More than 33,000 golf courses around the world

Golf continues to expand into all parts of the globe.
There are now golf facilities in 208 of the world’s 245 countries as at the end of 2016, according to a report entitled Golf Around The World, that is published by The Royal & Ancient and based on research from the National Golf Foundation.
The report, first released in 2014, explores the game’s global reach in terms of the supply of both existing golf facilities and those in development.
R&A executive director Duncan Weir said: “There isn’t a day that goes past when we don’t use the report to answer a query, to help us make a point or to help us write a story. And just in general in research when making a decision pertaining to golf around the world, it’s invaluable.”
The study found there are a total of 33,161 global golf facilities, but the sport remains geographically concentrated, with 74 percent of the world’s supply located in the top 10 golfing countries — the United States, Canada, Japan, England, Australia, Germany, France, Scotland, Sweden and South Africa.
The top 20 countries account for 89 percent of the global supply, but countries from Djibouti and Togo to Tajikistan and Christmas Island are all home to golf courses.
The United States is the best‑supplied golf market in the world with 15,013 facilities – approximately 45 percent of the global supply – as indicated by the National Golf Foundation’s most recent annual count.
Europe has the second‑largest regional share of golf facilities, with 22 percent, followed by Asia at 14 percent and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific) at six percent.
Asia is the most active region for new course development, with 176 golf course projects (measured by 18‑hole equivalents) either in planning or under construction.
World-wide, there were a total of 556 new projects in various stages of development at the end of 2016, an indication of golf’s continued expansion.
Golf and tourism go hand‑in‑hand, with more than half of the new projects tied to resorts, from the Costa Jama Beach & Golf Resort in Ecuador to the Rees Jones‑designed Dazante Bay on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula.
The R&A’s Golf Around the World report offers a comprehensive breakdown of the number of facilities by country, detailing how the game is being used both as an engine of sport and recreation as well as economic development, regional planning and community build out.
Said Weir: “There are many ways of measuring how many people play golf and sometimes it’s difficult to get consistency of measurement from one country to the next, but you cannot argue with something that’s on the ground – that is the number of golf courses and golf facilities.”
For more information, or to download a digital copy of the R&A’s Golf Around The World report, please visit www.randa.org.