Golf Economic Impact Study

Golf is an $84-billion industry nationwide according to a study commissioned by the World Golf Foundation that was released in 2016. The impact was up 22% from a similar study released in 2011. The game also supports almost 1.9 million jobs and $58.7 billion in compensation and more than 15,000 businesses are closely associated with golf.

In Nevada, the golf industry also has a large economic impact and the Nevada Golf Alliance has commissioned a state-specific study that will be completed in 2019. All expectations are that it will add up to more than $1 billion dollars and thousands of jobs.

In 2018, the National Golf Industry released its “Golf Industry Report” and it revealed the following:

An estimated 23.8 million people played golf on a course in 2017 — the same as a year earlier. Another 8.3 million played exclusively off-course at facilities like Topgolf, driving ranges or in indoor simulators, putting the game’s overall participant pool at more than 32 million.

The number of U.S. non-golfers who said they are now “very interested” in playing at a golf course hit a new measured high, at 14.9 million. This represents a 16% jump over 2016 and the continued increase in latent demand helped boost the number of golf newcomers (2.6 million) for the fourth year in a row.

There were 456 million rounds of golf played in 2017, an average of 19 rounds per golfer. Total golf course supply declined by 1.5%, with the opening of 15.5 new 18-hole equivalent golf courses and 205.5 course closures, in a continuation of a correction in supply and demand. The U.S. remains the best-supplied golf market in the world with 14,794 facilities, 75% of which are open to all players.

Reports

Executive Summary

Full Report