’re building on that momentum and 2020 looks to be an even better year for the golf industry.

“Right now we’re positioned as well as we could be. If we have reasonable weather we’re poised to have a very, very good year.”

Rounds played 2019 vs. 2018

Golf rounds played in the Myrtle Beach golf market, stretching from Georgetown, S.C., to Southport, N.C., in 2019 compared to 2018.

* According to rounds booked on the T-Links tee sheet reservation system.

This story was originally published February 10, 2020 at 9:28 AM.

Alan Blondin

The Sun News

Alan Blondin covers golf, Coastal Carolina University athletics, business, and numerous other sports-related topics that warrant coverage. Well-versed in all things Myrtle Beach, Horry County and the Grand Strand, the 1992 Northeastern University journalism school valedictorian has been a reporter at The Sun News since 1993 after working at papers in Texas and Massachusetts. He has earned eight top-10 Associated Press Sports Editors national writing awards and more than 20 top-three S.C. Press Association writing awards since 2007.