US Golf Course Statistics
Updated 2026-08-22. Every number on this page is computed nightly from the live dataset behind our course map.
How many golf courses are there in the United States?
There are 15,074 golf courses currently open across the 50 states and Washington DC, from championship resorts to nine-hole town courses. We also keep records for 591 courses that have closed, each verified against news reports, operator statements or satellite imagery rather than quietly deleted.
Public or private?
Of the 14,020 US courses whose access type is verified: 8,374 public · 1,358 municipal · 325 resort · 783 semi-private · 3,180 private. Roughly 77 of every 100 verified courses are ones anyone can play.
Course sizes
10,226 courses have a standard 18 holes, 2,128 are nine-hole courses and 160 facilities have 27 holes or more. The average 18-hole course plays to par 71.0 at 6,512 yards.
Courses by state
| State | Open | Public access | Closed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florida | 1,192 | 717 | 68 |
| California | 940 | 682 | 69 |
| Michigan | 830 | 695 | 35 |
| New York | 791 | 535 | 22 |
| Texas | 791 | 539 | 35 |
| Ohio | 640 | 463 | 33 |
| Pennsylvania | 611 | 413 | 26 |
| Illinois | 611 | 439 | 30 |
| North Carolina | 499 | 325 | 22 |
| Wisconsin | 478 | 414 | 16 |
| Minnesota | 447 | 367 | 12 |
| Iowa | 390 | 320 | 5 |
| Indiana | 382 | 296 | 9 |
| Georgia | 379 | 250 | 15 |
| Arizona | 358 | 279 | 13 |
| Massachusetts | 351 | 229 | 8 |
| South Carolina | 341 | 252 | 11 |
| Missouri | 332 | 237 | 8 |
| Virginia | 325 | 205 | 10 |
| New Jersey | 302 | 185 | 10 |
| Washington | 263 | 208 | 15 |
| Colorado | 255 | 195 | 8 |
| Kentucky | 240 | 169 | 10 |
| Tennessee | 236 | 161 | 10 |
| Kansas | 212 | 143 | 6 |
| Nebraska | 203 | 159 | 3 |
| Alabama | 197 | 125 | 10 |
| Oregon | 185 | 140 | 4 |
| Connecticut | 179 | 104 | 2 |
| Maryland | 178 | 127 | 8 |
| Oklahoma | 174 | 129 | 9 |
| Arkansas | 141 | 90 | 1 |
| Utah | 127 | 106 | 3 |
| North Dakota | 121 | 87 | 0 |
| Louisiana | 118 | 87 | 13 |
| Maine | 116 | 101 | 2 |
| West Virginia | 113 | 89 | 8 |
| Mississippi | 110 | 73 | 4 |
| Idaho | 108 | 80 | 0 |
| Nevada | 104 | 79 | 4 |
| South Dakota | 99 | 78 | 1 |
| Montana | 97 | 76 | 0 |
| New Mexico | 93 | 71 | 2 |
| New Hampshire | 91 | 72 | 2 |
| Hawaii | 88 | 69 | 3 |
| Vermont | 59 | 50 | 1 |
| Rhode Island | 55 | 39 | 0 |
| Wyoming | 55 | 42 | 1 |
| Delaware | 37 | 22 | 2 |
| Alaska | 23 | 21 | 2 |
| Washington DC | 7 | 6 | 0 |
Closures by year
Years with the most documented course closings:
| Year | Closures |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 11 |
| 2025 | 18 |
| 2024 | 14 |
| 2023 | 15 |
| 2022 | 21 |
| 2021 | 22 |
| 2020 | 35 |
| 2019 | 43 |
| 2018 | 41 |
| 2017 | 37 |
| 2016 | 23 |
| 2015 | 30 |
Most prolific architects
2,556 US courses carry a verified designer attribution. The most represented architects:
- Donald Ross 322 courses
- Edmund Ault 217 courses
- Tom Bendelow 181 courses
- A.W. Tillinghast 166 courses
- Jack Nicklaus 145 courses
- Arthur Hills 116 courses
- Tom Fazio 98 courses
- Pete Dye 91 courses
- Ted Robinson 88 courses
- Larry Packard 83 courses
Method and reuse: the dataset combines OpenStreetMap, the USGA course rating database and thousands of user and operator corrections, rebuilt nightly. These figures are free to cite for any purpose with a link to golfcoursebrowser.com (CC BY 4.0).