January 2023 National Rounds Played

After a slow weather-related start a year ago, play rebounded somewhat in January 2023, with rounds up 7.1% year-over-year on a national level.

In 2022, January rounds had been down 12%. Last year’s decline came after the first month of 2021 jumped 21% compared to 2020 — a strong start to what would be a record-setting year for rounds. And in 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic hit, the golf year had gotten off to a strong start as well, with an 11% increase compared to 2019.

There’s typically a lot of inconsistency when comparing yearly results for an off-season month like January, given that weather and seasonality can have such a significant impact. And weather was the biggest contributor to this year’s positive January momentum. Warmer temperatures and rain instead of snow throughout much of the Northeast yielded more playable days, a welcome change after many courses in golf-rich Northern parts of the country were blanketed by snow early in 2022.

While the volume of rounds is much lower compared to the Sunbelt states, there were significant YOY play increases for January in the New England (+358%), Mid Atlantic (+275%) and East North Central (+226%) regions. These increases came despite increased precipitation (+134%, +39%, +135%, respectively) in each of those regions, as it was rain rather than snow in most instances.

NGF provides facility-level rounds data to Golf Datatech in helping compile the free, monthly play reports on behalf of the golf industry. Click the image below to see the full report. 

Click image to download full three-page PDF of the January report

 For a historical archive of Rounds Played reports, click here