Golf Industry Facts

A total of 48.1 million Americans age 6+ played golf – BOTH on-course and off-course – in 2025.

The number of golf trials has been at record or near-record levels in recent years, with 3 million or more on-course beginners every year since 2020.

The number of annual newcomers had hovered around 2.5 million from 2016-2019 prior to the pandemic-fueled rise. Off-course forms of golf — such as entertainment golf venues — are proving a valuable on-ramp for introductions, helping participants build confidence and comfort before visiting a golf course for the first time. Retention and conversion of newcomers remains an industry focus, and an obstacle.

The category of young adults (18-34 year olds) is one of the sport’s largest customer age segments, even if they don’t play the most.

Engagement among this cohort has remained strong as younger participants play golf in a variety of ways — on the golf course and away from it. There are over 7 million young adults who, thus far, have only hit golf balls with a club away from the course, creating a deep well of future prospects. In addition, interest in the green-grass game among non-golfing young adults is high, with more than 7 1/2 million saying they are “very interested” in taking up the traditional game.

Just under 4 million juniors played golf on a course in 2025, more than in any year since 2004. This segment continues to be more diverse than the overall golf population and has seen a 58% increase since 2019, the largest gains of any age group.

More than one-third (35%) of today’s juniors are girls compared to 15% in 2000. More than one-quarter (26%) of junior golfers are People of Color while just 6% were minority participants just over 20 years ago.

There were more than 8 million female on-course golfers (age 6+) in 2025. The number of traditional female golfers (adult and junior) has surpassed 6 million the past six years — a level not seen since prior to the financial crisis in 2007. Since 2019, the net gain in female golfers is 2.5 million, a 46% increase.

Over one quarter (28%) of on-course golfers are women, matching the highest proportion on record. Females also represent a disproportionately higher percentage of beginners (35%), juniors (35%) and off-course only participants (43%) than they do in the overall golf population.

Over 21 million Americans didn’t play golf in 2025 but in consumer surveys indicated they are “very interested” in playing golf on a golf course. This is a measure NGF terms “latent demand.”

The 37% increase in this pool of potential golfers since 2019 is attributable in part to the growth and popularity of off-course golf. Almost half of this untapped demand is comprised of “lapsed golfers” who played on a course previously, but not within the past year, while the rest are those who never played golf on a course before.

There have been more than 500 million rounds of golf played at U.S. courses in each of the past six years.

2025 marked the fourth time in the past five years that there have been a record number of rounds. From 2020-2025, rounds are trending 21% higher than the five-year, pre-pandemic average from 2015-19. These increased levels of play come despite having about 2,000 fewer golf courses than there were during the industry’s previous peak period (The “Tiger boom”) of the early 2000s.

Since our start in 1936, we’ve kept tabs on every golf course in the U.S. As the go-to source of golf supply information, our team verifies golf courses every day, identifying which are open, which closed and any new projects in development. Not only do stakeholders benefit from knowing how many golf courses there are, they also get insight into the balance of public and private golf in the U.S., playing fees and more.

There were approximately 16,000 golf courses at 14,000 golf facilities in the U.S. at the end of 2025. That’s more golf courses nationwide than McDonald’s or Dunkin’ Donuts locations. (A facility is defined as a business location where golf can be played on one or more golf courses).

Golf remains broadly accessible, with about three-quarters of U.S. courses and facilities open to the public (~2,600 Municipal, ~7,600 Daily Fee facilities).

Prior to 2006, there was a 20-year expansion cycle where U.S. golf course supply grew by 44%, a building boom driven primarily by real estate sales.

Since 2006, there has been a cumulative contraction of approximately 13%. This industry rebalancing of supply and demand saw closures disproportionately concentrated among value-priced courses (less than $40 greens fee). U.S. golf supply has been largely stable over the last several years and there is currently more active new course development than any time since 2010.