By Greg Nathan^*

NGF & The Royal and Ancient's International Golf Course Database

About a year ago, the NGF began work on one of its most ambitious projects ever… the identification and verification of every golf course in the world.

The project, estimated to take three years, also includes the tracking of new golf courses under construction outside the United States. The lead sponsor for the project is the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. They are joined by several corporate sponsors who appreciate what a definitive worldwide database of golf facilities will mean to golf and their respective businesses.

With only a small number of new courses opening each year within the United States, many U.S. businesses are looking for growth outside our borders and have been for some time. Companies that supply golf courses are looking to go beyond anecdotal information on emerging markets, eager for information that would help guide their strategic plans for business development and customer service. With golf in the Olympics in 2016 and 2020, the new database will also help measure the impact of The Games on golf’s international expansion.

Now one year into the project, NGF has gained some important new insights on “planet golf.” It has been widely estimated that the number of non-U.S. golf facilities was approximately the same as the 16,000 golf facilities here in America. Based on the research done to date, NGF now estimates that the number of facilities outside the U.S. may be closer to 17,500. Of course, this estimate will fluctuate as new information is unearthed and as the verification process continues.

The project has also identified 189 countries with at least one golf course. Dozens of countries currently have only one course where the game can be played. However, many nations are actively building more places to play the greatest game on earth.

Approximately 300+ golf courses are currently under construction outside our borders. In fact, it is interesting to note that in several countries, there are more golf facilities under construction than are open and operating at this time.

NGF has verified every golf course in more than 100 countries, many of which have less than 50 golf courses. In terms of some of the more developed golfing nations, databases of open and operating courses in Thailand, India, Mexico and South Korea have been completed. As with all database work of this nature, the job is never actually “done.” NGF is putting in place a framework to maintain the country-by-country databases in perpetuity.

For more information on this exciting industry initiative, contact NGF.

---

Credits

Originally posted by GregNathan on 19 Sep 2011.
All contributors: GregNathan,

Rate This Article

View top-rated articles!

You need to Login or register to rate articles.

Accuracy

12345 My vote: 0, Total votes: 0, Avg. vote: 0

Usefulness

12345 My vote: 0, Total votes: 0, Avg. vote: 0

This discussion page has not yet been started.

You have reached a discussion page that is currently empty. GolfBizWiki discussion pages are where people talk about how to improve a specific page. Typical topics include:

• Does this page follow the GolfBizWiki Writers And Editors Guide?
• Is the content on this page appropriate for wikiHow?
• Is this article helpful or useful?
• Is this article accurate?

A discussion page is an ideal place for two or more people with conflicting views to civilly reach consensus about how a page should be edited. By having these discussions off the topic page, GolfBizWiki community members can converse and agree on how to best improve the page.

Please Login or register to post comments.