Golfonomist thoughts

I strive to be a golfonomist.

Why?

The overall golf economy affects agronomy. Serving golf maintenance professionals requires an understanding of macro golfonomics. The industry needs golfonomists who can convey what overarching numbers mean to agronomists. As both the general manager (publisher) overseeing the business and the superintendent (editor-in-chief) guiding the product of this publication, I embrace learning industry finances to help audiences and stakeholders grasp the how and why behind their jobs and businesses.

On a recent flight to Kansas City, I studied the latest New York Golf Economic & Environmental Impact Study. Golfonomists await reports like the New York effort like foodies anticipate the unveiling of fall brunch menus at their favorite cafés. The report, conducted by Radius Sports Group, in agreement with the New York Golf Course Foundation and the Empire State Golf Alliance, with additional collaboration from Cornell University, indicated the economic impact of the state’s golf industry swelled from $7.8 billion in 2007 to $12.9 billion in 2023.

Six days later, during a morning workout, while listening to a podcast about a college football coach with a gaudy record being fired despite a nearly $50 million contract buyout, I went into golfonomist mode and remembered the New York study. The money flowing into golf resembles the cash inundating college football: suddenly appearing and seemingly limitless. College football coaches and golf course superintendents face escalating expectations because of their respective industry’s windfalls. More money means more oversight and scrutiny.

The golf industry now has five years of surge-related data and anecdotes to crunch. Every metric suggests golf represents a significant post-COVID economic winner. Rounds played in the United States will likely surpass last year’s record, which surpassed the 2023 record, which surpassed the 2021 record. Golf economies in influential states such as New York continue to expand like a successful hedge fund manager’s bank account. Private-club members, according to the National Golf Foundation, increased from 1.4 million in 2019 to 2.1 million in 2024. Waiting lists and unfathomable initiation fees are norms.

Is a roaring golf economy good for superintendents and other managers?

The average annual maintenance budget, according to Golf Course Industry’s annual Numbers to Know report, increased from $845,705 in 2019 to $1.344 million in 2025. Steep budget increases should be an excellent trend for superintendents. But the rising cost of everything — try hiring an assistant superintendent or purchasing a new mower lately? — negates modest maintenance budget increases.

The renovation market also continues to hum, with the National Golf Foundation reporting that golf facilities spent more than $3 billion on discretionary capital improvements in 2024. During our time in Kansas City, we visited Swope Memorial Golf Course, a municipal facility undergoing an $8.5 million “sympathetic restoration” of its A.W. Tillinghast layout. Imagine the reactions if somebody told a golfonomist in 2019 that municipal courses would be the site of nearly-eight-figure renovations just six years later. And project costs are even more jarring in the private sector.

Receiving new irrigation, improved drainage, altered bunkers, recontoured and resurfaced greens, better cart paths, fewer trees and wider fairways should be a reason for a superintendent to rejoice. Renovations, though, come with enormous financial costs and incredible in-the-moment stress.

And what about after the project crosses the goal line? Work life becomes easier, right? Nope. Financiers expect agronomists to have the course looking and playing better than ever the moment ceremonial tee shots fly.

Consider this golfonomist sympathetic to the plight of agronomists. Golf’s gargantuan post-COVID windfall beats the angst of the Great Recession, when clubs struggled to meet payroll and courses shuttered by the day. But record money entering golf brings new conundrums for agronomists. Cash is expected to overcome the myriad variables of maintaining a golf course.