On Friday morning, Eric Wilkinson could empathize with Target employees who man the front doors leading up to post-Thanksgiving sales.
The CGA’s director of junior competitions was overseeing the CGA/CWGA Used Club Sale at the Denver Golf Expo, but suffice it to say he wasn’t ready for what awaited him when the show opened at the Denver Mart on Friday.
“We didn’t open until 10 and some people were waiting in line for an hour,” Wilkinson recounted on Monday. “One guy thought another guy was cutting in line, and things started getting physical. They were shoving to get the best spot. (When we opened), it was like the Running of the Bulls. People were running toward the putters and the sets of clubs we were selling. It was literally like Black Friday at Target. Things were priced to sell, and we were swamped for two hours.”
While the Used Club Sale, which benefits the associations’ junior developmental programs, didn’t set a record for the third straight year, that was probably only because they had little inventory of donated clubs and equipment available on Sunday after doing brisk sales on Friday and Saturday.
The Used Club Sale, which this year also featured women’s clothing, netted about $14,400 for junior developmental programs. While that was down from the record $17,500 raised last year, it was still the third-highest total in the 12-year history of the event.
“We had another really good year. It’s a testament to the generosity of the Colorado golf community,” Wilkinson said, noting that clubs and equipment are donated throughout the year, culminating in more than a month of golfers contributing equipment at the PGA Tour Superstore in Greenwood Village. “It shows that word of mouth is really working.”
Overall, numbers at the 21st annual Denver Golf Expo were a mixed bag.
Mark Cramer, who owns and operates the Expo along with his wife Lynn, said that 9,486 people attended the three-day show. That’s down about 3 percent from last year. The attendance has dropped each of the last three years, going from 10,749 in 2011 to 10,519 in 2012 to 9,773 last year to 9,486 this winter. The Expo’s record for attendance was 11,202, in 2008.
“What we’re seeing regarding the numbers is probably following industry (trends),” Cramer said, noting the National Golf Foundation has reported that the number of golfers in the U.S. dropped from 30 million in 2005 to 25.3 million in 2012. “There’s a trend. That begs the question: What else can I do for the industry, and what do we need to do to bring those numbers up? That will be stuff I’ll be puzzling over and sorting through for the next four months or so. And I’ll talk to a lot of people” to get their input.
Cramer said the number of exhibitors at the Expo was down about 20 from last year, but some of that might have been due to higher exhibitor rates the Expo was charging this year. That hike was in response to considerably higher rent the Denver Mart charged the Expo, and the fact that the Expo bought out the parking so that attendees wouldn’t be charged for it.
On the positive side, the Colorado PGA reported that its professionals gave 528 free 10-minute lessons (left) over the three days of the show.
“I’ll tell you what is significant about that: You get a lesson, you hit more balls, then see what you can do on the course,” Cramer said. “If you start to do better on the course, it affects the (number of) rounds played. I’m delighted with that number.”
And though the numbers were down from previous years at the Junior Golf Experience activity center (middle photo), about 300 kids participated this year.
Meanwhile, Cramer said he heard from numerous exhibitors that their sales during the show surpassed the figures of last year.
“They smoked it down there,” Cramer said. “(Course-related exhibitors) smoked it on passes. They saw substantial increases in sales. And sales at Lenny’s Golf were up over last year.
“We’re doing a lot right. I think the world of the state associations (the CGA, CWGA, Colorado PGA, etc.) and how much they do to grow the game. They aren’t afraid to go out and do stuff (outside the box) if that’s what it takes.”
