Golfdom Editor-in-Chief Seth Jones caught up with NGF President & CEO Greg Nathan on the first fairway at Shinnecock Hills during the 126th U.S. Open to discuss the state of the game, the economics driving record participation, and what the NGF’s 90th year means for the industry’s future.
“More people are playing more golf in more ways than ever in American history,” Nathan told Jones. “And America’s 14,000 golf facilities are more financially healthy than they’ve ever been.”
That financial health, Nathan explained, creates a virtuous cycle for the broader golf economy. Courses with pricing power are reinvesting in infrastructure: golf cars, irrigation, turf equipment, generating downstream demand across the industry.
Nathan also pushed back on concerns about rising green fees. “There was a really long time where golf courses weren’t able to raise prices. The last thing you’re ever going to hear me say is that golf courses should take less for delivering the product.”
On NGF’s 90th year, he pointed to a new era ahead. “The NGF has always evolved to do what the golf industry needed at a particular time. In the age of AI, with the incredible amounts of proprietary first-party data that the NGF has — it’s a new era.”
