They keep the practice area maintained for the USGA tournaments they have scheduled

I’ve worked at GGA Partners, a consultant to private clubs, residential / leisure communities, and large municipalities for five years now. Having started in 2020, I would agree that there is a burgeoning interest from less “traditional” capital partners. Not that they weren’t involved before, but I think they have seen the growth (and potential) from the COVID boom and want a piece of the pie. As it relates to your third point, deferred maintenance has to be one of the largest problems we see at our clients. Whether it’s a rogue board that hasn’t prioritized capital maintenance over the years or operators trying to squeeze out every last drop of margin, many clubs are in a very poor position. This poor position then exacerbates the interest from alternative ownership as they are usually: i) More comfortable with debt as a funding mechanism for capital, and ii) More likely to get better rates due to their purchasing / spending power. One slight pushback I have is on the point about public courses margins being thin at best. I think a more accurate statement would be they vary significantly across the market, often times dependent on ownership. Multi-course operators who are purely in the business of profit usually benefit from purchasing programs that largely reduce the cost of sales, especially within the F&B department where most clubs struggle to break-even at best. Comparatively, your local municipal course or privately owned public facility might not have the sophistication or resources to analyze trends and opportunities for improvement; once again making them ripe for private equity to enter the market. I would agree that it is too early to see the impact of PE entering the industry. While they may have a greater capability to bring golf courses to a state of sustainable maintenance, it may reveal a historical Free Rider problem that will end up costing all of us more. Time will tell! Thanks for this, Garrett.

Private equity is focused on short term success. They do not care about the long-term health of anything they are acquiring.

To trend 3, I've often longed for more bye holes on courses, not just for the selfish reasons of being a match play fan, but it should theoretically allow for courses to do maintenance one hole at a time. I realize this is probably unrealistic for most differed maintenance, but the idea of being able to do major maintenance projects without interrupting cash flows seems like a worthwhile investment.

The reality is the ROI on golf is too slow to do anything other than ultra high end or real estate

The proliferation of housing at Cabot properties and now starting at Dream golf properties is indeed depressing

Couldn’t make the hangout but will be over in Ireland for two weeks around the Open + at the Open on Sat and Sunday. Would love to meet any FEGC members if anyone else will be over there!!