2015-10-06_PR Comm Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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. By the end of July the number of outings in Minnesota had grown by 15 percent over the same period in 2014, according to Michael Abramowitz, spokesman for the Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of America. Nationally, the number of golf rounds played was up by 1 percent. Minnesota ranks third among the 49 states followed by the PGA’s PerformanceTrak database. The National Golf Foundation puts the state (up 13 percent) and metro (up 14 percent) tops among states and metros, fractionally ahead of Washington state and Seattle, where golfing interest was raging — this summer saw the first-ever U.S. Open in the Pacific Northwest. The big reason? Good weather, everyone agrees. “I’ve been doing this a long time and we will never have a year like this again as far as weather is concerned,” said Mark Foley, golf pro at Keller. “You couldn’t make it any better. We’ve had an incredible year. We started as early as we ever will and \[a week ago\] Thursday was our first rain day. It’s been crazy.” Another big lure, the PGA reports: cheaper rounds. Minnesota’s median 18-hole greens fee was $26.68, below the $28.28 recorded for 2014 and a sign that rugged competition continues. Indeed, revenue in many places remains bleak for public operators. Reducing fees, good for golfers if bad for the bottom line, helped Woodbury pull out of a long nose-dive at its Eagle Valley municipal course. Rounds played peaked at nearly 32,000 in 2005, then sank to a low of 26,421 by 2011. That was not unusual around the metro as a boom in new courses during the ’90s left the region overbuilt heading into a pair of recessions. But last year’s total of nearly 31,000 rounds at Eagle Valley left it within hailing distance of its pre-slump peak. Statewide, reports the PGA, the recession years from 2008 to 2011 saw a 16 percent drop in rounds played. But since then, “rounds per 18-hole course,” as the organization puts it, have grown 16 percent. Keller’s clubhouse is lined with pictures of Arnold Palmer and other legends who’ve played there. A $12 million renovation of the course and clubhouse has drawn so many golfers over the past year that course managers closed it early last fall — and likely will do so again next month — because it was so heavily played, said Ramsey County parks chief Jon Oyanagi.