With three quarters of 2024 in the books, the number of rounds played at U.S. courses nationwide continues to trend slightly ahead of 2023's record pace. As tracked by the blue line in the accompanying graphic, 2024 play (entering October) was still running almost 2% ahead of last year and over 15% higher than the three-year, pre-pandemic average. The biggest climb in the year-to-date cumulative chart is during the peak-season months (April through September), with the shoulder months (January through March, and October through December) experiencing more of a leveling-off.

Through two-thirds of the year, not to mention the high-volume summer months, the total number of rounds of golf played in the U.S. in 2024 continue to trend slightly ahead (+1.4%) of last year's record pace. There were more rounds played in 2023 at U.S. courses than any other year in history, so with a strong -- or at least stable -- finish in fall and the start of the lower-volume winter months, 2024 is shaping up as another record-setter for play.

There are almost 500 golf courses in and around the New York metro area, making it the most golf-rich MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) in the U.S., by a fairly wide margin. Not surprisingly, many of the biggest U.S. cities are also near the top of this list, from sunny South Florida to Palm Springs and the greater Los Angeles area in California.

The original greens created by Donald Ross at Pinehurst Resort's No. 2 course featured sand putting surfaces instead of grass. They were actually a mix of sand and clay, and remained that way until 1935. While many greens today are "sand-based," with tightly mown grass atop a porous subsurface, sand greens were once relatively commonplace in parts of the U.S. with little rainfall or easy access to irrigation. These smoothed putting surfaces were typically bare sand or oiled sand -- typically motor oil to keep weeds and insects away while binding the sand in windy conditions. Today, they're far less commonplace, ...

Midway through 2024, rounds of golf on a national level are trending slightly ahead (+2%) of 2023, a year which set a record for the most play at U.S. courses in a single year. The blue line in the accompanying graphic shows the cumulative rounds trajectory through June, with the most noticeable separation being the +15% lift over the average "pre-Covid" play levels.