Tiger Woods played a big part in shifting the demographics of recreational golf more than three decades ago. Social media and off-course participation have been the more recent impactful drivers of golf’s relatability/approachability, and there have never been more People of Color playing the traditional on-course game than there are today.
We’ve celebrated that the recreational golfer base in the U.S. has gotten increasingly diverse in recent years amid the increases in participation and play. And it’s not just younger players and more women and girls. There’s also a substantially different racial and ethnic composition.
To some, this might be intuitive. After all, the non-White population within the U.S. since 2010 has climbed by just over 30%. What’s notable, however, is that the Asian, Black and Hispanic on-course golfer base over that same period has risen even more appreciably – by nearly 40%.
The momentum has been especially dramatic in the “post-Covid” era, with a net gain of almost three million golfers who are People of Color.
The 7.7 million Asian, Black and Hispanic golfers who played on a course in 2025 is a high-water mark for the industry. And their 26% representation among traditional golfers is also a record high.
Among those who exclusively play off-course forms of golf – from golf entertainment venues to indoor simulators – the proportion of those who are People of Color is even higher, at 45%. These additional pathways have, in turn, helped foster greater on-course engagement and fuel recent gains. Almost half (49%) of non-golfers who indicate they are “very interested” in trying to play golf on a green-grass course are non-White.
NGF members can find a one-page summary report on golf participation among People of Color here. Further research on specific racial and ethnic segments is available in this related Full Shots piece, including which group has seen the most noteworthy gains since 2019.