The general improvement in U.S. golf facility health metrics over the past couple decades represents one of the industry’s most significant structural shifts.
In 2009, toward the end of the Great Recession (and a period in which participation levels dipped by about three million golfers), NGF researchers began surveying U.S. golf facilities regarding their financial health. We’ve continued this longitudinal study over the years to track how these self-reported measures have changed, and the contrast between the low point after the financial crisis and the recent peak is substantial.
In 2009 and again in 2016, approximately one quarter of public U.S. golf courses indicated they were in poor financial health. Over the past five years, this proportion of poor (or “very poor”) has dropped to 5% or less, and the early returns this year among hundreds of responding golf course operators suggest nearly three-quarters of public facilities would rate their financial footing as “good” or “excellent.”
A similar trajectory holds true with private clubs, with even fewer indicating they’re in dire financial health.
The past five years have seen heightened participation (+4.3 million on-course golfers) and play (record-setting rounds in 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025), so the easy back-of-napkin math would suggest more revenue means better financial standing for golf courses and clubs. Operator surveys have supported this, with nearly 60% saying increased demand for rounds and memberships has been the leading factor behind their improved financial health, while other reasons included investments (in the golf course, infrastructure and amenities), better pricing power, and an added or renewed focus on the overall customer experience.
From a broader perspective, an underappreciated contributor to improved facility health was the supply correction that resulted in a net reduction of over 2,000 U.S. golf courses between 2006 and 2020.
Looking back, there has been predictive validity in the self-reported financial health measures – as approximately 20% of the public courses in the early samples that rated their health as poor or worse are now shut down. That closure rate is four times as high as facilities at the upper end of the financial health scale. Meanwhile, financially distressed private clubs closed or converted (to public) at eight times the rate of those in strong financial standing.
When we shared an update on facility financial health five years ago and noted fewer courses were “at risk,” we anticipated the rate of course closures would slow down as the marketplace moved closer to equilibrium. The findings were predictive, as the net U.S. supply change since 2020 is a reduction of fewer than 60 facilities.
The balancing of supply and demand may have been accelerated by the pandemic, but the result is the most robust market in decades from a facility health perspective, even as challenges remain such as sustaining momentum amid normalization and capacity constraints at golf courses. These early findings, and more to come, will be a part of NGF’s State of Industry and Graffis Report – set for release in early 2027.
