From pass-along revenue approaching $1 billion a year and almost 10,000 jobs, to a higher return on water usage than agriculture, golf in Utah is good business for the state
Most people know Utah is a great place to hit the slopes, but it’s also a great place to hit the links and golf is a major contributor to the state’s economy.
According to a 2012 report commissioned by the Utah Golf Association — the most recent data available — golf contributed a direct and indirect economic output of $805.6 million, including $250.1 million in wages for 9,625 golf-related jobs.
“Utah is known for as a top state when it comes to outdoor recreation and the golf here reflects that,” said Jacob Miller, executive director of the Utah Golf Association. “Utah has one of the highest percentages of public golf courses in the country, with people able to play around 85 percent of the courses in the state. In addition, the quality and affordability of public golf courses in Utah is tremendous compared to many places around the country.”
The 2012 report, conducted by California-based Stanford Research Institute, puts Utah’s golf industry on par with the more well-known ski industry in terms of both participation and economic output. Golfers played 3.7 million rounds of golf that year, while skiers made 4 million day visits. Golf fills a complementary role to skiing, Miller said, and the 120 golf courses around the state provide a wide variety of scenery and styles — from alpine to city to rural locations for both public and private courses.
In terms of economic footprint, golf in Utah also brings in more than non-recreational industries, including medical devices manufacturing ($262.2 million) and basic chemical manufacturing ($259.7 million), and generates more revenue than all the professional spectator sports in the state combined.
While the $805.6 million figure includes both direct and indirect revenue — with indirect revenue including enabled industries such as real estate and hospitality — just the core golf industries — including course operations and capital investments, golf-related supplies and tournaments — represented $243.2 million in 2012. Tournaments are an especially big draw, Miller said, for both locals and out-of-staters.
“Utah’s amateur golf tournament scene is one of the strongest around the country,” he said. “You can play in a golf tournament almost every weekend throughout the year and almost every day throughout the summer months. If you like to play competitively or semi-competitively, Utah will give you ample opportunities to do so.”
For some people, these numbers aren’t enough. Some critics claim that taxpayers are subsidizing public golf courses that are recording annual losses. The Utah Division of Parks and Recreation reported that the four state park courses — Green River, Palisade, Soldier Hollow and Wasatch Mountain — lost revenue in fiscal year 2013.
Golf advocates, including the Utah Golf Association, advocate taking the long view when it comes to building and maintaining golf courses. Just because a course is losing money this year doesn’t mean that will always be the case, they argue, and courses have to offer competitive prices to attract new players and retain existing ones. In fact, Miller said, the golf industry in Utah is robust enough that new courses are being built, including one near Sand Hollow Resort in Washington County called Copper Rock.
The other major criticism of the golf industry in Utah is the impact it has on natural resources, including land and water availability. But the industry has a response for that, too. According to the 2012 report, golf courses represent almost 4 percent of turf grass in the state, but they use only 0.65 percent of diverted water in the state, meaning golf provides a much higher return on water usage than water-diverting agriculture, for example.
“Water usage is something that golf courses are very conscious about,” Miller said. “One example of water consciousness is Salt Lake City courses switching from culinary water to reclaimed water on the golf courses.”
Despite currently flat or declining revenue cited by some critics, the multiplier effect of Utah’s golf industry remains strong, according to the 2012 report.
As the report states, “Golf’s impact on Utah’s economy includes both the direct effects of economic activity in the core and enabled golf industries, as well as the indirect and induced (or multiplier) effects on other industries in the state economy. In economics, the idea of the multiplier is that changes in the level of economic activity in one industry impacts other industries throughout the economy. For example, a fraction of each dollar spent at a golf course is, in turn, spent by the golf course to purchase goods and services for golf course operation — these are indirect effects. In addition, golf course employees spend their disposable income on personal goods and services and this stimulates economic activity in a myriad of other industries.”
In other words, golf is big — and good — business for Utah.