The state with the most public golf in the U.S. leads the category by a fairly substantial margin.
It’s not Florida, which has the most golf courses overall.
And it’s also not California, which has the most golfers in the nation.
The U.S. leader in publicly accessible golf is Michigan, whose 748 daily fee, municipal and resort courses are more than the total golf supply in 45 other states. With 868 golf courses overall at the start of 2026, Michigan is one of five states with 800+ courses – behind Florida (1,290) and California (963), and just ahead of New York (830) and Texas (825). And 86% of the golf courses in Michigan are public, notably higher than the 72% national average.
There’s good reason Michigan has been called “America’s Summer Golf Capital.” In addition to temperate weather, natural beauty, a centralized U.S. location and the nation’s longest freshwater coastline, Michigan boasts roughly the same number of public golf courses as the combined total of McDonald’s and Burger King locations statewide. These courses, from the Detroit area to Northern Michigan and the U.P. (Upper Peninsula), appeal not only to the nearly one million golfers who live in the state, but help draw visiting golfers from dozens of states and countries, especially our friends in Canada north of the border.
Golf is unquestionably big business in Michigan, with an annual direct economic impact of approximately $3 billion, according to a recent Economic Impact Study that NGF conducted on behalf of the Michigan Golf Alliance and its affiliated umbrella organizations.
On a national level, NGF produced the often-quoted U.S. Golf Economic Impact Study – detailing that the game’s direct impact of about $102 billion annually. Our researchers and consultants also conduct the gold standard reports on golf’s impact at the state level, detailing not only the size and scope of the game but the kind of detailed data that’s invaluable to legislators and other industry stakeholders.
For those in states with outdated figures — from businesses, organizations and associations to tourism and travel bureaus — we encourage you to reach out to our team and talk through the process. The most recent economic impact numbers are a key part of many of our popular state one-page summaries that are available now to NGF members, detailing the key supply and demand data at a more localized level.
And for more state-level research and data visualizations, see our accompanying Full Shots piece with insight on which states have the most competition for public tee times, which have the highest proportion of private golf, which have the most golf-related real estate, and more.
