Golf surged in popularity over the past two years, and local golf course operators say they expect the trend to continue in 2022.
“I think we’ll be insanely busy this year,” said Aaron Taylor, manager at Riverbend Golf Course in Fort Wayne. Riverbend and other courses mentioned in this report rank among the region’s top golf clubs in our 2022 Book of Lists.
“The pandemic was really good for golf,” Taylor said. “That’s why golf numbers are the highest they’ve ever been, the last couple years. … We had people out here playing all the time. We haven’t seen any drop yet.”
During the COVID pandemic in 2020 and 2021, “Golf was about the only activity you could do,” Larry Swihart Jr., head professional at Glendarin Hills Golf Club in Angola, said. “I think people just got out and played during the last couple seasons and enjoyed it.”
New at Glendarin this season, Swihart previously worked at Bridgewater Golf Club in Auburn. He said golf participation there during the past two years was up by 10-15%.
At Glendarin, “The way the outings have been booking up this year, and the stay-and-play groups and memberships have all been up, I can see everything kind of excelling even more forward than the last couple of years,” Swihart said.
“More people started playing golf in the last two years because of the pandemic,” Jeff Schumaker, head golf professional at Autumn Ridge Golf Course in Fort Wayne, said. “A lot of younger people got into the game that never would have. … I still see them coming.”
Schumaker added, “Every public golf course in Fort Wayne is just jam-packed.” Contributing to that, he said, several courses closed over the last decade, including Cedar Creek, Willow Ridge and Lakeside in Fort Wayne and Deer Track north of the city.
“Until 2020, the golf industry … had experienced decades of course closings and dwindling rounds of golf,” said a recent article in Golf Course Trades magazine.
Courses that stayed open were rewarded. According to a new report from the National Golf Foundation, a record-setting 3 million people played golf in the U.S. for the first time in 2020, only to be topped by 3.2 million new players in 2021.
The 501.8 million rounds of golf played in 2020 in the U.S. represented an increase of 60 million rounds, or 14%, from 2019, the foundation said.
“The last two years have been our best ever,” Alan Moyer, professional at Cobblestone Golf Course in Kendallville, said.
“The upsurge has been more due to new golfers — people that have never played before,” Moyer said. “Because of COVID, getting outside and being more comfortable out in the fresh air and away from people brought new golfers to the game. Whether they continue to play, we’ll have to wait and see.”
He added, “We do everything we can to make them feel welcome and hope they keep coming back.”
Moyer noticed one unexpected trend from golf’s increase in popularity.
“Most of our new play, for the last two years, has come in the evenings,” he said. “Up until two years ago, our evenings were pretty dead. So that was a nice surprise.”
Their playing-time choices meant new golfers did not crowd the courses for longtime players, who tend to prefer mornings, Moyer said.
As COVID subsides and other leisure-time activities return, Moyer hopes the new golfers keep coming to the fairways.
“Hopefully we’ve treated them well, and other golfers have treated them well, and they continue to play this game,” he said.
As new golfers consider their options, he said, “Now they realize, ‘Hey, this is the only sport that the bar stays with you.’ We send out six-packs.… They’re finding a sport that is quite unique in that aspect.”