Green fees may be surging post-pandemic, but not as much as you might think

It is easy to look at some of the marquee public golf courses in America and think golf has lost its collective mind when it comes to what it should cost to play this game. For instance, the average green fee at the top 10 entries on America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses is just shy of $650. For perspective, that figure is higher than 99 of the courses on the list just a decade ago.

Certainly, the Covid boom has propelled golf to higher prices, and while the perception is that the effect of the top tier’s pricing has trickled down to impact the game’s cost at all levels. But according to a report this week from the National Golf Foundation, the facts say otherwise. Believe it or not, golf’s average green fees have increased since 2019 pretty much right in line with inflation.

The NGF study tracked 18-hole public fees since the pandemic and found a 29 percent increase over the last seven years. By comparison the overall inflation rate over that same period is 27 percent.

“At a macro level, this indicates golf has largely kept pace with the cost of living rather than dramatically outpacing it, even at a time when operators have unprecedented pricing power and many have been investing their added revenue into improving courses and clubhouses,” the report reads. “When comparing golf within the broader landscape of discretionary spending (and staying in the world of entertainment and sport), consider that the average movie ticket price has jumped roughly 75 percent over the past six years while the average cost to attend an NFL game has risen around 50 percent over that same period.”

Of course, like politics, all golf costs are local. The greens fee trend is not a consistent standard across the country. There are stories of not inconsequential price jumps, which seem an almost natural development as interest in the game sets new records and tee sheets are booked solid. In Denver last year, municipal courses saw a 10 percent increase, its second increase since 2020. The higher fees seem a direct result of the cost of running the area’s golf courses, which according to leaders has more than doubled since 2018. Meanwhile, at Tahquitz Creek, a city-owned course in Palm Springs, fees jumped late last year by 73 percent, its first increase in six years. Locals were alarmed, telling the Palm Springs Post, “We are not members of private country clubs. We can’t afford it. I think that somehow we lost some balance.”

Increasing local golf fees don’t always have to do with rising maintenance costs. In Portland, the city decided to divert some of its expanding golf course revenue to make up for shortcomings in the rest of the city’s budget. According to the Willamette Week, golf’s done a 180 since the pandemic. In 2017, the golf operations required an $800,000 bailout from Portland’s general fund. Last year, the special Golf Fund had ballooned to more than a $7 million surplus, which the city decided to tap into to pay for regular (non-golf) services, including financing city elections.

Still, the NGF study showed that in each of the last four years the average increase in public green fees outpaced inflation. Annual inflation hovered at 3.8 percent since 2021, while green fee inflation annual rates reached 5.3 percent across that window. Of course, the number of golfers who played on a golf course has increased by nearly 20 percent since the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the average green fee still averaged a decidedly affordable $41 a round (non-resort courses), according to the research. Compare that to the average lift ticket ($92), bowling ($40-plus an hour) or even the average concert ticket ($130) and golf seems more like a bargain. The NGF said that 32 states had green fees under $50 a round in 2025. While some golf tourism states like Arizona ($82), Nevada ($115) and Hawaii ($112) skewed the average, there was more golf in the middle of the country that averaged less than $40 per round, including Mississippi ($38), Tennessee ($35), Iowa ($34), Indiana ($33), Kansas ($33) and Oklahoma ($31).

The challenge for the game going forward is the type of golf courses that are surviving in this environment. According to the NGF, the number of premium-priced golf courses (those with green fees above $80 a round) grew by 40 percent since 2019. During that same window, the number of value price golf courses (less than $50 green fees) dropped by 5 percent.