At the 2017 PGA Show Golf Datatech LLC and Yano Research Institute of Japan, the golf industry’s two leading independent research companies released the first update to their widely respected Worldwide Golf Report of 2015.  Here are a few key observations:

1.  Currency is King:  When there are wild swings in exchange rates they can significantly impact sales reporting.  While the UK faced uncertainty due to Brexit and sales paid for it with a lower Pound, Japanese and Korean currencies strengthened vs. the dollar and offset deep declines from 2015 with sharp increases in 2016.
2. On a Worldwide basis almost every category in almost every country is getting smaller in units (or dozens or pairs or sets).  In total, there have been fewer cash register “rings” over the past few years.
3. Average Selling Prices are soaring and offsetting some of the unit declines.  Generally speaking golf manufacturers have significantly improved their inventory management practices and the number of close out products available at deep discounts has dropped dramatically.
4. Equipment sales consolidated even further into the 5 largest markets: led by the US, Japan, Korea, UK and Canada, which today account for nearly 84% of total equipment sales on a worldwide basis, compared to 82% in 2015.

If you are interested in better understanding how the Worldwide Golf Equipment and Apparel markets are faring, please email to Tom Stine at info@golfdatatech.com for more information.  This updated Study is by far the most insightful and data heavy analysis of the world’s major markets conducted thus far, including estimates of unit sales, dollar sales, by product categories.