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Source: clubandresortbusiness.com, February 2023
The National Golf Foundation released its annual state-of-industry Graffis Report during the PGA Show in Orlando, Fla. last week. While on-course participation in golf increased by 2% from 2021 to 2022, off-course participation in the game rose by 13% in that same time period. For the first time ever, the total number of people engaged in off-course participation (27.9 million) surpassed those who play on the course (25.6 million), according to the NGF.
On-course participation in golf was up again in 2022, with a net increase of 500,000 golfers to a total of 25.6 million, according to the National Golf Foundation.
NGF shared this statistic and many other pieces of data when it released its annual state-of-industry Graffis Report during the PGA Show in Orlando, Fla. Jan. 26.
While there’s been a net gain of 1.3 million on-course golfers during the past three years, 2022 marked the fifth consecutive year of on-course participation increases, according to the NGF. This trend hadn’t happened in two decades.
While on-course participation in golf increased by 2% from 2021 to 2022, off-course participation in the game rose by 13% in that same time period. For the first time ever, the total number of people engaged in off-course participation (27.9 million) surpassed those who play on the course (25.6 million), according to the NGF.
Off-course participation includes golf entertainment sites such as Topgolf, Drive Shack and BigShots Golf, stand-alone driving ranges, and businesses with golf simulators or screen golf set-ups.
Golf’s U.S. consumer base now stands at a record level of 41.1 million, with three categories of participant groups: 15.5 million doing off-course participation exclusively; 13.2 million engaging in only on-course play; and 12.4 million doing both activities.
The demographics of these three participant groups varies, according to the NGF. The average age of off-course only participants (31) was lower than it was for dual participation players (42) and on-course only golfers (46). Among off-course only participants, 41% are female and 40% are non-white.
