Summer golf trips are in full swing. Will an inbound drop be a handicap?

Travel Weekly

17-06-2025

The destination golf market, which has been booming since the pandemic, is primed for another strong year as summer begins.
The impact of one setback, however, is still to be determined: a drop in bookings from inbound golfers to the U.S., which tour operators are reporting.
According to the National Golf Foundation (NGF), 12.1 million U.S. adults played golf as part of an overnight vacation in 2024, either domestically or abroad. The figure is slightly down from 12.2 million in 2023 but is still tracking approximately 20% above the average of the three years preceding Covid.
NGF surveys show that this year, 41% of people who play at least eight golf rounds per year plan to take an overnight golf trip, down just slightly from the 43% who did so last year.
"Overall, the golf travel economy really seems to be moving along with continued strength," CEO Greg Nathan said.
Nathan said the marketplace has been especially buoyed by unyielding demand for the most prestigious U.S. golf resorts, such as Pebble Beach on California's Monterey Peninsula and the seven-course Bandon Dunes facility along the Oregon coast, where the newest course, called Shorty's, opened last year.
"Trophy courses -- for the most part, they are booked a year in advance," Nathan said.
Meanwhile, courses that cater to the travel market are making up an increasing share of the U.S. golf course stock. Overall, just under 10% of the nearly 14,000 U.S. golf courses are affiliated with a resort, the NGF said. But over the past five years, 31% of new openings are resort-related. When destination courses that don't have a resort affiliation are included, that number increases to approximately 40%.
Nathan said the trend will continue, in part because it has become cost prohibitive in many cases to build courses in major metropolitan areas. Many of the relatively small number of courses that are being built are located in farther-afield locations suited primarily to the destination market.
The 18th hole at Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island, S.C., one of the most recognizable finishing holes in golf. Photo Credit: Golfbreaks
Growth in destination properties
KemperSports, operator of more than 180 golf courses nationwide, including Bandon Dunes, classifies more than 25 courses in its portfolio as destination properties. It's a number that has grown over the years with the development of bucket-list destinations Streamsong in Florida, which opened in 2013 and has for four courses, and the similarly acclaimed Sand Valley in Wisconsin, which has five courses and debuted in 2017.
KemperSports has also grown its portfolio of midmarket destination golf courses, including Tidewater in South Carolina's Myrtle Beach area, which it added in 2023.
CEO Steve Skinner said the growing emphasis that consumers, including young adults, began placing on experiences during the pandemic carried over to the golf market and hasn't abated.
"We have not seen any signs of a slowdown caused by a recession or economic turmoil at any level of the destinations," Skinner said. "Tidewater is going to have a record year this year. For the rest of this year and early next year, demand remains strong."
Tidewater, in the Myrtle Beach area, is expecting a record year in 2025. Photo Credit: KemperSports
Strength, with areas of weakness
Golf tour operators are similarly reporting strength, both in U.S. domestic sales and bookings for golf trips abroad.
Daniel Grave, CEO of Golfbreaks, said the multinational company's U.S. operation grew 27% in its previous fiscal year, which ended on May 1, and projects 25% growth this fiscal year. Golfbreaks, which is the market leader in the U.K. outbound golf tour operator market, expanded to the U.S. in 2016.
An area of weakness, however, is inbound golfers from Canada, Grave said, adding that 10% to 15% of Golfbreak's North American business is typically Canadians traveling to golf in the U.S. This year he is anticipating a 50% drop-off in that market.
"The Trump effect is definitely negatively impacting travel into the U.S., and that includes golf travel," Grave said.
Joe Cerino, owner of the West Palm Beach, Fla.-based tour operator Sophisticated Golfer, said concern about the impact Trump policies are having on the sentiment of European golfers was pervasive at the European Convention of the International Association of Golf Tour Operators, which was held last month in the Canary Islands.
"A lot of the operators that are based in Europe, and some of them that are in business for a long time and sold the U.S. as a destination — that business has really taken a major hit," Cerino said.
He particularly noted concern from German tour operators who attended the conference.
Skinner, though, said that KemperSports' courses have yet to see a related impact on their businesses, though he noted anecdotal reports of a slowdown in Canadian bookings.
"Time will tell," he said. "We might see that impact coming later this year."