More Than $1 Billion Spent Here by Non-Michigan Golfers Each Year
By Tom Lang
What I really appreciate about many golf resorts in the Great Lakes State is their realization of, and commitment to, helping the game of golf succeed overall – rather than battle between them for golfers. Promote the sport and eventually all will prosper.
After all, nearly three in every 10 golfers (just under 30%) that play the game in Michigan are not from Michigan. Their numbers top 1.85 million people who spend more than $1 Billion in tourism dollars. Only a handful of states have a larger proportion of annual rounds played by visitors like the Sunbelt states of Arizona, Florida, and South Carolina and the worldwide tourist destination Hawaii. Putting that in context is absolutely wild when we consider that golf is, at its best, only a 7-month sport in our state – and that’s stretching it.
“Golf is an integral part of what we promote as far as activity and experiences throughout the state,” Kelly Walgamoot, the Vice President of Pure Michigan, told me. “Golf fits into that picture of those unique experiences that you can only have here in our two-peninsula state.”
Wolgamott, who leads the state's tourism marketing and branding efforts, added that Michigan ranks No. 4 in the country for golf visitors. Florida is number one, number two is California, and Texas comes in third. We have the most public courses of any state, yet we're the fourth most traveled-to state – and we only have golf six months a year.
“Michigan is the only state in the Midwest to have that ranking, which is pretty incredible,” Wolgamott added.
The Michigan Golf Course Association (MGCA), the Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association (MiGCSA), the Michigan Section PGA, the Michigan Turfgrass Foundation (MTF), the Golf Association of Michigan (GAM) and the Greater Michigan Club Management Association (GMCMA) form the Michigan Golf Alliance. This alliance contracted the National Golf Foundation to do a study in 2023 on not simply tourism, but overall economic impact as well, and the results include:
• The Michigan golf industry contributed almost $6.1 billion to the state’s economy in 2023 and supports 61,000 jobs with $1.795 billion of wage and benefits income and more than $821 million in state and local taxes.
• Michigan has 859 golf courses that are part of 709 facilities, almost all of which are classified as small businesses. Of those 709 facilities, 604 are public and 105 are private.
• The NGF said outside of the coastal, warm weather states of Florida and California, it can be argued that no U.S. state has a more substantial footprint in the world of recreational golf. Michigan is 10th in the U.S. in size and 11th in population but ranks third in the total number of golf courses.
• Only Florida, California and Texas with golf facilities open the year around have a higher volume of annual rounds played than Michigan, which had approximately 16.42 million rounds played in 2023.
• Approximately 896,700 residents play traditional, green-grass golf. Only seven U.S. states have more golfers.
• Michigan golf provides 92,200 professionally managed acres of green space in Michigan serving as wildlife sanctuaries and the facilities practice environmental impact programs like expanding natural areas, reduction of water usage, using natural algae controls and providing garden beds and bee and bird houses.
• Golf facilities in Michigan had a charitable impact of $104.3 million in 2023 by hosting nearly 5,000 dedicated charity events with almost half a million participants.
“You think about all the unique experiences that you can also have with your golf game, but then you can go out and enjoy a craft brewery or a great culinary experience at one of our resorts,” Wolgamott said. “It's incredible what you can see and do and experience from that standpoint. It is golf, but there's so much more to see and do here as well.”
Giving easier access for golfers to Michigan is a goal of the airports in Detroit and Traverse City. Detroit Metro Airport was ranked as the top mega airport (3 million plus customers) in the country by JD Power a couple years ago, and most recently was ranked No. 2. Cherry Capital Airport in Traverse City has summertime non-stop direct flights from more than 20 cities like Boston, Washington D.C., Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, Charlotte, Orlando, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, Denver and New York City.
Wolgamott mentioned the strong relationship Pure Michigan has with America’s Summer Golf Capital, a collection of northern Michigan courses that act like a marketing partnership similar to Myrtle Beach, SC that tries to draw golfers to a region, not to a certain city or resort.
“They are a co-op program partner with us going out of state nationally with Pure Michigan to promote the amazing, incredible courses that you can find in northern Michigan,” she said.
“In May we had our first nonstop flight from Dublin, Ireland to Detroit. And it is a pre-clearance customs flight, so you arrive as a domestic traveler. It's an incredibly important flight. We do have a number of flights daily coming out of London, Heathrow, but to have this access out of Dublin is incredibly important.”
Wolgamott also said journalists in Germany have been a focus to expose Michigan's adventures.
“It blows them away as to the quality of courses we have here and the number of courses that someone can play in a day, especially when we talk about northern Michigan and the connectivity of America’s Summer Golf Capital. So, it's an incredible product and they do want to come over here to play Michigan golf.”
