For first hearing, Baby Boomers look very attractive for many marketers and golf marketers (e.g. ClubCorp, Callaway Golf, Nike Golf). This is based on the perception that the nearly 79 million Baby Boomers (in the US; 15% of them are playing golf = 11.85 million) have earned record levels of income, generated great wealth, and spurred economic growth (source: McKinsey Global Institute research; they pay $420 billion a year in federal taxes and $250 billion at the state and local levels.).
The Jeffries estimate that “Boomers will contribute at least 50M incremental rounds played as they enter retirement.” The dark side of this supercharged spending caused significant levels of debt and lack of saving among the Baby Boomers.
See more details below…
This is how we arrive to our topic. Troon Privé has been selected to manage The Powder Horn Golf Community (Sheridan, Wyoming). The Powder Horn Golf Community is a highly recognized golf club community by leading magazines like:
- Golfweek‘s “Best Residential Golf Courses” and “Best Courses You Can Play” and “No. 1 Wyoming course”;
- Where to Retire Magazine has recognized it as one of the top master planned communities.
The Powder Horn became popular for several reasons. Beside offering a unique 12-month sports and recreation community, it is also not negligible aspect that Wyoming is frequently ranked as the #1 most tax-friendly state.
Details of the cooperation
The Homer Scott Jr. family will retain ownership of The Powder Horn and serve as the governing board. A Troon Privé trained general manager will join The Powder Horn early in 2016 to work with the governing board, the present management team as well as interface with Troon corporate.
My recommendations
Let’s be a little bit skeptical and revise our high hopes regarding the wealth, the purchasing power and business opportunities of the Baby Boomers. Let’s also ask ourselves what will happen if the Boomers put down their golf clubs? How can we replace those who stop playing golf anymore?
We should not overlook that fact that golf participation in the US is stagnating. Last year, there were only 24.7 million golfers in the US that matches the figure for 2013. Therefore, I would look for ideas how to attract people from the age group of ‘under 50’ + look closer within these age groups who are most likely to answer positively to golf. Without boosting women’s participation in golf, we will be in big trouble.
It is also not negligible that the average size of family consists of 3.13 persons in the US (the U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2014). In the sixties an average American family consisted of 3.7 persons. Needless to say this figure is different in every American state.
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