NGF’s 2025 Graffis Report shows golf’s continued growth
The National Golf Foundation (NGF) released its annual Graffis Report — named after Golfdom founder Herb Graffis — showing a continuation of the golf boom that started in 2020.
According to the report — which serves as a review of the golf industry in 2024 — 28.1 million people participated in “green-grass golf” in 2024, the highest since 2008 and the seventh straight annual increase. The 1.8 million golfer jump from 2023 to 2024 was the largest single-year increase since 2000, which saw 2.7 million new golfers play the game.
In the post-COVID era (since 2020), the NGF says that golfers have increased 16 percent — 3.8 million. With more golfers have come more rounds, as 2024 brought a new record-high 545 million rounds played, marking the fifth year in a row that number has eclipsed 500 million.
More highlights from the report include:
- Course closures continue to fall, hitting their lowest rate sine 2005.
- 2024 saw 29 new golf courses open in the United States, the most since 2010. Of those 29 new courses, 35 percent were built in Florida, Texas or South Carolina and more than 80 percent are private clubs.
- Interestingly, 34 percent of new courses built since 2020 have been short or executive courses. Despite that number, those courses only make up four percent of the golf courses in the U.S.
- Par-3 short courses have also closed at a higher rate than regulation 18-hole courses according to the NGF’s report.
- More young people — aged 18-34 — are playing the game than any other age demographic. Of the 28.1 million who played “green-grass golf” in 2024, 6.8 million fell in that age group. The next closest was the 50-64 age group with 6.2 million golfers.
- The total number of golfers in 2024 — including “off-course” golfers (which includes Top Golf and golf simulators) was 64.3 million.
- The 545 million rounds played in 2024 is the third record-setting rounds number in the last four years.
- Golfer demographics have continued to evolve since 2020. According to the report, youth participation has jumped 48 percent, female participation 41 percent, hispanic participation 26 percent and black participation 123 percent.
To read the full Graffis Report, visit NGF.org.
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