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Each and every fabric that makes up the golf industry is constantly undergoing its own evolution. From equipment to apparel and everything in between, these individual pieces of the golf puzzle must constantly adjust alongside their peers to ensure they still fit within the overall framework. And golf’s two marquee trade shows—the long-running PGA Merchandise Show and still-young Golf Industry Show—aren’t immune from these transformations.
“The trade show industry is continually evolving, as shows are challenged to provide valuable face-to-face experiences worth a person’s time and expense,” says Rachel Wimberly, president of the Trade Show News Network. “If shows don’t push themselves to innovate and find ways to engage attendees, especially with millennials coming in, they’ll quickly fall behind.”
As participation declines and equipment companies consolidate, golf’s trade shows must keep up with the current state of the industry in order to stay relevant. And though ups and downs will always be part of such a fluid industry, these events appear well positioned to stem the tide.
“The shows have evolved to the ‘new normal,’ which is lower attendance due as much to financial constraints as waning interest,” explains Jim Koppenhaver, president of Pellucid Corp. “ … My personal opinion is that, like the industry in general, what we see now is likely what we’re going to have for the foreseeable future.”
Stuart Lindsay, a principal with Edgehill Golf Advisors, has seen these transformations firsthand. The crazy, party atmosphere days of the late 1990s PGA shows could be gone for good, he believes, but it’s still managed to rebound after lightly-attended shows the last several years.
“If you were out on the show floor, it was wall-to-wall people,” he recalls. “Today you don’t have that problem. But I think the PGA Show has come back. It was noticeable five years ago, but attendance is trending back up.”
Golf’s resurgence since the Great Recession helped. But so too did the implementation of the show’s demo day within the last decade, with the Golf Industry Show following suit with its golf championships. The PGA Show’s demo day in particular has helped bring excitement not only to attendees, but also equipment companies looking to lessen budgeting costs spent on presentations, says Casey Alexander, who covers the golf club equipment industry as senior vice president of Compass Point Research & Trading.
These additions only scratch the surface of how golf’s trade shows evolved over time. There’s still countless opportunities ahead. Alexander and Lindsay have long been proponents of opening the PGA Show to the public, and Lindsay says it should also be pushed to Super Bowl week to instill a party atmosphere again.
“Can you imagine the traffic down there of people wanting to fill up their bag?” Alexander posits. “Each person can register to a retailer or pro shop, which would get credit for their portion of the sale. You’d have a pro bringing down a junket of members, who’d buy their brains out, set up golf days, go to Super Bowl parties. The equipment companies and retailers would have 30 percent of their year in the books before February 1.”
The discussion also remains how to involve the course owner, who has the final say in purchases. It’s just another factor in an ever-shifting golf landscape.
“The PGA pro and superintendents present their cases, and the owner pays the bill,” says Lindsay. “They’ve got the biggest investment of anybody in golf, including the golfers.”
—Chris Cox