Overland Park Golf Course was shut down for six weeks before reopening in late April with an uncertain summer ahead. Would Colorado golfers be willing to play in a pandemic?
Now, fast-forward six months.
Good luck booking a tee time if the weather is good.
“It’s been the craziest year I’ve ever seen,” said Joe Pinson, a Denver native and head golf pro at Overland Park. “We have not had a break on our tee sheets. We’re basically full, from sun-up to sun-down.”
Colorado’s golf renaissance is real.
Public golf courses operated by the City of Denver report a roughly 20-percent rise in rounds played this year and that’s despite being closed for several weeks due to the coronavirus. Ed Mate, executive director of the Colorado Golf Association, said: “I’ve heard from some private clubs, anecdotally, that they’ve increased their rounds by 100 percent in a given month.”
The CGA compiles an annual survey of public course operators, and prior to this year, the state averaged about 1.5 million-1.7 million rounds played. That number is about to rise, by a lot.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we break the two-million round barrier,” Mate said. “We didn’t launch some great new marketing idea or treat people differently when they showed up at the golf course. We were just the lucky recipients of a cultural paradigm.
“I think the future depends entirely on how long it lasts.”
The state’s golf boon is explained by Coloradans limited by coronavirus restrictions finding outdoor refuge in a socially-distanced activity shared among friends. Golf operators continue to offer single-rider carts, pins cannot be removed from holes, and clubhouses are expected to enforce county-mandated mask policies.
Quinn Botkins, 36, is a Littleton resident who might have played golf once or twice a year in years past. The pandemic changed all that. Botkins estimates he’s gotten in at least 20 rounds between this summer and fall. His wife also began playing for the first time.
“It’s sort of replaced date night for us at restaurants,” Botkins said. “It’s super hard, but it’s also really rewarding when you actually string a couple of good shots together. You just kind of forget what’s going on in the world. I’m able to just turn my phone off.”
However, Botkins admits he is lucky to have a friend who handles booking tee times. Botkins said: “He stays up until midnight when the day turns over and tries to catch tee times. Even then it can be difficult. The popularity has gone through the roof.”
The challenge moving forward for Colorado golf operators is capitalizing on the current craze with sustained player growth when the pandemic is over. A new generation of golfers is being exposed to the game at a record pace.
“I’ve been in the golf business now for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Mate said. “It’s been a perfect storm.”
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