The post-pandemic momentum that the Myrtle Beach golf market has enjoyed experienced a hiccup in 2025.
After four consecutive years of increases in rounds played on the Grand Strand, the market saw a slight decline of 2% last year compared to 2024, according to the Golf Tourism Solutions marketing, technology and events agency that promotes the Myrtle Beach market.
But the more than 2.73 million rounds played on 64 public GTS member courses in 2025 still reflects a great increase in interest in the game since the onset of the coronavirus in 2020, and a thriving market with a robust average of 42,668 rounds per course.
“I’m pretty happy to be able to say that we had another really good year,” said Jeff Monday, GTS’ director of technology and research. “We just see the fact that demand is staying strong, and even more so price is staying strong.”
The minor decrease in rounds played comes following year over year increases of approximately 11.5% in 2021 compared to 2019, 8% in 2022 compared to 2021, 6% in 2023 compared to 2022, and 1% last year, according to GTS and Myrtle Beach Area Golf Course Owners Association statistics. The coronavirus-impacted year of 2020 isn’t comparable.
The onset of Covid-19 and the resulting restrictions on many activities led to a national spike in interest in golf, and Myrtle Beach has been riding it.
Nationally, according to the National Golf Foundation and Golf Datatech, rounds increased 1.2% in 2025 compared to 2024 to set another record of more than 500 million rounds played. Regionally, rounds in the South Atlantic region that includes eight states stretching from Maryland to Florida also increased 1.2%, though the NGF and Golf Datatech show rounds in South Carolina decreased 2.6%.
Despite the decrease in rounds on the Strand, revenue from green and cart fees increased 2%, or about $3.5 million for an average of nearly $55,000 per GTS course.
The rise in revenue reflects general price increases and a growing market strategy of dynamic pricing for times of the year, days of the week and even coveted hours of the day.
“Coming off of annual increases in rounds and revenue, this points to continued strong demand and resilient pricing,” Monday said. “. . . Consumer demand and their willingness to pay is beneficial for the courses in an environment like that where volume is down slightly, because of course we know courses’ expenses aren’t going down any.”
The numbers are largely compiled through the tee time network that connects the GTS courses. A handful of area courses are not members of GTS, including Whispering Pines Golf Club and Beachwood Golf Club, and their rounds are not included in the totals.
Contributing factors to the numbers
Contributing to the decline in rounds in 2025 was terrible weather in the months of January and February, including cold temperatures and a snowstorm in January that shuttered courses for a week or more. Monday said rounds were down 22% over the first two months compared to 2024.
“We just couldn’t catch a break,” Monday said. “So coming out of February we were down in the market in two of the lowest volume months of the year almost 76,000 rounds. It was a pretty big hole to get out of but we were actually doing it.”
Easter week is traditionally the slowest week of the spring because traveling golfers stay home with families for the holiday, and it came at a bad time for courses on the third week of April, which is perhaps the market’s busiest and most profitable week of the year.
“But year over year for April it was really close to getting there in terms of rounds and revenue, so there was some resiliency in terms of demand showing up over what was kind of a headwind there,” Monday said.
October, the busiest month of the fall, saw a tropical storm encroaching on the area early in the month, and a slow-moving storm bringing heavy winds, thunderstorms and several inches of rain on Columbus Day weekend in the middle of the month.
“It was a bit of a gut punch in terms of the momentum that we had, mainly because that first weekend they called for a tropical storm or hurricane to potentially come in . . . and then the thing never even came,” Monday said. “It was one of these cautionary weather things that resulted in some cancellations, and obviously Columbus Day weekend was worse.”
The market, which celebrates Can-Am Days in the spring, also endured a boycott of travel to the United States by some Canadians who are upset with president Donald Trump over tariffs and demeaning comments he made about our neighboring country.
Breaking down the numbers, GTS said golf package rounds that typically combine tee times and lodging for visiting groups totaled nearly 600,000 and were down nearly 6%, and public daily fee rounds totaled nearly 325,000 and were down nearly 5%.
So members, discount membership card holders and local golf groups combined to show an increase in rounds and accounted for nearly two-thirds of the rounds played.
It’s a reflection of the number of people who are moving into the area for a continually burgeoning population.
“Growth in population and growth in the golfing population locally is extremely beneficial to the golf courses, because as much as we make every attempt in the world to service the destination golfers, the people that are just living around here are going to end up being the lifeblood,” Monday said.
The increase in revenue that is outpacing rounds is allowing course owners and operators to reinvest in their product. Numerous courses have made major renovations over the past few years.
Golf’s resurgence makes it easy to forget the gradual decline of interest in the game that lasted more than a decade. An uptick in year over year rounds played on the Grand Strand in 2017 was the first increase in 13 years.
Another rebound year could be coming in 2026. Rounds booked as of mid-January for the remainder of the year were up 7% compared to mid-January 2025, Monday said. Though the latter part of January was again essentially lost due to weather that included a debilitating snowstorm.
