Exclusive Golf Australia data reveals a remarkable 15-year rise in competition rounds, with annual play now more than 2.5 million rounds higher than in 2010.
Golf in Australia is seeing more rounds played than it was 15 years ago, and the numbers suggest the game’s recent participation boom is more than a pandemic-led blip.
Exclusive Golf Australia data obtained by Australian Golf Digest shows that registered competition rounds have climbed from 9.38 million in 2010 to 11.91 million in 2025, an increase of almost 2.53 million rounds, or 27 percent.
That is the big picture. The more interesting story is how we got there.
Annual rounds passed 10 million for the first time in 2014 and continued edging upwards, reaching 10.50 million in 2019. Then came COVID, and rather than golf retreating, participation accelerated. Rounds rose to 10.69 million in 2020 and 11.02 million in 2021.
There was a post-pandemic dip in 2022, when the national total fell back to 10.30 million. But the correction proved temporary. In 2023, rounds surged to 11.98 million, the highest annual figure in the dataset. The total eased marginally to 11.92 million in 2024 and 11.91 million in 2025.
In other words, Australian golf has managed to retain almost all of the extraordinary volume generated during the post-COVID participation surge. And there is a clear geographical heavyweight.
New South Wales remains the country’s biggest golf state by a considerable margin. It recorded 4 million competition rounds in 2025, ahead of Victoria with 3.29 million and Queensland with 2.02 million. Western Australia recorded 1.10 million rounds, followed by South Australia with 858,170.
NSW’s lead has been remarkably durable. It accounted for 3.59 million rounds in 2010, meaning the state has added more than 400,000 rounds during the period. Victoria, meanwhile, has been the standout growth story among the major states. Its annual total has risen from 2.25 million rounds in 2010 to almost 3.29 million in 2025, an increase of more than a million.
That shift is significant. Victoria is now much closer to NSW than it was 15 years ago, while Queensland has also grown strongly, from 1.53 million rounds in 2010 to slightly more than two million last year.
The gender figures tell another part of the story. Men continue to account for the majority of competition rounds, but female golfers contributed almost two million rounds nationally in 2025. That compares with 1.81 million in 2010. The increase is modest beside the overall growth in rounds, but it represents a substantial and sustained volume of women’s golf.
There is another number worth watching.
The 2026 data supplied by Golf Australia runs through June and already records 8.73 million rounds. That cannot be compared directly with a full calendar year, but it shows the volume of play remains substantial.
The significance of the numbers is difficult to ignore. Australian golf is not simply benefiting from a short-lived rush of newcomers. Whatever happened to participation during the pandemic appears to have created a higher baseline of play.
Fifteen years ago, nine million competition rounds was the norm. Today, 12 million is. For clubs, facilities, equipment companies and everyone else trying to understand the future of Australian golf, that may be the most important number of all.
istock/Somchai Sookkasem
