Colorado PGA News
Colorado Golf Industry Summit Updated Colorado golf Environmental & Economic Impact Study in the works; 2020 the ‘Year of the Woman’ in Colorado golf; Colorado will be a pilot state for ’Doubles Golf’ By Gary Baines – 10/22/2019 The Colorado Golf Industry Summit — like its predecessor, the G4 Summit — attempts to be a forward-looking event regarding issues facing golf. And so it was for Tuesday’s Summit at Pinehurst Country Club in south Denver. But this edition not only featured informational presentations of various sorts — how the game of golf is trending, potential issues coming before state lawmakers that may affect golf, key topics regarding the business side of golf, etc. — but some newsworthy tidbits.
Tuesday’s Colorado Golf Industry Summit drew about 130 people to Pinehurst Country Club. (Photo by Gary Baines)
Here are a few that came out of the Summit, which drew about 130 people to Pinehurst:
“It will be a valid, third-party study that we can hang our hat on.”
— Environmental & Economic Impact Study: It was back in 2002 that a drought prompted leaders in the Colorado golf industry to commission a report entitled “An Independent Study of the Economic Impact and Environment Aspects of Golf In Colorado”. That proved a very useful fact-based document over the years, but it’s now dated, so the plan is to publish a 2020 Environmental & Economic Impact Study that will be ready in time for the annual Colorado Golf Day at the State Capitol in April.
The work collecting that data will be done by the National Golf Foundation — which contracted with the World Golf Foundation and its “We Are Golf” initiative — and a company called Radius Sports Group. The plan is for surveys to be distributed by the end of November and collected by the end of 2019.
“It’s long overdue that we update it,” CGA executive Ed Mate said after Tuesday’s Summit. “We can’t advocate if we don’t have good data. There’s so much misinformation out there, so it’s important to have the facts. The facts show — we know this — that golf is a very environmentally prudent industry that contributes significant dollars to the state’s economy and provides a ton of employment opportunity. On an environmental level, golf courses serves as these filters for carbon emission or carbon offsets. It’s very easy — in today’s world more than ever — to sort of use sound bites to paint people with broad strokes and say golf is an elitist sport, which is not true. But the data has to be current.
October 2019
The new impact study could be particularly valuable as Colorado Golf Coalition lobbyist Jennifer Cassell converses with lawmakers at the state capitol regarding the benefits of the golf industry. “If Jennifer Cassell, who has done a phenomenal job for us as a lobbyist, is working with real current data as opposed to 20-year-old data, (lawmakers) will have a tendency to listen more,” Colorado PGA executive director Eddie Ainsworth noted. “It’s a big chunk of money — a big investment — but we need to do it. And going forward, it will be updated more regularly.” Cassell likewise sees plenty of value in an updated study, noting “If we are not at the table, we are the menu.”
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