ORLANDO, Florida — More people are playing more golf in more ways than in recorded history.
Is it sustainable?
The National Golf Foundation (NGF), the leading private research, marketing and consulting firm for the golf industry, tackled that subject Thursday at the PGA Show being held at Orange County Convention Center.
And while raw numbers tell the story, data isn’t entirely the whole piece of the puzzle when it comes to golf sustainability, demand and overall interest, according to Greg Nathan, NGF's CEO.
"The NGF in many ways is known for counting things — counting rounds, counting golf courses, counting golfers," Nathan says. "But we’ve really been challenging ourselves to do more than being bean counters, to really be social scientists. We think it's much more important to understand why people do what they do. What about psychology and behavior that drives what goes on in the golf business? That's what we're spending a lot more time looking at."
The NGF, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary, reports that golf is now a $102 billion industry with a $226.5 billion economic impact, and Nathan called the PGA Show "the Super Bowl" of the golf business.
"Golf is ubiquitous; golf is everywhere," says Nathan, who proceeded to provide a 30-minute presentation filled with facts and figures to support the unprecedented growth in the sport by core golfers, those under 50, females, people of color and juniors.
To help answer the sustainability question, the NGF compared numbers from the last time golf had such growth (during the Tiger Woods boom of 1996-2003) to the period of 2019-present to see if there were any warning signs that golf would be regressing anytime soon.
Nathan reported that record numbers of rounds played have been recorded in four of the last five years despite 2,000 fewer golf courses.
"So if you just think about what that would mean to the balance of supply and demand in the golf economy that tells you just about everything that you need to know," Nathan says.
And rounds were up 1.2% in 2025, and jumped a total of 25% since pre-COVID-19. The number of golfers hit 29.1 million — an increase of one million from 2024.
"The biggest driver of what makes golf grow are feelings of security — like I'm not in physical danger or feelings of financial security," says Nathan, who pointed out that the stock market was up 91% during the Tiger Boom and it’s up 133% during the current growth period. "That makes golf move."
Same story holds for increasing home values.
"Of course not everybody in America benefits. Not everybody has a stock portfolio, not everybody owns their home," Nathan says. "But we’re only dealing with 8 percent of our population who golf."
Nathan says the Tiger Boom was filled with less frequent, less committed players who were attracted and came in because of Woods himself, not necessarily drawn to the game by other factors.
"Everybody knows about what happened a little bit later," Nathan says. "It was kind of like ‘Hello world,' and then it was goodbye money. So what can we learn from that? What should we be looking for?
"There are three things that could derail this amazing time in the golf business. The first thing is always the accessibility and affordability of water. Then there are external forces like a geopolitical event, and different types of financial impacts or financial crises like a stock market crash."
Nathan points out that over 4,000 courses were built from 1986-2005, many on outstanding debt. Less than two dozen were opened in 2025.
"So guess what happened when we had the Great Recession? All of a sudden golf courses built on debt couldn't make their payments and many closed," he says.
The story is much different today.
Golf reaches 136 million in the United States — meaning that many more folks play, watch, follow or read about golf. That’s two out of every five Americans. Just 10 years ago, that number was 71 million.
"We don’t think it's out of the question that we could be at 50 percent in five or 10 years," Nathan says.
In addition, 38 million are now playing off-course golf on items such as golf simulators or at places such as Drive Shack. That high-water mark number was just 6% during the Tiger Boom.
"Golf has really changed in terms of its exposure," says Nathan, with 41 million engaged with golf on social media. "So these are signs that the game could be more resilient. I like to use the baseball metaphor of having a lot of golfers in the on-deck circle."
Nathan notes that a few recent trends on the architectural side of the game lean toward short course designs that promote walking and remote resorts.
"The industry is incredibly strong. We don't see a lot of signs of this changing and the trend is wellness," Nathan says. "I really believe that golf should be putting a stake in the ground on this subject because golf is the absolute ultimate activity for physical and mental wellness. And I think we should all be beating that drum. Golf is an incredible place and it should be more resilient than ever before."