Weather, Demand Boost Golf Rounds in Minnesota in 2023

EDINA, Minn. (Dec. 22, 2023) - On behalf of its allied golf associations and its member golf clubs across the state, the Minnesota Golf Association has completed an annual facility rounds study to more accurately track golf participation in the state.

For the fourth time in the last five years of collecting data, golf facilities in Minnesota reported an increase in golf rounds over the previous year, by an average of 2.0 percent.

Mike Malone, a former MGA president and owner-operator of the Ridges at Sand Creek, a public daily-fee facility in Jordan, credits the increase in participation to favorable weather and hybrid working schedules.

What's more he says, younger golfers in their 30s and 40s are playing more during the week, which Malone attributes to flex-work schedules afforded by mobile technologies and hybrid office policies. Ben Disch, the general manager at Brookview Golf Course & Lawn Bowling, a 27-hole municipal facility in Golden Valley, said sunup-to-sundown nonstop demand for access helped the par-3 executive course achieve its best season in 20 years, while the 18-hole regulation course saw a three percent rounds increase, YOY.

“2023 was a good, albeit busy, season for us,” Disch said.

The MGA surveyed 358 golf facilities around the state, with 99 facilities reporting rounds over the last six years in the following categories: municipal, (43.0 percent reporting); private, (48.8 percent); public daily fee, (27.8 percent); and resort, (40.9 percent). †

MGA members - approximately 92,000 golfers who play at public and private golf clubs around the state - posted nearly 90,000 more rounds in 2023, up 5.5 percent from 2022. While cold, wet weather in April contributed to a slow start for the golf season, MGA members posted more rounds in the summer months, up 7.5 percent for May through September YOY. Likewise, MGA membership overall saw a significant increase, up 10.4 percent for 2023. ††

† 99 MGA golf facilities reported rounds for 2023, 6.6 percent fewer than last year.
†† The MGA has 91,995 adult and youth individual members for the period ending Oct. 31, 2023; MGA members posted 1,484,529 rounds for May through September of 2023, up 7.5 percent YOY. The MGA score posting season for handicap purposes begins April 1 and runs through October.