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Forget about getting those steps in. More people are getting in their swings when it comes to golf participation.
According to the United States Golf Association, more than 3.68 million golfers with a Handicap Index® — an indicator of a golfer’s ability — posted a record 82 million scores last year.
The USGA’s 2025 Golf Scorecard is an annual data report that uses information posted under the World Handicap System® to track participation trends in the sport. Among the report’s other highlights:
Continued growth in 9-hole score posting: For the fifth consecutive year, there was a record number of nine-hole rounds played with 14,998,824 scores posted in 2025 — a 5% increase over 2024 and up over 46% since 2020.
More golfers have a Handicap Index®: Almost 3.7 million golfers in the United States maintained a Handicap Index in 2025 — up more than 8.2% year over year and up more than 46% since 2020.
Photo © Sgcallaway1994 | Dreamstime.com New golfers posted more nine-hole rounds: Those who established a Handicap Index in 2025 were more likely to play and post nine-hole rounds. Among these golfers, 50.2% of scores posted by females and 26.7% of scores posted by males were nine-hole scores.
Short-course posting trend continues: Building on the success of score posting at short courses in 2024, more than 290,000 scores were posted at more than 470 short courses nationwide in 2025.
Most rounds posted are recreational: A widely held notion that a Handicap Index is only for golfers who are playing in elite competitions continues to be dispelled by data, as 94.4% of the 82 million rounds posted were recreational, and more than 75% of all golfers with a Handicap Index were playing and posting purely for fun.
The 2025 Golf Scorecard also includes a new category that helps determine which state plays the most golf.
“With one of the shortest active posting seasons in the country, Maine takes home the title of America’s Golfiest State in 2025, with the most golf played when taking [various factors] into account,” according to the USGA. “Across the country, Florida leads the Southeast … , Wisconsin paces the Midwest, Colorado heads up the Central and Arizona carries the torch for the West.”
The USGA’s data aligns with the National Golf Foundation’s own participation tracking.
“More than one-third of the U.S. population over the age of 5 played golf (on-course or off-course), followed golf on television or online, read about the game or listened to a golf-related podcast in 2025,” the foundation reports. “This is up 43% since record-keeping began in 2016.”
That includes a record-setting 48.1 million people over the age of 6 who played on an actual golf course and another 19 million people who participated exclusively in off-course golf activities at places like traditional and tech-enabled driving ranges, indoor golf simulators or golf entertainment venues like Topgolf.
The number of beginners also has hit record levels in recent years — with 3 million or more on-course beginners every year since 2020. Between 2016 and 2019, that number hovered around 2.5 million, according to NGF.
Ideally, more participants mean more golf courses, and the NGF reports that there were approximately 16,000 golf courses at 14,000 golf facilities in the United States at the end of 2025. “That’s more golf courses nationwide than McDonald’s or Dunkin’ … locations,” according to the federation. “Golf remains broadly accessible, with about three-quarters of U.S. courses and facilities open to the public. … U.S. golf supply has been largely stable over the last several years and there is currently more active new course development than any time since 2010.”
Why such a surging interest in golf? COVID wasn’t the only catalyst.
“Number one is that people are discovering the intrinsic qualities and values of golf and that they’re aligned with what people want,” NGF CEO Greg Nathantold Sports Business Journal. “It is one of the ultimate analog activities in a world of digital activities. If you think about the loneliness epidemic that gets discussed a lot, golf is a fabulous antidote for that. So, in many ways, golf is the ultimate activity for physical and mental health and wellness.”
Nathan also cited high-water marks for the number of females participating in on-course golf in 2025 (8.1 million, up 46% from 2019) and golfers of color (7.7 million, up 61% since 2019).
He noted, however, that golf’s upswing could be curtailed by water shortages (new water regulations in southern Utah “may spell the end for new golf courses,” according to The Salt Lake Tribune) and economic uncertainty. The latter, Nathan said, could stifle more than golf.
“If we had an incredibly deep recession, deep stock market pullback, then it’s not about golf anymore,” he told SBJ. “Every form of recreation and every choice for recreational spend would be under tremendous pressure.”
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