"Golf courses in Massachusetts on the rebound" by Callum Borchers | Globe Staff, April 27, 2013
The economy is out of the bunker, and Bay State golfers are back in the tee box.
After several slow years during the nationwide recession and a sluggish start to the recovery, Massachusetts golf courses are optimistic that business is on the upswing as the 2013 season gets underway.
Already this spring, rounds played are up 10 percent, compared with the same time a year ago, at Boston’s two municipal courses.
“And the weather hasn’t even been as good as it was last year,” said Dennis Roache, general manager of the George Wright Golf Course in Hyde Park and the William J. Devine Golf Course in Dorchester. “That’s why those numbers are surprising. It gives us hope that things are starting to turn around.”
Signs of a rebound began last year, when the number of rounds played in Massachusetts and Rhode Island ticked upward by 1.7 percent, according to the National Golf Foundation, following declines in three of the previous four seasons.
The posh Pinehills Golf Club in Plymouth, where a season pass costs $4,800, had its most profitable postrecession season in 2012, said John Tuffin, the club’s director of golf...
Related: Germany Going Into Recession
Maybe that last part is why the posh place is booming.
Though it is no longer a leisure activity only for the wealthy, golf remains a symbol of disposable income.
I don't have it for golf, and wouldn't if I did.
As the economy faltered, many players viewed the game as an unnecessary expense, said Don Hearn, manager of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of New England.
I always viewed it as elitists, and the outrageous prize sums and advertising are put up by the usual $u$pects.
“People just wanted to get in a cave and put a rock in front of it,” Hearn said....
Between 2007 and 2012, the number of active golfers in the United States shrank from 30 million to 26 million, according to the National Golf Foundation.
The economic downturn affected not only how often golfers played but also where they played, said Joe Sprague Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Golf Association. For the most part, he said, well-established private clubs were not badly hurt by the recession, and business at bargain-priced public courses held fairly steady....
At the private Boston Golf Club in Hingham, which opened in 2004 with initiation fees of $125,000, membership declined during the recession, leaving the club without enough revenue to pay its lease.
Woah!
With the club on the verge of bankruptcy, four remaining members led a group that bought the property for $6.5 million in 2011 — a fraction of what it cost to build the course.
Today, membership has climbed back to its prerecession peak of about 150, surging since early last season, when club rolls barely registered triple digits.
“The economy’s looking better, we now have a mortgage we can manage,” said Jack Ryan, the club’s president....
The rich are doing better, and they can make the mortgage.
Yeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!
Other private clubs also changed hands amid economic uncertainty. Courses sold at foreclosure auctions in the last two years included the Sterling Country Club, the Pleasant Valley Country Club in Sutton, and the Hickory Ridge Country Club in Amherst. All three went to new owners who have kept the courses open. Not every course survived its sale, however. The Scottish Meadow Golf Course in Warren was sold last year to a Florida solar power company that plans to turn the land into a solar farm.
Hey, that's a good idea when it comes to golf course conversion.
Sensing potential to increase golf participation in Massachusetts, the PGA of America last year created a position, a player development regional manager for Greater Boston. The PGA hired regional managers in only three other strategic markets, New York, Chicago, and Southern California.
Attracting new golfers “has been slow going since the recession,” said Brian Bain, who got the new job after spending nine years as the head professional at the Robert T. Lynch Municipal Golf Course in Brookline. But with things looking up, Bain said he is working to add female and junior players — two demographics in which participation declined in recent years — while also encouraging golf courses to make themselves more friendly to beginners.
Suggestions include shortening holes and introducing a pay-per-hole system that allows golfers to play as much or as little as time allows.
“Heck, even if you throw the ball out of the sand, what’s the big deal?” Bain said. “As long as you’re having fun. We just want people to play.”
Well, it's a major violation of etiquette and cheating, but yeah, what's the big deal?
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Need a couple more shots to par the hole:
"Mass. economy sees surprisingly strong growth" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, April 26, 2013
After a period of lackluster economic growth, the Massachusetts economy sprang to life in the first three months of this year as hiring increased, incomes rose, and consumer spending rebounded, according to a new report by the University of Massachusetts and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston....
Why am I not believing the bulls***?
The state has recovered from the last recession faster than the nation as a whole, regaining as of January all the jobs lost in the downturn even as US employment remains millions of jobs below the prerecession peak. That has helped boost incomes here, which have been further supported by the strong stock market and rising home values, leading to stronger consumer spending.
What do they call it when a lie is constantly repeated?
“What’s surprising is how quick the growth was in the beginning of the year,” said Alan Clayton-Matthews, the Northeastern University economist who compiled and analyzed data in the UMass report. “We’re in the fourth year of the recovery now, and at some point that pent-up demand has to make itself felt in consumer spending. That’s what’s beginning to take place.”
Wages and incomes in Massachusetts grew at a “stunning” 19.9 percent annual rate in the first quarter, Clayton-Matthews said, likely due to sizable bonuses for workers in the state’s financial companies and professional services sector, which includes law, scientific research, and technical firms.
Just the Globe giving you the business again.
Also see: Liberty Mutual, MassMutual CEOs won big pay boosts
Just the Globe giving you the bu$ine$$ again.
Consumers, meanwhile, appeared to put aside caution and open their wallets. Spending on discretionary purchases, including TVs, furniture, and appliances, as well as motor vehicles, grew robustly at an annual rate of 11.6 percent, based on an analysis of state sales taxes.
At Boch Enterprises, one of the region’s biggest auto dealers, sales are on the rise, said owner Ernie Boch Jr. Many customers, after holding back for the past few years, simply need a new car and can no longer put off a purchase, he said. Others have been lured into showrooms by new models and historically low interest rates.
“There’s lots of signs that people are out spending,” Boch said.
The Globe always talks to the same people. If it's cars it's this guy, economy the other guy. I'm just sick of hearing from the same people all the time. Sorry.
Retailers are also seeing those signs. At TJX Cos., the Framingham retailer that operates T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, sales climbed 12 percent in 2012 from the previous year. During the five weeks ending April 6, sales rose 5 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Related:
"TJX Cos. Inc., which operates off-price retailers T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and HomeGoods, reported a jump in sales for the five weeks ended April 6 of $2.4 billion, up 5 percent over a year ago. But at stores open at least a year, sales fell 2 percent, the company said. Generally a star performer, TJX cited a shift in the timing of Easter and recent cold weather as factors in its unusual same-store sales decline. In a statement, however, TJX chief Carol Meyrowitz said “April is off to a good start.”"
Well, if lying is off to a good start (sigh).
Also see: After $21m Mass. tax break, TJX moves unit to Ohio
TJX chief executive doubles pay to $22m
Took the money and ran, did Meyrowitz?
The Massachusetts economy seems to have turned a corner after Washington legislators resolved longstanding tax and policy questions at the end of last year, local economists said.
Oh, good Lord, how many times de we hear that about the wars (sob!)?
This is about saying the economy is good so the money junkies can loot. The system is about to come apart, folks.
Bruising debates over the national debt followed by an election-year stalemate over reducing the nation’s deficit had left many employers wary of hiring or expanding in the past year, hindering an already slow recovery.
But with the election decided and some major budget battles resolved, the economy has shown signs of improvement. In January, after Congress avoided the so-called fiscal cliff of steep tax increases and deep budget cuts, Massachusetts employers added more than 16,000 jobs, the strongest pace of hiring in years.
Still, I hope that unemployment has not run out on you.
Risks to the economy remain, the UMass report warned. Massachusetts is particularly vulnerable to across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration because the state receives billions annually in federal defense and research spending.
The spending cuts, which took effect last month, have already led to slower hiring in many of the state’s key industries, including health care, higher education, and research and development.
Weak demand for Massachusetts goods in Europe, the state’s biggest foreign market, could also slow growth. State exports to Europe, which is mired in an economic crisis, fell about 30 percent in the first two months of this year, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Wisertrade.org, which tracks international trade.
The UMass report, published in the economic journal MassBenchmarks, projected the state’s economy would continue to grow in coming months, albeit not as quickly.
Michael D. Goodman, professor of public policy at UMass Dartmouth and one of the report’s authors, said it highlights the state’s overall progress since the end of the last recession, although the gains have been uneven.
Penalty stroke!
The number of people unemployed for six months or longer in Massachusetts remains troublingly high, he said. Many are older workers, displaced from jobs in still struggling sectors of the state’s economy, such as manufacturing.
But the banks are booming, corporations are booking record profits, the wealth of the elite is growing, and yet somehow it just isn't working for Americans -- and now they want to reform immigration so cheap foreign labor that won't complain can be brought in. Looks like the only thing left is military service, 'murkn.
And the western part of the state, as well as cities like Lawrence and New Bedford, continue to wrestle with persistently high unemployment.
Related: Welcome to My World
“The state is doing well,” Goodman said. “But even though we have had strong performance, there are still large regions of the state that aren’t experiencing the benefit.”
Yeah, it's only bad where I am, it's only cold where I am, etc, etc, etc.
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And speak of the devil:
"Soros investment gives a boost to struggling Penney" Associated Press, April 27, 2013
NEW YORK — Shares of beleaguered retailer J.C. Penney rose more than 6 percent in aftermarket trading on Thursday after billionaire financier George Soros disclosed a 7.9 percent stake in the company. The shares rose another 11.55 percent on Friday to close at $17.
Soros disclosed he owns about 17.4 million shares of the Plano, Texas, department store operator in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC requires shareholders to disclose stakes of 5 percent or more in a company.
J.C. Penney earlier this month fired its CEO, Ron Johnson, after 17 months on the job and rehired his predecessor Mike Ullman. An ambitious turnaround plan by Johnson had backfired and caused sales to plummet.
See: Penney For Your Thought$
The chain has been burning through cash.
The company last week said it would draw $850 million from its $1.85 billion revolving credit line to pay for replenishing inventory, particularly for its overhauled home area.
The stake makes Soros the fourth largest shareholder in J.C. Penney. The top shareholder is activist investor William Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital, with a 17.8 percent stake.
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Also see:
"Amazon.com Inc.’s net income fell in the first quarter even though revenue rose 22 percent, as the online retailer continued to spend heavily on order fulfillment and rights to digital content. The company, which also sells Kindle devices and services, said it earned $82 million"
"Waltham’s PerkinElmer Inc. fell after the maker of research and science instruments reported worse-than-expected earnings on weakening product sales and cut its outlook for the year. The company reported net income of $32.2 million. A tax benefit helped earnings in the most recent quarter. Revenue declined as sales of the company’s environmental health products fell."
Wow a two-putt.
Just bracketed 'em, I guess.
