After a generally wetter, cooler May in 2025, rounds for May of 2026 were up 5.6% on a national level year-over-year.
The trajectory into the start of golf’s peak season means that play at U.S. courses continues to trend just over 5% ahead of last year’s record-setting pace for rounds.
Temperatures and precipitation levels were generally golf-friendly this May, with all but seven states experiencing monthly temperatures that were near or slightly above average. Three of the outliers were only slightly below average, among them golf-rich Pennsylvania, which saw its May play jump by more than 12%.
By comparison, 17 states (mostly along the East coast) in May of 2025 had one of their 10 wettest months on record. As a result, national play declined nearly 2%.
Among this year’s biggest May gainers were Iowa and Missouri (+28%), New Jersey (+16%), New York and Pennsylvania (+12%), the New England states (+12%), Illinois (+11%), and the Maryland, Delaware and Washington D.C. region (+11%).
NGF provides confidential, facility-level rounds data to Circana’s Golf Datatech in helping compile the free, monthly play reports on behalf of the golf industry.
Click the image below to see the full report.
Click image for 3-page PDF of May 2026 rounds played report.
