Golf’s economy becomes easier to understand when we follow specific purchases. A course upgrades its irrigation. A golfer buys a box of balls. A visitor books a golf trip. Each starts a series of payments to businesses and people.
The Michigan and Texas studies offer an example of the scale involved. Both estimate capital investment for 2023. The comparison below keeps that measure beside facility operating receipts from the same year. [1], [2]
A research snapshot: course investment
Selected published state estimates for 2023. Dollar values are in U.S. millions; these are historical estimates, not current budgets.
| State | Facility operating receipts | Capital investment | Investment / receipts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan [1] | $1,240.8m | $235.2m | 19.0% |
| Texas [2] | $3,875.5m | $710.6m | 18.3% |
Tee & Ticker calculation: capital investment divided by facility operating receipts, multiplied by 100 and rounded to one decimal place. The ratios describe investment relative to operating scale. They do not measure profit reinvestment, a typical course’s budget, or any supplier’s share of spending.
Follow three kinds of payment
These simplified routes organize the examples below. Actual contracts and payment timing vary.
| Purchase | The commercial route | The reporting question |
|---|---|---|
| Course equipment | A course buys through a dealer. The dealer’s purchase from a manufacturer is a separate transaction. Installation and service can add other suppliers. [3] | Does the number describe manufacturer shipments, the course’s invoice, or completed installation? |
| Golf retail | A golfer pays a shop or retailer. Inventory may have been acquired from a brand’s supplier earlier. [7] | Are we measuring checkout sales, wholesale revenue, or the retailer’s profit? |
| A golf trip | Golf, rooms and meals may be paid to a resort or other businesses. At Bandon Dunes, guests pay caddie fees directly to the caddie. [14], [15] | Which receipts belong to the resort, and which belong to independent workers or outside businesses? |
A transaction map is not a revenue allocation. The examples do not assign shares of statewide spending to individual companies.
Follow this research as it develops. Join Tee & Ticker’s email briefing.
When a course invests
Consider an irrigation upgrade or a new mower. Toro, listed on the New York Stock Exchange as TTC, supplies turf equipment and irrigation products used by golf courses. Independent distributors and dealers generally buy its golf products and resell them to operators. The course’s project bill can include installation, service and dealer margins as well as equipment. [3]
Toro generally records product revenue when control transfers at shipment, or delivery under certain arrangements. Manufacturer sales can therefore include equipment sitting in dealer inventory, awaiting a course purchase or installation. [3], [4]
That distinction also affects how we read the headline numbers. Toro’s Professional segment reported $988.2 million in sales to external customers worldwide for the three months ended July 31, 2026. The segment includes substantial businesses outside golf. Its revenue illustrates the scale of the supplier, but cannot tell us how much Michigan or Texas courses spent with Toro. [4]
Cart fleets lead to a different public-company connection. Yamaha Motor, whose shares trade in Japan under code 7272, supplies golf cars through its U.S. business. Its product range also includes utility vehicles and personal transportation. A U.S. course can thus buy equipment from a foreign-listed company, while the company’s wider vehicle sales include uses beyond golf. [5], [6]
When a golfer buys
Imagine a golfer buying a box of Titleist balls at Golf Galaxy. The golfer pays the retailer. The retailer has acquired inventory from its supplier, potentially before the golfer walks through the door. Acushnet, the company behind Titleist and FootJoy and listed as GOLF, records its own sale at that earlier stage when control passes to its customer. Selected products also reach golfers through its direct online channels. [7]
The checkout payment and the supplier’s wholesale revenue describe successive transactions. Neither equals the retailer’s profit. Discounts, returns and sales taxes also matter when moving from a price tag to reported net sales. We can study each transaction, but should not add manufacturer sales to retail purchases and present the sum as two separate final purchases by golfers. [7], [8]
Acushnet reported $1,434.2 million in global Titleist Golf Equipment net sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2026. That is a worldwide product-segment figure. Its separate U.S. geographic disclosure covers the broader company and classifies sales by where they originate. The filing does not provide the full geographic breakdown needed to turn the global Titleist figure into U.S. Titleist sales. [9]
Golf Galaxy adds services around the purchase, including fitting, instruction and repairs. Its parent, DICK’S Sporting Goods, trades as DKS. These services are part of golf’s retail business even when a golfer leaves without a new club. DICK’S filings do not isolate their contribution to Golf Galaxy’s sales or earnings. [8], [10], [11]
Michigan’s study estimated $320.2 million in off-course gross golf retail sales for 2023, including online purchases. It allocates national sales using Michigan’s share of golf holes, then removes estimated on-course merchandise already counted in facility operations. The result is a modeled estimate rather than a merchant-sales census. [1]
When a golfer travels
Oregon’s study estimated $505.6 million in direct golf-tourism spending in 2024. Its definition includes qualifying travel by Oregon residents as well as visitors from elsewhere, including day and overnight trips. Tourism here is broader than out-of-state visitors booking hotel rooms. [12]
The calculation already deducts $83 per traveler for golf-related spending counted elsewhere in the study. That adjustment matters when reading a tourism total beside facility revenue. Adding categories without checking their overlap can count the same spending twice. [12]
Bandon Dunes makes the separate payments visible. The Keiser family owns the resort, whose documented spending channels include golf, hotel rooms, meals and merchandise. A visitor may also pay outside restaurants, lodging providers or transport businesses. Statewide tourism gives context for those purchases, but cannot establish Bandon’s share of the market or its revenue. [13], [14]
Caddies provide another example. Bandon describes its caddies as individual contractors and says guests pay them directly. That payment reaches the person providing the service; it should not automatically be assigned to resort revenue simply because it is part of a Bandon trip. [15]
The resort’s private ownership also matters to anyone approaching golf through public markets. Bandon belongs in an account of the U.S. golf economy even though its shares are not publicly traded. A list of golf stocks captures only part of the business surrounding the game.
What company results add
Company reports can challenge the assumption that spending across golf translates evenly into sales. In its second quarter of fiscal 2026, covering the 13 weeks ended August 1, DICK’S reported a 4.9% increase in comparable sales for the DICK’S Business. The same filing identified golf among the categories that declined. It did not disclose a percentage decline for golf or a separate Golf Galaxy growth rate. [11]
Yamaha Motor described a different gap between market conditions and its own performance. In its November 6 report for January through September 2026, management said U.S. demand in Low-Speed Mobility, a business including golf cars and other applications, remained resilient. Sales in that business nevertheless declined, particularly in the U.S., amid competition. This was management’s assessment of the market, rather than an independent measure of golf demand. [16]
The state studies and these company results answer different questions. Estimates for 2023 and 2024 describe spending in those states and years. The 2026 filings describe particular businesses in later reporting periods. Connecting them reveals commercial relationships; it does not demonstrate that an earlier statewide estimate caused a company’s subsequent performance.
For golfers, the connection shows how a purchase supports businesses beyond the course. For investors, it identifies the next evidence to seek: the supplier’s actual golf exposure, the dealer’s inventory, or a retailer’s golf-specific sales. A useful conclusion starts with the recipient of the payment and follows the transaction far enough to understand what the reported number measures.
Sources and methods
State figures are historical estimates for the stated data years. Company figures retain their own fiscal periods and business scope. Capital-investment ratios are calculated from each study’s statewide capital and facility-receipt totals. No national total, vendor market share or company forecast is inferred from these selected state studies.
- Michigan golf economic impact report2023 data. Facility receipts on pages 9 to 10; capital investment on pages 23 to 25; retail method on page 27.
- Texas golf economic impact report executive summaryMay 2025; economic data for 2023. PDF pages 3 to 5, operating revenue and capital investment.
- The Toro Company fiscal 2025 Form 10 KFiscal year ended October 31 2025. Golf products, distribution and revenue recognition.
- The Toro Company third quarter fiscal 2026 Form 10 QThree months ended July 31 2026. Note 3 reports external-customer sales; Note 4 and financing discussion describe revenue and Red Iron arrangements.
- Yamaha Motor share informationCurrent listing information, checked November 12 2026.
- Yamaha Motor golf carsBusiness and product overview, checked November 12 2026.
- Acushnet Holdings fiscal 2025 Form 10 KSales and distribution; Note 3, revenue recognition.
- DICKS Sporting Goods fiscal 2025 Form 10 KBusiness, Golf Galaxy and revenue recognition on pages 64 to 65.
- Acushnet Holdings third quarter 2026 Form 10 QNine months ended September 30 2026. Note 14, segments and geography. Dollar figures are rounded from the filing’s units of thousands.
- Golf Galaxy servicesFitting, lessons and repairs, checked November 12 2026.
- DICKS Sporting Goods second quarter fiscal 2026 Form 10 Q13 weeks ended August 1 2026. Revenue, segment reporting and management discussion on page 28.
- Oregon golf economic impact reportOctober 2025; economic data for 2024. Tourism Table 2 on printed page 14; travel definition and methodology on page 26.
- Bandon Dunes Naomi Martin scholarship storyJune 24 2024. Identifies the Keiser family as the resort’s owners.
- Bandon Dunes gift card termsGolf, rooms, food and beverage, and merchandise uses, checked November 12 2026.
- Bandon Dunes frequently asked questionsCaddie status and direct payment, checked November 12 2026.
- Yamaha Motor results for the first nine months of 2026November 6 2026. Printed page 6, Low-Speed Mobility demand and business performance.