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Country golf has its benefits, but it is a luxury not available to all golfers. For those who don’t have the money or connections to hit the fancy clubs, public golf courses are the perfect solution.
Public golf is the foundation of the game. Although private courses get the most press, it’s the variety that comes from everyone that actually makes up the vast majority of courses in the United States, according to New research from the National Golf Association75 percent of all golf facilities in the United States are public (ie daily or municipal fees).
This is an encouraging number for the Game Development team, and shows that golf has a lot of avenues to reach across the country. However, golf is more accessible in some parts of the country than others. This is what the NGF data tells us.
The best states for access to public golf
If you are a public golfer in South Dakota, this is good news! According to NGF, There are only 631 golfers on every public course in the Mount Rushmore state. That number ranks lower than any other state in the country, and makes logging a pole time easier in South Dakota than anywhere else.
In addition to the large percentage of golfers to public courses, South Dakota has one of the highest percentages of public courses in the country. According to NGF data, of the 118 golf facilities in South Dakota, 112 are public. With 94 percent of the facilities accessible to the public, you won’t find many states with a friendlier public golf scene.
Other (North) Dakota is also quite friendly to general golfers as it is second only to South Dakota in golfer to public course ratio. North Dakota also ranks second in the nation for the percentage of public courses, with 95 percent of facilities open to the public.
The worst states for access to public golf
While Middle America is great for public trail access, the coasts are much more challenging. According to the NGF, each of the three states lowest in access to public golf is on the east or west coast, with California, Maryland and New Jersey accounting for the bottom three.
New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the country, has the least favorable numbers when it comes to accessibility to public golf, with 4,919 golfers per public course. The Garden State also has the highest percentage of private courses in the country, as 125 of its 267 facilities are private. With 47 percent of its courses being private, New Jersey ranks more than twice the national average (23 percent) in that category.
Maryland is not far behind New Jersey in terms of demand with 4,401 golfers per public course. Maryland also has a high percentage of private courses as 37 percent of the state’s supply is private, the seventh highest number in the country.
California rounds out the bottom three for accessibility of public courses with 4,258 golfers per public course. Golden State has a slightly lower percentage of private courses than Maryland and New Jersey with only 33 percent of courses are private, but this is still well below the national average.
You can see the entire NGF scan here.