March 2024 National Rounds Played

March rounds jumped 21% compared to a year ago, with generally favorable golf weather in golf-rich parts of the country contributing to the biggest single-month change in play (outside December) since 2021.

Through the first quarter of 2024, U.S. rounds of golf have now moved almost 7% ahead of last year’s record pace.

Buoyed by warmer average temperatures in northern parts of the country, March yielded play surges in the East North Central (+101%), West North Central (+92%), and Mid Atlantic Regions (+43%) in particular. Every state in the East North Central (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin) and the Mid Atlantic (New Jersey, New York and Pennyslvania) had average March temperatures that ranked among the 11 warmest in the 130-year history of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather rankings. In early spring in more northern parts of the U.S., that tends to mean better conditions for golf.

Seven of the eight geographic regions experienced year-over-year rounds increases of at 10% or higher, with only the South Atlantic coming in relatively unchanged in part because of much heavier precipitation than in March 2023.

Among the states with the biggest YOY increases in March play:

• +212%     Utah, Idaho, Wyoming & Montana
• +198%     Wisconsin
• +139%     Michigan
• +138%     Illinois
•   +97%     Iowa & Missouri

Aside from swings of +/- 20% the past two Decembers (the lowest-volume month for play of the year and therefore most volatile), March 2024 delivered the biggest YOY change in rounds since the 2021 spring resurgence that followed the 2020 pandemic-related lockdowns. After almost half of the nation’s courses were shut down in early 2020 due to the coronavirus, rounds soared +45% in March 2021 and +81% in April 2021.

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. ⬇

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