Worldwide, golf is estimated to contribute more than $200 billion to economies across nearly 200 countries. The National Golf Foundation (NGF) publishes its Graffis Report. In 2025, that report cited the U.S. golf economy at $101 billion. When you collect the estimates of economic impact to individual regions and countries outside the U.S., much of that from the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (R&A), you get a world total that exceeds $200 billion.
Perspective: Hungary has an annual economy of just over $200 billion. It ranks 56th in global economies out of 195 countries. Which means that golf — as a global economy — is larger than 139 of the economies of the world’s countries.
The National Golf Foundation (NGF) is a repository and think tank for golf statistics, trends and thought. Its mission is focused on the U.S., but its reach and findings are put to work on a worldwide basis. As background, NGF was founded in 1936 by journalists Herb and Joe Graffis as a way to help golf recover from the devastating U.S. stock market crash. The idea was to help promote golf and get it back in the swing of things.
“Herb Graffis used to say, ‘Golf keeps America beautiful,’” points out Dr. Joe Beditz, Executive Chairman of NGF. That statement links the environmental and social benefits of golf to the eventual leg of the stool that provides economic benefits. A single golf course, hopefully beautiful to the eye, not only provides beauty on the physical sense, but it leads to beauty across the spectrums of social interaction and potential economic windfalls to people who are interrelated to golf.
Beditz received his doctorate in education research and measurement. Today, NGF delivers important quick reads that shape the future of golf by enlightening the movers and shakers who do everything in golf from manufacturing clubs and balls, to developing courses and selling robotic mowers. “Synergies cannot be separated,” says Beditz. “In golf you have a very special relationship between courses and all of the tangents that connect to those courses.” He points to the famous clubmaker, Old Tom Morris of St. Andrews. “Old Tom was perhaps the first example we had of the marrying of equipment to courses, something that today we see as the lifeblood of the game.” Across golf there are diverse jobs ranging from mechanics to chefs, and from advertising to hospitality. If you have some spare time, look up the U.S. Bureau of Statistics of Job Classifications. There are 867. Just randomly go down the list and the chances are good you’ll be able to connect the dots to golf, at least on some level, with almost any job listed. Golf courses and golf businesses employ accountants, alligator hunters and, on a few of my projects where we needed to make sure we were not disturbing any important cultural artifacts, archeologists. That is just a sampling of the As. A lot of people — tangents — support golf. And vice versa.
Golf courses typically drive the impetus for consumers to buy golf stuff. An exception is South Korea, where a majority of golfers do not play on traditional real-grass courses. Instead, they play ‘on’ the more than 5,000 golf simulator locations in Korea. Twice as many ‘rounds’ are played on Korea’s virtual ‘courses’ in front of a screen than are played outdoors on actual golf courses. No matter, in Korea the golf consumer still buys golf stuff. There is no diminished activity in the sales of golf attire, golf balls, bags, clubs. The Korean player consumes beverages, joins leagues and watches indoor tournaments. The relationship between playing the game and the many tangents of the golf economy is a tight knot.
As Joe Beditz reminds us, “There are billions of rounds of golf played each year. With an average golfer taking close to 100 strokes per round, there are more than 100 billion golf balls being hit each year around the world. That means there are thousands of golf balls in flight every moment of every day.” The second reminder from Beditz is that golf may not be quite as universal as Soccer, but golf reigns when it comes to being less age-dependent. “Virtually everyone can play golf, but not everyone is physically capable of playing soccer,” he says. The same is true of football, tennis and many other sports where people reach a point of becoming a spectator as opposed to a participant. With golf, that day does not have to come thanks to the way we are building more flexibility into courses and creating shorter golf experiences (both physical length and less time—but not less fun).
The golf economy is a melting pot of financial energy. In terms of employment, golf courses account for 80-90% of all jobs created across the world of golf. Golf drives tourism, continuing to grow the specialized stay-and-play resorts and courses that amount to big opportunities for airlines, rental car agencies and a whole spectrum of travel-related entrepreneurs. This is over and above the local golf communities where sales taxes, property taxes and employment provides economic benefits. The equipment and apparel industries of golf are thriving. All of this leads to even more charitable fund-raising through golf’s professional tournaments, not to mention the local charity golf outings—thousands each week—that raise money through the opportunities made possible by gathering 75 golfers to have fun and partake in something benevolent.
Added to the above are broadcasting rights for hundreds of major golf tournaments and the sub-tangents of everything from FedEx shipping clubs for traveling golfers to the hundreds of smart phone apps that track swings, line up putts and keep score for players.
A conclusion can be made that the impact of golf is very likely far greater than $200 billion across the world. So far no one has stepped up to undertake that study. It seems comfortable to go with it as it stands.
One of the negatives of golf during a recent recession was seeing courses close and shutter their doors, fairways and greens. I became somewhat of an expert in finding ways to repurpose or ‘save’ many of these golf facilities. We’d look for ways to add responsible in-fill development, downsize courses and, in some cases, re-think the traditionally large practice range area.
At one project in Arizona we had a concept to downsize the course, make it infinitely more enjoyable for the casual golfer and, in the end, generate revenue from new housing and some resort-style cabanas that could be rented out to seasonal golfers, and non-golfers. This was the only path to saving the course. The economics at the time were simply not going to work if status quo. The existing community dug-in and took the position that they wanted ‘their’ golf course exactly as it was—no changes. Of course it wasn’t ‘their’ course, at least not in any ownership or right. Their position continued until we commissioned a study that showed the loss of property values to the homeowners should the golf course owner be left with no choice but to close the course for good. The thought and stark reality of waking up and finding your home was worth $80,000 less than the day before was impactful. Opinions changed.
The point of relating this story is to reinforce the many tangents that golf spins off to benefit our economies. There are many besides those we are able to see on the surface. Property values, and the associated taxes they generate for many communities, is a massive contribution made possible by the development of golf courses. Even living across the street from a rather pedestrian municipal golf course will add property value. Without that open space—the views and pleasantries the course provides—the house across the street is not worth as much. Same house. Less value.
I’ve been in meetings about vulnerable golf courses in jeopardy of closing, where homeowners in the neighborhood will tell you, “Don’t take my golf course away.” Rarely is it ‘their’ course, as pointed out above. But there is sympathy and, in some cases, even legal precedence for protecting golf courses in communities. At Hawaii’s Princeville Makai Golf Course on the Island of Kaua‘i, a longstanding legal battle has centered around whether golf course open space should be perpetual. The course owners want to develop a portion of the course. Local residents, and even many of Hawaii’s staunch environmentalists, argue that what is green space now—golf holes, water features and tropical landscape zones—be kept forever as it is an important natural resource to the State of Hawaii. This case is part environmental and part economic. In many ways, it is also partially to do with the potential loss of social benefits of the golf course, even if a small portion were to be developed. A refreshing situation that reinforces the benefits of golf to a community.
Golf is a business. More accurately, it is many businesses as has been pointed out. This is discussed later on in terms of the environment. Because golf is a business, it does not go about wasting re-sources, spending wildly on chemicals or over-buying any materials, equipment or supplies. Golf is frugal, as are most successful businesses.
There are a few ways that golf contributes economic benefits. The first has to do with insurance rates and claims. As you will read on subsequent pages, it is estimated that 60% or more of all golf courses worldwide serve in some capacity to accept drainage from urban areas or even as outright flood control zones. One of my projects, Baylands Golf Links in Palo Alto, California is an example of a course that sits within a flood zone. It is an appropriate use, able to withstand the once every 50 or 100 year event that may flood its fairways. I’ve also been involved in course designs that are entirely within major floodways. The very motivation for building many of these courses was to serve as a basin to accept stormwater. Instead of flooding nearby neighborhoods, the water is redirected to the golf course areas where it is slowly allowed to continue downstream, or seep into the ground. At Baylands Golf Links, the course was designed so that the adjacent creek could be rerouted to stop flooding of thousands of homes that were subject to chronic flooding. Why is this worth mentioning, and how does it relate to economic benefit? Simply put, when a golf course serves to help lessen the impact of flooding to homes, businesses and community infrastructure, the winners (financially) are the buyers of insurance policies, and the companies who might otherwise have to pay out claims for flood damages. This economic benefit of golf is rarely quantified and reported, but it is a real economic ‘win’ made possible by golf and golf courses.
One of my favorite PowerPoint slides is a c.1980s photo provided to me by Rain Bird, manufacturers of golf irrigation systems. In the photo are two employees standing in front of what appears to be mission control at NASA’s Houston Space Center. They are wearing quintessential 80s garb. The large control board with gauges, levers and dials is a hippie blue color, and it’s probably 102 feet wide and half as tall. Why is it a favorite? Because, at the time, this was the cat’s meow of irrigation control. A highly sophisticated timer controlled
system that would send signals and open irrigation valves across the 100 or so acres of a golf course. Rain Bird was proud of what they created. It was state-of-the-art. Today, this entire control system is realized and managed on a smart phone, and the signals to open and close sprinkler heads are all digital. The world has changed. The amazing — and beneficial — part is that all this was researched and developed through golf. Golf funded the research, the engineering and the product development. In fact, nearly all of the irrigation technologies that we take for granted today were developed on a golf course. Rain sensors, telemetry, soil sensing, sprinkler nozzle design, spray patterns and computer programs all came about because of golf ’s need to get better, save water and be more efficient. So, when you go to Home Depot and consider buying that sophisticated sprinkler timer for your backyard lawn, know that it was golf where the idea was born to turn off irrigation systems when it was raining (or about to rain). There is a reason that Toro, Rain Bird and Hunter — golf ’s main irrigation manufacturers — are also household names across the entire world of irrigation. Remember, more than 97% of water gets delivered to managed turf that has nothing to do with golf. Sprinkler systems for turf owe virtually every new feature, water-savings measure and advent to golf, for that is the ‘industry’ that took the time and spent the money to perfect the art of turf irrigation.
The spin-offs from golf are many, and many of these spin-offs have a direct relationship to economic benefits. Golf provides economic benefits that reach into places many people fail to appreciate.