The dialogue around the community value of golf courses often centers on recreation, health benefits, and environmental stewardship. Understandably so, these things are incredibly important and visible elements of the game’s impact. But there's another crucial dimension to the game that frequently goes unmeasured and underappreciated: the substantial economic impact these facilities generate in their local communities.

Golf courses quietly function as economic engines, pumping millions of dollars into local economies through direct spending, job creation, and tourism. However, this economic contribution often remains invisible in policy discussions, funding decisions, community planning processes, and in the broader societal perception of the game. Part of Greener Golf’s mission is to recognize, quantify, and elevate golf courses’ economic impact in the communities they serve. 

Every golf course operates as a complex economic ecosystem that extends far beyond its property boundaries. When a course purchases equipment from local vendors, pays wages, pays taxes, or hosts a charity tournament that draws visitors from neighboring cities, it's creating economic value that ripples through the community in ways that traditional business metrics often fail to capture.

This economic impact is part of the nature of the game. Golf courses are inherently place-based businesses that can not be outsourced or relocated. They require local workers, source supplies from regional vendors, pay property taxes to local governments, and draw visitors who spend money at nearby hotels, restaurants, and retail establishments. This economic reach creates what economists call "multiplier effects," where each dollar spent by the golf course generates additional economic activity throughout the community.

The Framework for Measuring impact 

Understanding golf's true economic impact requires moving beyond simple measures like annual revenue or employment numbers. At Greener Golf, we use an economic modeling approach that mirrors the widely accepted Input-Output framework used in professional economic analysis, including tools like IMPLAN software. It recognizes three distinct but interconnected types of economic effects.

Direct impacts represent the immediate economic footprint of the golf course itself, the wages paid to employees, the money spent on supplies and equipment, the taxes contributed to local governments, and the charitable dollars raised for community causes. These are the most visible economic contributions, and while they are incredibly important, they only capture a portion of the broader impact.

Indirect impacts capture the secondary economic activity that flows from the course's presence. This includes impacts like the premium that golf course proximity adds to nearby home values. It also encompasses spending by out-of-town visitors who come to play the course, staying in local hotels, dining at area restaurants, and shopping at regional businesses. Real impact to home prices will of course vary by course and context, as will the amount of dollars spent by out-of-town visitors, however they can be reliably estimated. Greener Golf relies on figures and processes from peer reviewed economic analysis to estimate these values. 

Induced impacts capture the ripple effects that occur when golf course employees, and the employees of businesses that supply the course, spend their earnings on goods and services in the local economy. This creates additional demand for housing, retail, services, and entertainment, generating yet more local economic activity. In accordance with accepted economic modeling practices, standard economic multipliers (e.g., +0.40x visitor spending) are used to account for these ripple effects. 

This three-tier framework is the foundation of major economic modeling systems used by government agencies and economic development organizations worldwide. By applying these established methodologies to golf courses, we can model their economic contributions with the same rigor used to evaluate other industries and infrastructure investments.

Golf courses also contribute significantly to local economies through ecosystem system services like storm water retention, pollinator habitat, carbon sequestration, and surface heat abatement. While these contributions are not within the scope of this three-tiered framework, they still should be included in any assessment evaluating the economic contributions a golf course has on its local community.

Course Types and Economic Potential

Not all golf courses generate equivalent economic impact, or generate their impact in the same way. Understanding these differences can help communities and course operators maximize their economic contribution. The type of course, its management approach, and the way it is integrated in the community all play crucial roles in determining economic footprint.

Destination courses that draw visitors from beyond the immediate region typically generate the highest indirect economic impacts. When goods and services are purchased locally with dollars from outside the community they can be thought of as an export. A course that regularly hosts tournaments, attracts golf tourism, or serves as an anchor for further development can inject significant spending into the local economy.

Daily fee courses in urban and suburban areas often excel at generating consistent direct economic impacts through steady employment, regular operational spending with local vendors, and reliable tax contributions. While they may not draw as many out-of-town visitors, they provide stable economic foundations for their communities. Many daily-fee courses are independent businesses, either started by a local family or purchased by an individual investor, as opposed to a national management company, real estate developer, or hospitality corporation. This local ownership significantly increases a course's regional economic impact.

Private clubs can generate significant economic impact through real estate effects and substantial operational spending. Many of these clubs are member-owned, however over the past 25 years, many private clubs nationwide have been purchased by management corporations, which can limit their regional economic impact as profit flows from communities to corporate headquarters. Charitable fundraising activities often create additional community economic benefits through direct donations to local causes.

Municipal golf courses represent a unique economic model and often generate community value that extends beyond even the economic impact framework discussed here. Publicly-owned facilities create surplus value for community members by offering golf access at rates below market prices, effectively subsidizing recreational and outdoor opportunities that might otherwise be unaffordable for many residents. Their procurement practices often emphasize local contracting and vendor relationships, ensuring that operational spending circulates within the community rather than flowing to distant suppliers. Perhaps most remarkably, these golf courses frequently stand as the only Parks and Recreation properties that approach or achieve operational break-even status, generating revenue streams that help support other community recreational services, like parks, that operate at losses.

Practices that Amplify impact

Course operators have numerous ways to enhance their economic contribution to the community through intentional management decisions and community engagement strategies.

Local sourcing practices can significantly increase direct economic impact by directing more operational spending to regional vendors and service providers. When courses choose to purchase supplies, equipment, and services from local businesses rather than distant suppliers, they increase their economic contribution to the community.

Community programming extends economic impact beyond traditional golf activities. Courses that host weddings, corporate events, community festivals, and fundraising activities create additional visitor spending and increase their role as community economic centers.

Tournament hosting represents one of the most powerful tools for amplifying economic impact. Even modest regional tournaments can draw hundreds of visitors who spend money on lodging, meals, and other local services. Major tournaments can generate economic returns on par with large-scale festivals, conventions, or other high-profile community events.

Workforce development practices that emphasize local hiring and employee development create stronger induced economic impacts, increasing individual career earning potential and local household spending. This is the practice that perhaps most closely impacts community member quality of life. Courses that invest in employee training and career development often also see higher retention rates, which strengthens their contribution to local economic stability.

The importance of measuring economic impact

Despite golf's substantial economic contributions, many communities and even course operators themselves lack clear data about these impacts. This measurement gap can make it difficult for courses to demonstrate their community value when seeking support for capital improvements, facing regulatory challenges, or competing for limited resources.

Comprehensive economic impact measurement provides golf courses with powerful tools for community engagement and advocacy. When courses can quantify their contribution to local employment, tax revenue, property values, and visitor spending, they can make compelling cases for their continued operation and growth.

In turn, this information helps communities make more informed decisions about land use, economic development, and infrastructure investment, facilitating intentional alignment between course operations and community economic goals.

Looking Forward: Golf as Economic Infrastructure

The path forward involves treating golf courses not just as recreational facilities, but as pieces of economic infrastructure that deserve the same analytical attention we give to other community assets. By quantifying their economic contributions using established economic modeling frameworks, we can move beyond anecdotal claims to data-driven discussions about golf's community value.

This shift in perspective benefits everyone. Communities gain a clearer understanding of their economic assets and can make better decisions about supporting and leveraging them. Course operators gain powerful tools for demonstrating their value and building stronger community relationships. And the golf industry as a whole gains credibility as a sector that contributes meaningfully to local economic prosperity.

The scorecard may measure individual success on the course, but one real measure of golf's success is its ability to drive economic vitality in the communities it serves. It's time to start counting those contributions as carefully as we count strokes.