3-Minute Business Insights
When it comes to traditional, new golf courses, what’s being built today is different than during the development boom of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Here's how.
Midyear Momentum: Course Openings & Closures
Continued signs of equilibrium in world's best-supplied golf market
Over the past four years, the number of annual golf course closures has dropped 62%. So what does the market look like at the midway point of 2023? And how do course openings compare to recent years?
Midyear Update: U.S. and Worldwide Course Supply
Golf has remarkable geographic spread, with at least one course in 83% of countries and territories worldwide. In fact, there are more golf courses globally than Starbucks locations.
New Course Development
Tracking "Resurrections" - Closed Courses Get New Life
New golf course openings in the U.S. remain limited, averaging about 13 over the past decade. But the number of “new-to-you” properties in the U.S. market is considerably higher when considering renovations, reconstructions and another category: “resurrections,” or closed courses given new life.
Is New Course Construction Picking Up?
With increases in golf participation, play and popularity in recent years, one of the questions we've gotten recently is whether there’s been a rise in new U.S. course construction since the onset of the pandemic.
Tracking New Golf Course Development
Among the U.S. golf courses in construction or in-planning, almost one-third of the projects are located in two states. But as history shows, not every project in golf's developmental pipeline opens for play.
U.S. Golf Facility Investments Total Nearly $1.8B Annually
Spend is almost split between public and private, but share is not
Beyond the exciting (but limited) number of new golf courses we read about, the real industry investment is in upgrades, improvements, renovations and restorations at existing facilities. And it's significant.
There have been far more golf course closures than openings in the U.S. over the past 15 years. But did you realize that almost 740 U.S. golf courses have had openings during that period? That total, during what’s looked at as a “down period” for the industry, is more than the entire golf course supply in nations such as Scotland, Ireland, Spain and South Africa.
