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.

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.

Based on research from the NGF’s definitive international facility database, the R&A's biennial Golf Around the World Report is back and counts golf courses in 206 of the world’s 251 countries -- with more than 38,000 courses globally.

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.