Demand for golf has surged in the past few years. As a result, the expense to play the game has increased.
Are we starting to reach the point where the growing cost could slow the surge?
Golf’s well-documented pandemic boom has seen an upswing in all areas of the game in the United States. In the seven years following the Great Recession in the late 2000s, the American golf population shrank by 2.3 million. In the ensuing seven years, it grew by 2.8 million.
According to the National Golf Foundation, an estimated 26.6 million Americans played on a golf course in 2023, a net increase of about one million compared to 2022. That is the single biggest jump in on-course participants since 2001 when Tiger Woods held victories in all four majors at once.
Off-course golf participation—which includes simulators, Topgolf, Puttshack and other alternate forms of the game— is also seeing meaningful gains. There were 45 million Americans who played some version of golf in 2023. That is up nine percent from the previous year and more than 50 percent in the past decade.
Rounds per course have reached their highest levels since the early 1990s, up about 15 percent compared to 2019. Golf course closures are at their lowest point since prior to the Great Recession and new course openings just hit their best mark in 13 years.
Overall, golf equipment sales are up about 40 percent compared to pre-pandemic. And golf apparel sales established an all-time high in 2023, according to Golf Datatech. Apparel is up about 55 percent compared to 2019.
That success paints a rosy picture of the golf industry. The game is, for the most part, in a remarkably healthy place—this coming after a lengthy period where people were dropping out of the game and the industry was stagnant.
We’re all celebrating that. At the same time, we are monitoring the cost of the game.
Will the game’s increased expense become too much of a barrier for people to enjoy the game at the rate they want to play?
Or is demand steady enough to overcome the increase in cost?
Golf is getting more expensive
Baked into this conversation is the U.S. inflation rate which mounted during the pandemic. Inflation started to decelerate over the latter half of 2023 and is expected to slow further in 2024 which could help calm the rate of price increases.
Regardless, a higher cost of living is squeezing many Americans. It now requires about $119 to buy the same goods and services that cost $100 before the pandemic. Wages have gone up but not enough to cover the difference. A lot of people are having to make sacrifices, or at least choices, when it comes to their disposable income.
If you combine the economic environment with COVID-19 creating an influx of new and reintroduced players to golf, you have a game that has become very expensive.
What is more expensive? Everything, really.
A Golf Datatech survey shows that the average “serious golfer” now spends $1,100 per year on equipment. That is 55 percent more than those golfers were spending in 2010.
One reason for that increase in cost is that more golfers are getting properly fitted for their clubs. For example, about 81 percent of single-digit handicap players in the survey were fitted for their irons. Along those same lines, golfers are increasingly going to club fitting specialists (25 percent) to buy clubs. Other means of purchasing equipment, such as going to a sporting goods store (four percent), have fallen significantly in the past decade.
More people are getting fitted for clubs and taking club purchases seriously. More money is being spent.
Search most major manufacturers and you will find their latest drivers in the $600 range. A decade ago, new entry-level drivers were about half the price. The same logic can be applied to other gear. It was this time a year ago when Titleist bumped their Pro V1 retail price up $5 to $55 a dozen. Other brands have made similar moves.
Getting on the course is more expensive, too. While there are still some great courses with reasonable rates, others have pushed their prices up aggressively.
From 2020 to 2021, more than a third of courses in the U.S. raised their peak season greens fees by an average of 11 percent and that trend has continued. In one study of the top 100 golf courses in the UK, summer green fees for 2023 were up 12 percent compared to the previous year.
There are examples everywhere. Pebble Beach bumped their green fee (again) from $595 to $625 (plus $55 for a cart), symbolic of upper-echelon courses continuing to hike prices. A rumor is going around that the 2025 rate could approach $1,000. Bandon Dunes is bumping up their prices for 2024. And in this recent Golfweek report about golf in Palm Springs, Calif., rates were expected to rise again next year, breaking $300 at top courses.
One golfer in the report said they were forced to cut back on golf.
“I just can’t afford to play as much these days,” said Barbara Garcia. “It’s not just that golf is more expensive. Everything is more expensive: gas, food, everything. Something has to get cut back and for me that is golf.”
Those are notable courses but the price of green fees is going up everywhere for a variety of reasons. Tot Hill Farm in Asheboro, N.C., a solid but modest public course, was priced well under $100 until a recent restoration. Now the 2024 rate is $150 if you want a cart. Golfers will decide if public golf at that level is worth it.
Take your pick for other areas of the game that are seeing price increases. We’re hearing widespread reports of membership dues getting bumped up; that apparel all-time high sales number has been driven by higher prices. Two hours at Topgolf will easily put a group of people over $200. Simulators, the new upscale mini-golf category … the list is long.
There is no doubt that golf’s growing expense is substantial.
Are the price hikes untenable for consumers?
Serious golfers aren’t showing signs of slowing down. This past holiday season, about 87 percent of “core” golfers told the NGF they were planning to spend as much or more on gifts—and the amount they were spending was about 50 percent more than the average American consumer. Half of those core golfers say golf gift giving is a major part of their holiday shopping.
That is a pretty strong endorsement that serious golfers are not pulling back.
It is interesting to note that all across the U.S., spending on recreation services is up 21 percent since March 2021. That greatly outpaces spending in the sporting goods category.
We see this with buddy trips and other experiences golfers are putting their money toward. The aforementioned Bandon Dunes is accepting reservations through the summer of 2025, a full 18 months from now. Demand is off the charts for resorts and other golf destinations.
So could golf price itself out of the market?
On a macro level, the current answer is no. There isn’t large-scale evidence to say the cost is affecting demand.
But many of you believe it is only a matter of time before golf’s boom starts to flatten because of growing prices.
We posed this question on our X (Twitter) account and received more than 500 responses, the majority indicating that the cost of golf is starting to get out of hand.
“COVID brought about a huge golf boom,” wrote user Patrick Cunningham. “It is being leveraged. It’s going to go bust.”
User @GunsnGolf noted his concern for junior golf. It was the most-liked comment among all responses.
“I’ll tell you where they’re really screwing up. When I was a kid, my parents dropped me off at my local course and I played 36 (holes) while they worked. Nowadays, courses either don’t want junior golf or have priced it so high that most reasonable families can’t afford it.”
User @TiredOkie said this about the growing cost of playing golf: “It’s starting to move in that direction for me. There is going to be a point where I have to limit myself to (playing) 2 or 3 times a month instead of weekly.”
One area we are worried about is the “new golfer” category. Each year from 2020-2022, more than three million Americans played golf for the first time. Keeping them engaged is important. Will increased prices have more of an effect in deterring new golfers who have perhaps not built up as much emotional equity in the game?
This is something to monitor, in our opinion.
Let us know your thoughts below in the comments.
The post Golf is Still Booming—But Will Growing Prices Slow Progress? appeared first on MyGolfSpy.