‘Like a hurricane in the spring’: Myrtle Beach golf market braces for coronavirus impact
The Myrtle Beach golf market was coming off an increase in rounds played compared to the previous year for the second time in three years in 2019, and was riding the momentum into the crucial spring golf season.
Pre-booked package rounds that combine accommodations and golf were up considerably on the Grand Strand’s approximate 80 public-access courses following a strong start to the year.
Then came the onset of the coronavirus in the United States.
“It’s the best season I’ve seen on the books in years and it’s going away rapidly,” said Chip Smith, managing partner of Atlantic Golf Management, which operates two courses in the market – Whispering Pines Golf Club and Brunswick Plantation & Golf Resort – and more than 100 rental condos.
“On February 14th we passed last year’s totals in travel provider rounds, and it’s rapidly going away.”
The longer the coronavirus impacts the country, the more courses will lose rounds in what is the busiest and most lucrative season of the year.
“Our March, April and May is our bread and butter, and if it’s not there then this is like a hurricane in the spring,” Smith said. “It could be devastating to the golf community. Let’s just hope it’s as short as possible. There’s a lot of uncertainty right now.”
According to Tracy Conner, executive director of the Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association (MBAGCOA), there is still too much uncertainty to attempt to estimate the full impact the coronavirus will have on the spring season.
“I don’t know if we know. As soon as I think [I know something], then it changes. It’s fluid,” said Conner, who is also the president of technology for the Golf Tourism Solutions marketing and technology agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market. “I don’t think we can measure the impact of what’s going on because it’s changing so quickly.”
Conner said the MBAGCOA and GTS has recommended that golf courses and package providers waive any cancellation fees.
“Now isn’t the time to penalize the customer,” Conner said. “We want to be mindful of our customers and consumers. That’s where the focus has been. Then we’ll start measuring after this thing is over with.”
Courses have been making extra efforts to maintain sanitary conditions by disinfecting golf carts after each round and taking other actions.
Founders Group International, for instance, which owns and operates 21 Strand courses, said policies it has instituted include all staff wearing sanitation gloves, the elimination of on-course water coolers and paper starting tickets, encouraging players not to touch flagsticks, and allowing walking on courses where it’s logistically feasible.
Golf is inherently one of the few sports that promotes social distancing, aside from the one person you are riding with in a golf cart if you’re not walking. “Golf courses are trying to minimize the spread and protect as much as they can from the time the golfer gets into the parking lot until they leave,” said GTS chief executive officer Bill Golden.
FGI stated in an email to The Sun News that it still sees a demand for tee times in the short term, “so we will operate our 21 golf courses as long as we can provide a safe environment for our guests and staff, which remains our top priority.”
Many of those who have canceled rounds have either rescheduled or expressed a desire to reschedule.
“Probably 75 percent want to reschedule. For a lot of people this is the highlight of their year, the spring golf trip,” said Parker Smith, owner of the Golf Trek package company, which operates more than 200 rental units in multiple locations. “Some aren’t sure when, and have to get back with their group and the logistics of it all, but there are some that due to work duties can’t and will have to punt and (maybe) come back in the fall.
“A lot of them are trying to push them out to May so it’s still the spring.”
If there is a government-mandated closing of non-essential businesses, as some states and cities have done, it would be an immediate hit to revenue. But it could expedite the curbing of the spread of the virus and ultimately shorten the length of the financial impact.
Restaurants and bars in South Carolina have been forced to close to inside guests temporarily per an order Tuesday from S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster – takeout and delivery orders are still permitted – and though golf courses remain open, that could still deter golfers from traveling to the area for their golf vacation.
Easter weekend is always a slow week on area golf courses, and it falls on April 6-12 this year, so a best-case scenario is the country returns to a somewhat normal way of life after Easter and the market has time to salvage the latter part of the spring season and make up for lost rounds in the second half of April and May.
“We were lined up for a home run in the spring. Golf courses are in good shape and it has been a mild winter,” Parker Smith said. “We were teed up for a perfect spring. I guess there are other plans in the cards, at least in the short run.
“I’d like to say we could keep 80 percent of what we have, which will still put us ahead of last year by a good bit, but it’s kind of a moving target. It could get a whole lot worse.”
In addition to cancellations, what would have been late bookings may also be significantly diminished. It is possible local golfers will pick up some of the lost rounds, however.
“I’m thankful that I have such a good membership base, because they’re going to be there playing and the revenue is coming in,” Chip Smith said. “But courses that are almost totally dependent on package play are in for a scary road in front of them, I’m afraid.”
Chip Smith said the first cancellations were Canadians “who were scared to cross the border, which is understandable,” – all Canadians returning from travel abroad are now being asked to self-isolate for 14 days – and he said the next wave has been parents of children out of school.
“We’re getting a lot of that,” Smith said, “and then the older crowd is just scared to travel because of the fear that’s being instilled into them about being susceptible to it.”
Brunswick Plantation is involved in golf packages both as a course and accommodations provider with rental condos at the 27-hole property. Smith said the rental condos have lost about 2,000 package rounds through this past weekend to cancellations.
Smith said he hosted about 800 rounds Friday combined at the three courses he operates – including Cape Fear National just south of Wilmington, N.C., which he purchased in October – which is the most in a single day at his three courses.
“That’s really good for this time of year, but I don’t see that happening much more,” Smith said.
Smith doesn’t intend to close his golf courses unless he is forced to. “We’re an outdoor activity and fresh air. I don’t get it. It’s the safest place to be,” he said.
He said the grass will need to be cut and maintained with fertilizers and chemicals to preserve course conditions throughout the Strand, so some workers will have to be retained even if the business closes.
Like many Americans, Chip Smith is concerned about the financial stability of the masses with service industry workers already out of work in many states, businesses likely to lay off workers and a potential further temporary shutdown of businesses looming.
“This is going to impact millions and millions of people. If all these shutdowns happen, hourly wages go away,” Smith said. “That’s a bigger concern to me than anything. I’m more concerned about the everyday person who lives paycheck to paycheck. Are we going to have a depression or what’s that going to do?”
The coronavirus is the latest in a string of setbacks for the Myrtle Beach golf market. Over the past 4 1/2 years, the market has endured catastrophic flooding, a pair of hurricanes and a winter freeze that resulted in winterkill damage and forced many course owners to close for renovations in 2018.
“Can the golf business catch a break?” Parker Smith said.
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:27 PM.
