Following a very favorable November for golf, December 2007 went out with a respectable but very similar performance to the prior year.

Pellucid reports that golf playable hours for the month of nationally were up 0.4 percent compared to the same period last year. This left the year-to-date golf playable hours virtually unchanged also at +0.4 percent.

But the neutral national weather for December hides how diverse the results were in key warm weather regions.

The Southeast and Southeast Coast regions saw a significant downturn in golf playable hours for the month as did Northern California Coastal. Warm climate winners were the Gulf Coast, Texas and the Inland California Valley. The remaining key regions of Florida, Arizona and Southern California saw only marginal changes in weather vs. prior year. Regionally for the year, gainers outnumbering decliners nine regions up from last year, five regions down and 10 neutral.

Golf DataTech says rounds played for November were down five percent a 16-percent increase in golf playable hours. The conclusion was that that golfers passed up favorable weather late in the season (particularly in the northern parts of the Midwest and East) and opted for something other than additional rounds of golf.