Every figure on this page links to the organization that produced it, and each was re-checked against that source before publishing. How golf courses and country clubs use video, and the numbers behind the trade: our YouTube Data API read of the 519 most-viewed ‘golf course’, ‘golf course tour’ and ‘country club’ videos and of a year of uploads from the course channels among them; how many Americans play golf and how many courses the golf trade counts; BLS and Census counts of golf course and country club businesses in the U.S., Florida and Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties, how those counts changed, what the clubs take in and from what; what the public golf companies told the SEC about courses, members, advertising and social media, and our count of annual reports that mention golf courses; the drone, endorsement, accessibility and Florida tax rules courses film and sell under; and where the popular golf numbers came from.
In our November 13, 2026 read of YouTube’s 519 most-viewed ‘golf course’, ‘golf course tour’ and ‘country club’ videos, golf courses and clubs speaking as themselves uploaded 2 of the 365 on-topic videos and drew 0.2% of their views; creator golfers drew 23.6% and general, comedy and challenge creators 27.1%. (Mark Studios)See details
The median on-topic video in that sample ran 565 seconds. 32.1% ran 60 seconds or less and drew 51.5% of on-topic views, while 37.8% ran longer than 20 minutes. (Mark Studios)See details
BLS counted 11,148 private golf course and country club establishments with employees in the U.S. in 2025, 2.8% fewer than the 11,467 of 2014, while their jobs rose 25.8% to 442,227. (BLS)See details
Palm Beach County had 135 of those establishments in 2025 (8.6 per 100,000 residents), Broward 37 (1.8) and Martin 42 (25.3), against 3.3 per 100,000 for the U.S. (BLS; our calculation)See details
U.S. golf courses and country clubs with paid employees took in $31.3 billion ($31,314,635,000) in 2022; membership made up 48.9% of it and greens and guest fees 24.9%. (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 Economic Census)See details
The National Golf Foundation, a golf trade research group, counted about 16,000 U.S. golf courses at the end of 2025, about 13% fewer than in 2006, and 1,290 in Florida at the start of 2026, the most of any state, ahead of California’s 963. (National Golf Foundation)See details
Acushnet’s 2025 annual report puts its advertising and promotion expenses at $254.4 million, 9.9% of its net sales (our calculation). Of the 124 companies whose 10-Ks filed from January 2024 to November 13, 2026 mention a golf course, 3 run courses or clubs as their main business (our EDGAR count). (SEC filings; Mark Studios)See details
Florida’s sales tax law counts greens fees and private club dues as taxable admissions at 6 percent; dues of 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organizations are exempt. (The Florida Legislature)See details
The “golf is a $102 billion industry” figure is a trade-commissioned estimate of golf’s direct economic impact in 2022, real estate and travel included. In the 2016 study ($84.1 billion), the revenue of courses, clubs and other golf facilities was $34.4 billion. (National Golf Foundation; Golf Business News)See details
Who gets the views on YouTube's most-viewed golf course and country club videos?
Creators, not courses: in our November 13, 2026 YouTube Data API read of the most-viewed videos for 'golf course', 'golf course tour' and 'country club', golf courses and clubs speaking as themselves uploaded 2 of the 365 on-topic videos and drew 0.2% of the on-topic views. Creator golfers (rounds, challenges and course vlogs under a creator name) drew 23.6%, general, comedy and compilation creators 27.1%, and tours and governing bodies 13.3% (our calculation).
This is a view-sorted global search snapshot, not a census of golf video: we took the top four pages of YouTube's view-sorted results for each phrase that day, 519 unique videos from 229 channels. 365 were on-topic (golf, or a golf or country club as the subject or setting) and they drew 46.7% of all views in the sample. The 'country club' phrase mostly finds songs: 70.0% of its videos were off-topic and they drew 97.0% of its views; the sample held 126 off-topic music videos, led by Lana Del Rey's 'Chemtrails Over the Country Club' and Culture Club (our calculation).
Who uploaded it
On-topic videos
Share of on-topic views
General, comedy, challenge and compilation creators
The views are concentrated: the ten channels with the most on-topic views drew 60.4% of them, led by Dude Perfect, the PGA Tour and Bryson DeChambeau (our calculation). The two course channels in the sample were Mount Edgecombe Country Club Estate in South Africa, with a short estate advertisement, and Fairway Fields, whose owners filmed buying an abandoned course. Over the year to November 12, 2026 those two channels uploaded 1 video between them, so YouTube's top results for golf courses are made by people who play, film or broadcast on courses rather than by the courses (our calculation).
How long are the most-viewed golf course videos, and what do their titles promise?
Short and long at once: the median on-topic video ran 565 seconds, but the middle half ran from 50 seconds to 2,369 seconds. 32.1% ran 60 seconds or less and drew 51.5% of on-topic views, while 37.8% ran longer than 20 minutes: full creator rounds and tournament broadcasts (our calculation).
Titles sell a contest more than a place: 46 on-topic titles named a challenge, match or 'vs' and 36 a lesson, tip, drill or swing. 9 promised every hole or 18 holes of a course, from the Masters channel's Augusta National rounds to Golf Digest's hole-by-hole U.S. Open venue tours, and those drew 11.7% of on-topic views. 17 titles named a price, 'expensive', 'exclusive' or 'private'. No on-topic title named a flyover, drone or aerial footage (0), though a few hole-by-hole videos may use it (our calculation; titles in other languages are read only through English words, so topic counts are floors).
Florida appears rarely: 4 on-topic videos named a Florida course or place in the title or a Florida hashtag (TPC Sawgrass twice, Miami, #floridagolf). One more, a creator's membership comparison, names North Palm Beach Country Club and Trump International in West Palm Beach in its description, the only Palm Beach, Broward or Martin county course we found in the sample. 54.2% of on-topic videos came from channels placed in the United States, the median upload year was 2025 and 72.3% were uploaded in 2024 or later (our calculation).
Method: YouTube Data API search.list (type=video, order=viewCount, no region filter), videos.list, channels.list and videos.list status, read November 13, 2026; channel classes assigned by hand. YouTube marked 2 of the sample videos as made for kids, and none carried a synthetic-media flag. Under our privacy rule 15 videos (children's family channels, personal uploads and single videos centred on a child) appear in the CSV as counts only. The year of course-channel uploads used 4 API units. Data: videos CSV, channels CSV, course channels CSV.
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How many Americans play golf, and how many courses does the golf trade count?
An estimated 30.8 million Americans played golf on a course in 2026, a record, according to the National Golf Foundation, a golf industry research body that sells memberships and data to the trade (National Golf Foundation). That was up 1.7 million on 2025 and past the old high of 30.6 million set in 2003 (National Golf Foundation), and up 27% since 2019 (National Golf Foundation). It equals about 9.0% of all U.S. residents (our calculation). Off the course, a record 39.6 million people used driving ranges, simulators or venues like Topgolf in 2026, and counting both kinds of golf, 49.5 million people played (National Golf Foundation). Golfers who play both kinds are up 42% since 2019 (National Golf Foundation).
NGF's full 2025 figures, published earlier in 2026, give the same picture one year back: 48.1 million Americans age six and older played golf in some form in 2025 (National Golf Foundation), 29.1 million of them on a course and 19 million off the course only (National Golf Foundation). There were 3.3 million on-course beginners (National Golf Foundation), and women were 28% of on-course golfers, level with the highest share on record (National Golf Foundation). Another 21.2 million non-golfers said they were very interested in playing on a course, a pool NGF calls latent demand (National Golf Foundation). Counting people who watch golf on TV or online, read about it or listen to golf podcasts, NGF puts golf's U.S. reach at 136 million in 2025 (National Golf Foundation), up 43% since its count began in 2016 (National Golf Foundation).
Courses are busy. More than 500 million rounds were played at U.S. courses in each year from 2020 to 2025 (National Golf Foundation), running 21% above the pre-pandemic 2015-2019 average (National Golf Foundation). Rounds in 2025 were up just over 1% on 2024 (National Golf Foundation). Private clubs have gained most: private play was running 3% ahead of the year before in 2025 (National Golf Foundation), and the number of golfers who belong to a private club is up almost 50% since 2019 (National Golf Foundation), though members are still fewer than 8% of all golfers (National Golf Foundation).
How many golf courses are there in the U.S.?
NGF counts approximately 16,000 golf courses at 14,000 facilities at the end of 2025; a facility is one business location with one or more courses (National Golf Foundation). That is about 4.7 courses per 100,000 residents (our calculation). About three-quarters are open to the public, including about 2,600 municipal facilities and 7,600 daily-fee facilities (National Golf Foundation). Private courses are 28% of supply (National Golf Foundation). Municipal golf is the one part that grew: nearly 3,000 municipal courses at the start of 2026, a record (National Golf Foundation), up 7% since 2006, mostly because cities and counties bought existing courses (National Golf Foundation). Almost 70% of municipal facilities are more than half a century old (National Golf Foundation).
Florida has the most courses of any state, 1,290 at the start of 2026, ahead of California's 963 (National Golf Foundation). That is about 8.1% of the U.S. total, or 5.5 courses per 100,000 Floridians (our calculation). Florida does not lead on public golf: Michigan does, with 748 daily-fee, municipal and resort courses (National Golf Foundation), against a national public share of 72% (National Golf Foundation). In NGF's 2023 state reports, Florida had 677 public daily-fee and municipal courses (National Golf Foundation). These NGF counts are the trade's own database; the government counts of golf businesses are in the workforce and industry sections, and they count establishments, not courses.
Most keen golfers carry golf apps. In 2025, more than 75% of NGF's Core golfers, who play eight or more rounds a year, have at least one golf app on their phone (National Golf Foundation), and use of apps for stat tracking and scorekeeping is up 13% on 2020 (National Golf Foundation). NGF's open pages do not report how many golfers watch course videos or flyovers.
Small trials favour video as a teaching tool. In a 2002 U.S. randomized study of 30 golfers, the group taught with video hit a seven-iron best two weeks later, ahead of verbal and self-guided groups (Journal of Sports Sciences (Guadagnoli et al.)). In a 2024 Dutch pilot with 18 golfers, 88.6% of injury-prevention exercises were done correctly after video instructions, against 73.7% with printed cards only (BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine (Gladdines et al.)). In a 2011 UK trial of 22 elite golfers who saw video of their own gaze, the group also trained to hold a longer final look at the ball made 1.9 fewer putts per round on the course (Frontiers in Psychology (Vine et al.)). Drones help on the maintenance side: a 2016 Italian field trial found drone readings of turf health tracked hand-held readings closely (r up to 0.97), and its authors name golf courses as a use (PLOS ONE (Caturegli et al.)). These are small samples, and none tested course marketing video.
How many people work at golf courses, and what do they earn?
Private U.S. golf courses and country clubs employed 442,227 people on average in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) (BLS). The average weekly wage in those jobs was $723 (BLS). That average mixes full-time staff with the part-time and seasonal jobs that courses rely on (cart attendants, starters, servers, grounds crews in the growing season), so it is not a full-time salary. QCEW covers jobs under state unemployment insurance; owners with no employees are not in it.
Employment has grown faster than the number of courses. Private golf course jobs rose 25.8% from 2014 to 2025 (our calculation), from 351,471 (BLS), with a dip to 323,070 in the pandemic year 2020 (BLS). Local governments ran 231 golf course units with their own payrolls (BLS) employing 8,171 people in 2025 (BLS); a city that runs several courses can report them as one unit, and many municipal course workers are counted under the parks department instead, so these figures undercount public courses.
How many golf course jobs are in Florida and Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties?
Florida's private golf courses and country clubs employed 54,408 people in 2025 (BLS), 12.3% of the U.S. total (our calculation), at an average weekly wage of $896 (BLS). Florida's golf course employment rose 32.7% from 2014 (our calculation), when it was 40,999 (BLS).
Palm Beach County alone had 12,520 private golf course and country club jobs in 2025 (BLS), 23.0% of Florida's (our calculation), at an average weekly wage of $1,084 (BLS), or 56,368 dollars over 52 weeks (our calculation). Broward County had 1,663 such jobs (BLS) at $795 a week (BLS), and Martin County 1,728 (BLS) at $1,156 a week (BLS). Higher county averages track the large member clubs, which keep bigger year-round clubhouse and food staffs.
No occupation-by-industry wage table is cited here. The BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) pages for this industry could not be read through an allowed route on the day this page was built, so groundskeepers', golf professionals' and servers' wages at golf courses are not given.
How many golf courses and country clubs are there in the United States?
The United States had 11,148 private golf course and country club establishments with employees in 2025, according to the BLS QCEW (BLS). That is 3.3 per 100,000 residents (our calculation). The federal industry is NAICS 713910 Golf Courses and Country Clubs: golf courses, and country clubs and golf clubs with a course. Driving ranges and miniature golf are a different industry. An establishment is a business location that files payroll records, not a course: a club with two courses, its clubhouse and its pro shop are usually one establishment, so these are counts of golf businesses, not of holes or courses.
The count has edged down. The QCEW showed 11,467 private golf establishments in 2014 (BLS), the earliest year in its open data, and a low of 10,790 in 2021 (BLS), a fall of 2.8% from 2014 to 2025 (our calculation). The Census Bureau's County Business Patterns shows the longer run: 11,751 establishments with paid employees in 1998 (Census), 12,027 in 2003 (Census), 12,059 in 2008 (Census), 11,597 in 2013 (Census), 10,711 in 2018 (Census) and 10,076 in 2023 (Census), down 16.4% from 2008 (our calculation). County Business Patterns counted 324,224 paid employees in March 2023 (Census).
Most golf businesses are mid-sized. In 2023, 2,992 had fewer than 5 employees in March (Census), 29.7% of the total (our calculation), and 2,166 had 20 to 49 (Census). Only 4 had 1,000 or more (Census). The March snapshot catches northern courses out of season, which pushes them into the small classes.
How many golf courses are in Florida and in Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties?
Florida had 934 private golf course and country club establishments in 2025 (BLS), 8.4% of the U.S. total (our calculation) and 4.0 per 100,000 residents (our calculation). The state's count was 920 in 2014 (BLS), up 1.5% (our calculation). County Business Patterns counted 633 Florida golf establishments in 1998 (Census), 640 in 2008 (Census), 677 in 2018 (Census) and 624 in 2023 (Census). For the three counties, County Business Patterns counted 75 in Palm Beach (Census), 33 in Broward (Census) and 27 in Martin (Census) in 2023.
Palm Beach County had 135 private golf establishments in 2025 (BLS), 14.5% of Florida's (our calculation) and 8.6 per 100,000 residents (our calculation), up 32.4% from 102 in 2014 (BLS) (our calculation). Broward County had 37 (BLS), down from 48 in 2014 (BLS), or 1.8 per 100,000 residents (our calculation). Martin County had 42 (BLS), up from 34 in 2014 (BLS): 25.3 per 100,000 residents (our calculation), the densest of the three counties.
The per-resident figures on this page use the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 population estimates (Vintage 2025): 341,784,857 for the United States, 23,462,518 for Florida, 1,575,726 for Palm Beach County, 2,013,317 for Broward and 166,272 for Martin (U.S. Census Bureau).
How much do golf courses take in, and from what?
U.S. golf courses and country clubs with paid employees took in 31,314,635 thousand dollars in 2022, according to the Census Bureau's 2022 Economic Census (Census), across 10,271 establishments (Census) with 316,996 paid employees (Census). That is about 3.0 million dollars per establishment (our calculation). In 2017 the census counted 10,865 establishments (Census) and 23,090,144 thousand dollars of revenue (Census); revenue rose 35.6% in current dollars, before inflation (our calculation).
Many clubs are nonprofits owned by their members. In 2022, 2,424 establishments were exempt from federal income tax (Census), 23.6% of the total (our calculation), and they took in 12,203,614 thousand dollars (Census), 39.0% of the industry's revenue (our calculation). In 2017 the exempt count was 2,628 (Census). In Florida, 116 of 643 establishments were exempt (Census), 18.0% (our calculation); Florida's courses took in 4,059,950 thousand dollars (Census). Palm Beach County's 75 establishments (Census) took in 1,249,257 thousand dollars (Census), about 16.7 million dollars each (our calculation). Broward had 30 establishments in the 2022 census (Census) and Martin 30 (Census).
Membership is the biggest line. Membership services were 48.9% of 2022 revenue (Census), reported by 80.4% of establishments (Census). Greens and guest fees were 24.9% of revenue (Census), reported by 93.4% of establishments (Census). Food and nonalcoholic drinks served on site were 10.7% (Census) and alcoholic drinks 5.4% (Census). Fewer establishments report the lines video marketing most often sells: 15.1% reported pro shop golf equipment sales (Census), 13.5% separate equipment rental revenue (Census), 6.5% social event planning, the line that covers weddings and parties (Census), and 4.6% instruction programs (Census). Many clubs bundle carts, events and lessons into dues and fees, so small shares here do not mean the services are rare.
How many golf businesses have no employees?
The Census Bureau does not publish an owner-only count for golf courses. Nonemployer Statistics returns no line for NAICS 713910; the lowest level that holds golf courses is NAICS 7139 Other Amusement and Recreation Industries, which also holds fitness centers, marinas, bowling centers and skiing facilities. That group had 148,543 businesses with no paid employees in the United States in 2024 (Census), 12,727 in Florida (Census), 1,187 in Palm Beach County (Census), 1,360 in Broward (Census) and 169 in Martin (Census). Most are independent instructors and small recreation sellers, not courses: a course nearly always needs staff.
How long do new recreation businesses last?
BLS publishes establishment survival only for the whole arts, entertainment and recreation sector (NAICS 71), which includes golf courses. Of the private establishments in that sector that opened in the year ended March 2025, 80.9% were still operating a year later (BLS); of those that opened in the year ended March 2023, 63.0% were operating three years later (BLS); 52.7% of the year-to-March-2021 openings lasted five years (BLS) and 41.6% of the year-to-March-2016 openings lasted ten (BLS).
Why do the golf course counts differ?
Each counter counts something different. The federal counts of NAICS 713910 golf course and country club establishments with employees run from 10,076 (County Business Patterns, 2023) to 11,148 (BLS QCEW, 2025, private only). QCEW averages state unemployment insurance records over the year and splits private from government units; County Business Patterns and the Economic Census use the Census Bureau's Business Register in one March pay period and leave out most government courses. All three count business locations, not courses or holes. The golf trade's facility counts, the map and property-record counts and the public companies' own course totals count other things; they sit in the rows below the federal ones. The NGF counts every course, public, private and municipal, with or without a payroll of its own, which is why its totals run above the federal ones.
Counter
What it counts
Period
United States
Florida
Palm Beach
Broward
Martin
BLS QCEW
Private establishments with employees, NAICS 713910
OpenStreetMap had 1,404 mapped golf course features in Florida on November 13, 2026 (our calculation). That is 6.0 features per 100,000 Florida residents (our calculation), using the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 population (U.S. Census Bureau).
What do the public golf companies disclose about courses, members and marketing?
Very few public companies run golf courses. Of the 124 companies whose annual reports mentioned “golf course” from January 2024 to November 13, 2026 (our calculation), only 3 run golf courses or clubs as their main business (our calculation). Two are in Florida. Powerus Corp, which filed as Aureus Greenway Holdings, owns and operates two public golf country clubs in Kissimmee (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025) on over 289 acres (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025). Kissimmee Bay Country Club had 100 members at the end of 2025 (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025) and Remington Golf Club 30 (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025), 130 between them (our calculation). About 23,000 rounds were played at Remington in 2025 (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025), and the company had about 47 employees (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025). Neither club is in Palm Beach, Broward or Martin County.
The big club chains are no longer public. ClubCorp, now private, owned, leased or ran through joint ventures 150 golf and country clubs at the end of fiscal 2016, its last 10-K (ClubCorp Form 10-K, 2016), 135 of them private country clubs (ClubCorp Form 10-K, 2016). Its clubs had over 183,000 memberships (ClubCorp Form 10-K, 2016), and 82.7% of golf and country club memberships were kept that year (ClubCorp Form 10-K, 2016). Drive Shack's American Golf owned, leased or managed 55 golf properties in nine states at the end of 2021 (Drive Shack Form 10-K, 2021), with over 1.6 million rounds played that year (Drive Shack Form 10-K, 2021).
What do golf companies spend on advertising, and what do the filings say about video and social media?
The equipment makers spend the most. Acushnet, which makes Titleist and FootJoy, spent $254.4 million on advertising and promotion in 2025 (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025), against $242.3 million in 2024 and $231.4 million in 2023 (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025). That is up 5.0% in a year (our calculation) and 9.9% of its net sales of $2,558,730 thousand (our calculation). The cost includes endorsement deals with members of the professional golf tours and media production for television, print and internet (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025). Acushnet sells mainly to on-course golf pro shops (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025) and says it uses websites and social media more and more to reach golfers (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025).
Callaway's advertising costs were $84.8 million in 2025, $88.8 million in 2024 and $90.3 million in 2023 (Callaway Form 10-K, 2025), down 4.5% in a year (our calculation). Its golf equipment ads run mainly as television commercials during golf telecasts, web and social media ads, and print in national golf magazines (Callaway Form 10-K, 2025). It warns that athletes, celebrities and other social influencers posting on social media could bring costs or bad publicity (Callaway Form 10-K, 2025). Callaway sold 60% of Topgolf, the entertainment golf venues, effective January 1, 2026 (Callaway Form 10-K, 2025), and kept 40% (Callaway Form 10-K, 2025); its staff fell from about 28,000 to about 4,000 (Callaway Form 10-K, 2025).
The one course owner that describes its marketing is small. Powerus says it markets its two clubs mainly through digital media, boosting ads on platforms such as Facebook to send golfers to its websites or tee-time booking partners (Powerus Form 10-K, 2025). None of these filings reports a course's video views, a video budget or sales from video.
Acushnet also reads the market. It says U.S. on-course golf participants grew for the eighth year in a row in 2025 (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025). Rounds played rose about 2% worldwide and 1% in the U.S. from 2024 (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025), and were about 22% and 25% above 2019 (Acushnet Form 10-K, 2025). These are the company's summary of industry data, not its own count.
How often do public companies mention golf courses in their annual reports?
Less often than they used to. 3,753 Form 10-K annual reports filed from 2001 to 2025 contained “golf course” or “golf courses”, by our count with the SEC's EDGAR full-text search (our calculation), from 823 companies (our calculation). Mentions peaked at 204 10-Ks filed in 2010 (our calculation) and fell to 101 in 2025 (our calculation), down 50.5% (our calculation). 139 were filed in 2001 and 76 from January 1 to November 13, 2026 (our calculation).
“Country club” turns up as often but means less: 3,830 10-Ks from 2001 to 2025 (our calculation), from 1,416 companies (our calculation), with a peak of 279 in 2003 and 75 in 2025 (our calculation). Many of these are street and place names, such as Country Club Drive, so we did not class them.
We read the passage around “golf course” in the newest annual report of each of the 124 companies that filed one from January 2024 to November 13, 2026, 282 filings in all (our calculation). Besides the 3 course operators, 18 are REITs or real estate funds, 17 are hotel, resort, casino or leisure companies, 12 are homebuilders or real estate developers, 10 make golf equipment or golf technology and 19 sell turf-care, grounds or course supplies (our calculation). 22 mention a golf course only as loan collateral, a fund holding or a director's biography (our calculation). A mention in a filing is not a count of courses: the government counts are in the comparison table above.
How we counted: we queried EDGAR full-text search (efts.sec.gov) on November 13, 2026 for each exact phrase, read every page of hits, and counted each Form 10-K once by its filing year, even when the phrase appears in several of its documents. Full-text search covers filings from 2001 on and does no stemming, so other wordings (“golf club”, “golf facility”, “links”) are missed, and older 10-KSB and 10-K405 reports are in their own columns, not in the 10-K totals. The per-year counts, filer names and query links are in edgar-golf-10k-counts.csv; the passage, class and filing link for each 2024-2026 registrant are in edgar-golf-10k-contexts.csv (director biographies are classed, not quoted).
What rules does a golf course drone flyover fly under?
A course or club filming its own flyover flies under the FAA's small drone rule, 14 CFR Part 107, which in 2026 caps altitude at 400 feet above ground level away from structures (eCFR). The recreational exception in federal law covers only aircraft flown strictly for recreational purposes (United States Code), so marketing footage is a Part 107 flight. The pilot in command needs a remote pilot certificate with a small UAS rating (eCFR), and must be at least 16 years old to get one (eCFR). This section is federal rule, statute and Florida statute text as read on November 13, 2026. It is a plain summary, not legal advice, and no figure here says any course broke a rule.
The drone must weigh less than 55 pounds on takeoff, camera and gimbal included (eCFR), and may not go faster than 87 knots (eCFR).
The pilot, any visual observer and the person at the controls must be able to see the drone throughout the entire flight (eCFR). On a long hole that limits how far one pilot can follow the shot.
Night and twilight flights need anti-collision lighting visible for at least 3 statute miles (eCFR).
Drones flown under Part 107 must be registered; only recreational drones of 0.55 pounds or less are exempt (FAA). Since September 16, 2023, a drone that needs a registration number must also broadcast Remote ID (FAA).
Recreational flyers have their own limits: no higher than 400 feet in class G airspace (United States Code) and a passed aeronautical knowledge and safety test (United States Code).
Can a drone fly over golfers, members or a tournament gallery?
Only in set cases. Part 107 says no one may fly a small drone over a human being unless that person is part of the operation, is under a covered structure or in a stationary vehicle, or the flight fits one of the operations-over-people categories (eCFR). The rule does not say whether a golf cart counts as protection, and we do not decide it.
Category
What the rule says
Source
Category 1
The drone weighs 0.55 pounds or less on takeoff and throughout the flight
The tournament example is ours. The rule does not name golf, and it does not say whether a private club counts as a restricted-access site.
What do the FTC rules say about pros, creators and member testimonials in course videos?
A paid creator round, a pro's sponsored lesson clip or a member testimonial falls under the FTC's Endorsement Guides, published in their current form on July 26, 2023 (eCFR). A connection that must be disclosed includes free or discounted products given to the endorser, whether or not the advertiser asked for an endorsement (eCFR). Free rounds are not named in the text. In a video, the disclosure should be in both the visual and audible portions (eCFR). One of the Guides' examples calls small white text on a light background, shown for only five seconds, easy to miss and not clear and conspicuous (eCFR).
The FTC's consumer reviews and testimonials rule took effect October 21, 2024 (Federal Register). A business may not write, create, or sell a review or testimonial that misrepresents the reviewer or their experience (eCFR).
It may not pay for reviews expressing a particular sentiment (eCFR), and an officer or manager may not post a review of the business without clearly disclosing the relationship (eCFR).
For knowing violations of a trade regulation rule, the FTC's adjusted maximum civil penalty is $53,088 per violation (eCFR). The Endorsement Guides are guides, not a rule.
On YouTube, ticking the paid promotion box adds a disclosure label at the beginning of your video (YouTube Help).
What do the ADA design standards require on a golf course?
The 2010 ADA Standards, adopted in rules published on September 15, 2010 (ADA.gov), require at least one accessible route connecting the accessible elements and spaces within the boundary of a golf course (ADA.gov). Course builders may use golf car passages that meet the standard for as all or part of that route (ADA.gov). The standards apply to new construction and alterations; they do not count how many courses comply.
Feature
What the standard says
Source
Routes to tees, greens, shelters, rental and bag drop areas, toilet rooms
The Justice Department's title III rule names golf cars as an example of an "other power-driven mobility device" (eCFR). A public accommodation must make reasonable modifications to allow such devices unless it can show they cannot meet its legitimate safety requirements (eCFR), and it may not ask about the nature and extent of a person's disability (eCFR). A course video that shows its accessible routes or adapted carts is showing what these texts ask for; the rules themselves say nothing about video.
How does Florida tax greens fees and club dues?
As admissions. The 2026 Florida Statutes define taxable admissions to include greens fees (Florida Legislature) and all dues and fees paid to private and membership clubs providing recreational facilities, naming golf first among them (Florida Legislature). The admissions tax is 6 percent of the sales price (Florida Legislature). Dues and admission charges of not-for-profit organizations qualifying under section 501(c)(3) are exempt (Florida Legislature). The admissions section contains no golf-specific exemption, and we do not say which clubs qualify. County surtaxes are not covered here.
What do the popular golf numbers really say?
Four golf numbers get repeated in club and course marketing. Each one measures something narrower, or wider, than the way it is quoted. The “golf is a $X billion industry” figures are economic-impact studies paid for by golf trade coalitions, and they count real estate and travel. “Courses close every year” comes from the National Golf Foundation’s closure counts, and the trend it describes has slowed. “Florida has more golf courses than any other state” is printed by booking and tourism sites that name no counter or year, though the trade’s own count supports it. The “video lifts conversions 80%” line comes from one video vendor’s client, not a golf course. We traced each one as far as we could, and below we say what the source counted. We did not read sources whose robots.txt or terms bar automated readers: golf.com and golfcourseindustry.com (their robots.txt disallows Anthropic’s agent), Visit Florida (its terms forbid scraping), Golf Digest (its robots file refused us), and EyeView (decision on its archived robots.txt).
“Golf is a $X billion industry”
The figure is a direct economic-impact estimate, not what golf courses take in. The newest is the 2023 Golf Impact Report, which the American Golf Industry Coalition paid for and the National Golf Foundation (NGF), a golf trade research group, produced. It puts golf’s direct impact on the U.S. economy at almost $102 billion in 2022 (NGF). That is a 20% rise over $84 billion in 2016 (NGF). Counting indirect and induced effects, the report gives $226.5 billion (NGF) and over 1.65 million jobs (NGF). Those added effects are multiplier estimates, not sales.
Each earlier headline came from a study paid for by the trade. In December 2002, SRI International, a research institute working for the World Golf Foundation’s GOLF 20/20 initiative, put the golf economy at more than $62 billion of goods and services in 2000 (Golf Business News). That total included $13.4 billion of hospitality and tourism (Golf Business News) and $9.9 billion of real estate (Golf Business News). SRI’s 2005 Golf Economy Report, unveiled in 2008, gave $76 billion (ASGCA). Its 2011 study gave $68.8 billion (Golf Business News), or $176.8 billion counting indirect and induced activity (Golf Business News). That 2011 study by SRI International counted course operations, course building, golfer supplies, tournaments, associations and charities, plus real estate, hospitality and tourism (Golf Business News). In April 2018 the WE ARE GOLF coalition released TEConomy Partners’ figure of $84.1 billion for 2016 (Golf Business News), with $191.9b of total activity (Golf Business News). Of that 2016 figure, $34.4 billion was revenue of golf courses, clubs, resorts, driving ranges and other facilities (Golf Business News). That is the closest item to what courses and clubs earn. The fall from $76 billion to $68.8 billion between 2005 and 2011 may reflect the recession, a changed method, or both. The reports we read do not say which.
The federal comparator is the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) Outdoor Recreation Satellite Account. BEA does not publish golf on its own. It reports “game areas”, golf and tennis together. Their value added was $28,141 million in 2024, up from $16,240 million in 2012 (BEA). Their gross output, which is closer to sales, was $54,194 million in 2024 (BEA). Florida’s game-areas value added was $2,566,177 thousand (BEA). The whole U.S. outdoor recreation economy came to $696.7 billion of value added in 2024 (BEA). Use instead: for what courses and clubs take in, use the Census Bureau’s receipts for NAICS 713910 (see the industry section). Quote the trade figures as “direct economic impact, including real estate and travel”, with their year and who paid for them.
“Golf courses close every year”
This line comes from the National Golf Foundation’s own closure counts, which golf sites repeat. A GolfPass page cites the NGF: closures have outweighed new openings every year since 2006 (GolfPass). It also says the number of U.S. courses has fallen by roughly 8% since 2006 (GolfPass), after 44% growth in facilities during the 1986 to 2005 building boom (GolfPass). GolfPass belongs to GolfNow, which sells tee-time services to courses, and the page has no date. NGF’s own pages put the fall since 2006 at about 13%, not 8%, and show closures slowing: about 90 courses (18-hole equivalents) closed in 2023, the fewest since 2004, while 24 opened, and the net change from 2020 to 2026 was a loss of fewer than 60 facilities. So “every year” describes 2006 to about 2020, not the current trend. The Census and BLS establishment counts in the industry section measure businesses, not courses. Use instead: NGF’s closure and opening count for a named year, called “18-hole equivalents”, and say that one business can run several courses.
“Florida has more golf courses than any other state”
The sites that print this line give no counter or year. GolfNow, a tee-time seller, says Florida has over 1,250 courses, more than any other state, and names no source (GolfNow). Visit Florida, the state’s tourism marketing body, makes the same claim, and says the state has the most courses per head of population. Its terms forbid scraping, so we print none of its figures. The count itself holds up at its counter: the NGF says Florida had 1,290 golf courses at the start of 2026, the most of any state, ahead of California’s 963. It does not hold for public golf: the NGF says Michigan leads with 748 public courses. A count per head of population is a different claim. Florida has about 5.5 courses per 100,000 residents against 4.7 for the U.S. as a whole (our calculation from the NGF counts and Census population), so it is above the national rate, but we could not rank the states per head: the NGF pages we read give only a few states, and our map count by state did not finish. Use instead: a named count with its year: the NGF’s facility count, the Census Bureau’s establishment count or our OpenStreetMap count, each labelled with what it counts.
“Video lifts conversions 80%”
The figure is a best case from one video vendor, EyeView, about a client website, not a golf course. In February 2009 EyeView’s blog said viewers of its videos for one client, UMOO, were 80% more likely to become depositing users than non-viewers (EyeView). By August 2010 Unbounce, a landing-page software seller, wrote that a study by EyeView showed video on landing pages can increase conversion by 80% (Unbounce). In 2021 Unbounce tested the idea on approximately 35,000 of its customers’ landing pages in each of three time frames (Unbounce). It found that video has a minimal or negative impact on landing-page performance (Unbounce). An April 2025 Unbounce article still says landing pages with video can lift conversions by 80% (Unbounce). We found no conversion test run by a golf course or club. Use instead: a test on your own booking or membership pages, and do not quote the 80% figure as a rule.
We started from the questions people search for about golf course video statistics and looked for the organization that actually produced each answer. Every figure on this page sits in an evidence ledger with its source, the exact table or paragraph it came from, the measurement period, the population measured, and the date we checked it. This edition holds 346 figures from 25 publishers.
On November 13, 2026, each sourced figure on this page was re-fetched with the fetch cache cleared and matched against the recorded wording: BLS establishment, job and pay counts (Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages open data files) and business survival (an archived BLS table, because bls.gov refuses scripts); Census County Business Patterns (1998 to 2023), Nonemployer Statistics, the 2017 and 2022 Economic Census and population estimates (through the Census data API and Census files); the Bureau of Economic Analysis’s outdoor recreation tables; peer-reviewed studies (through PubMed abstracts, re-read with NCBI’s E-utilities); eCFR, the Federal Register, govinfo, the FAA, ADA.gov and the Florida Statutes; YouTube Help; SEC filings on EDGAR; and the National Golf Foundation’s public research pages, labelled as a golf trade research group. Golf Business News, the American Society of Golf Course Architects, GolfPass, GolfNow and a landing-page software seller appear in the origins section, labelled as the reporters or repeaters they are. Our YouTube figures come from the YouTube Data API, our per-resident ratios from BLS and NGF counts and Census population estimates, our map count from OpenStreetMap, and our filing counts from EDGAR full-text search. One archived 2009 vendor post behind the “80%” claim is copied from our earlier pages and checked by hand, because the vendor’s robots rules bar our agents. We left out sources whose robots rules or terms bar our agents: golf.com and Golf Course Industry (robots rules name Anthropic’s agent), Golf Digest and the USGA (their robots files refused us), Visit Florida (its terms forbid scraping) and Discover The Palm Beaches (its site refused us, so we could not read its terms). We left out occupation wages: the BLS data API had reached its daily request limit for our key, and no archived copy of the BLS industry wage page was available. Nothing here is legal, tax, aviation or business advice.
We only cite the producer: government agencies, regulators, company filings and official posts, and the survey owner's own report. We do not cite statistics roundups, Statista-style aggregators, or salary sites without a public method. We did not bypass paywalls or sign-up forms; where a full report was gated, we used only the figures its publisher states publicly.
Figures marked "our calculation" are arithmetic on the cited numbers, and anyone can reproduce them:
This edition contains no Mark Studios customer data.
Limitations
Federal counts are of businesses, not courses. BLS and Census count golf course and country club establishments (NAICS 713910) with paid employees. One establishment can run several courses, a course run by a city may be reported with other city services, and a course with no payroll of its own is missed. The National Golf Foundation counts courses and facilities directly, so its totals run higher; it is a trade research group and publishes little of its method on its public pages.
Two federal counts disagree on Palm Beach County. BLS counted 135 private establishments there in 2025 and Census 75 in 2023. BLS works from unemployment insurance records and Census from its Business Register, and they classify some club and community-association employers differently; we show both and do not pick one.
No owner-only count for golf. Nonemployer Statistics does not publish golf courses on their own, so the no-employee figures are for all other amusement and recreation businesses (NAICS 7139).
Our YouTube read follows YouTube’s ranking. The videos are what YouTube’s search returned for ‘golf course’, ‘golf course tour’ and ‘country club’ (the top 200 results for each, sorted by views, with no country filter) on November 13, 2026. It is not a census of golf video: a few creator and tour channels hold most of the views, and the ‘country club’ phrase mostly finds songs. View counts are lifetime snapshots and include paid views. We read titles and channel text, not the videos themselves.
Our map count is incomplete. OpenStreetMap shows what volunteers have drawn. The map servers timed out before our state-by-state ranking and county counts finished, so we publish the Florida total only.
Trade economic studies are paid for by the trade. The “golf economy” figures in the origins section come from studies commissioned by golf industry coalitions and include real estate and travel.
Rules and origins as read on November 13, 2026. This is not legal, tax or aviation advice. We read federal and Florida law, not county or city ordinances, club rules or tournament media rules.
How to cite this page
For a single figure, cite the original publisher named next to it, and link here if the verification trail is useful to your readers. Each figure has its own anchor, so you can link straight to it, for example https://www.markstudios.com/research/golf-course-video-statistics#DRV-210. To cite the page as a whole:
Mark Studios. "Golf Course Video Statistics." Last verified Nov 13, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/golf-course-video-statistics
APA
Mark Studios. (2026, November 13). Golf course video statistics. https://www.markstudios.com/research/golf-course-video-statistics
MLA
“Golf Course Video Statistics.” Mark Studios, 13 Nov. 2026, www.markstudios.com/research/golf-course-video-statistics.
Chicago
Mark Studios. “Golf Course Video Statistics.” Last modified November 13, 2026. https://www.markstudios.com/research/golf-course-video-statistics.
BibTeX
@misc{markstudios_golf_course_video_statistics_2026,
author = {{Mark Studios}},
title = {{Golf Course Video Statistics}},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
url = {https://www.markstudios.com/research/golf-course-video-statistics},
note = {Last verified 2026-11-13}
}
Our calculations and the evidence table are free to reuse with attribution and a link to this page. Each underlying figure remains the claim of its original publisher, and some publishers ask for a link when their figures are reused.
National Golf Foundation (golf trade research group; produced the report, commissioned by the American Golf Industry Coalition), Golf Economic Impact Report 2023 Edition (2023). Accessed 2026-11-13.
Golf Business News (trade news; reporting the World Golf Foundation / SRI International report), US golf market worth $62 billion (2002-12-19). Accessed 2026-11-13.
American Society of Golf Course Architects (trade group; By Design newsletter column by Joe Steranka, PGA of America), By Design Fall 2010 - Golf more than just a game (2010). Accessed 2026-11-13.
Golf Business News (trade news; reporting the WE ARE GOLF / TEConomy Partners report), U.S. Golf is $84.1 Billion Business (2018-04-25). Accessed 2026-11-13.
We re-verify every figure quarterly and when a major source publishes a new edition. The next scheduled review is February 2027. Corrections go to contact@markstudios.com.
Nov 13, 2026: First published with 346 figures from 25 publishers, each checked against its original source.
Frequently asked questions
How many golf courses are there in the United States?
The National Golf Foundation, a golf trade research group, counted about 16,000 U.S. golf courses at about 14,000 facilities at the end of 2025. The federal counts are of businesses with paid employees: BLS counted 11,148 private golf course and country club establishments in 2025 plus 231 run by local governments, and Census County Business Patterns counted 10,076 in 2023.
Does Florida have the most golf courses of any state?
By the National Golf Foundation’s count, yes: Florida had 1,290 golf courses at the start of 2026, ahead of California’s 963. For public golf the same counter puts Michigan first, with 748 public courses. BLS counted 934 private golf course and country club establishments with employees in Florida in 2025.
How many golf courses are in Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties?
BLS counted 135 private golf course and country club establishments with employees in Palm Beach County in 2025, 37 in Broward and 42 in Martin. That is 8.6, 1.8 and 25.3 per 100,000 residents, against 3.3 for the U.S. (our calculation). Census County Business Patterns counted fewer for 2023: 75, 33 and 27.
How many Americans play golf?
The National Golf Foundation estimates that 29.1 million Americans played golf on a course in 2025, and 48.1 million age 6 and up played on a course or off it, at ranges, simulators or venues like Topgolf. There is no recent federal count of golfers.
Do golf courses post their own videos on YouTube?
Rarely among the most-viewed ones. In our November 13, 2026 read of YouTube’s most-viewed golf course and country club videos, courses and clubs speaking as themselves uploaded 2 of the 365 on-topic videos and drew 0.2% of the on-topic views, and those two course channels uploaded 1 video between them in the year to November 12, 2026.
How do golf courses and country clubs make their money?
In the 2022 Economic Census, membership made up 48.9% of the revenue of U.S. golf courses and country clubs with paid employees, greens and guest fees 24.9%, food and nonalcoholic drinks 10.7% and alcoholic drinks 5.4%.
Can a drone fly over golfers for a course video?
Under the FAA’s small drone rule, a drone may not fly over a person who is not directly taking part in the flight unless that person is under a covered structure or inside a stationary vehicle, or the drone meets one of the operations-over-people categories. It must stay at or below 400 feet above ground level, and a paid course video needs a remote pilot certificate; the recreational exception covers only flights strictly for recreation.
