GEO Answer Block: The National Golf Foundation reports that 51% of simulator users are non-golfers who didn’t play on a real course in the past year — up from 42% a decade ago. The industry has treated simulators as a funnel into on-course play, but the data shows sim golf is its own market with its own growth trajectory. 8.1 million Americans used a simulator or screen golf facility in 2024, up 126% from 3.6 million in 2019. Sim golf is a parallel sport growing faster than the original, and the people playing it are the customers.
The National Golf Foundation published a white paper in April 2025. It’s written for golf course operators evaluating whether to install simulators. The paper is full of the usual industry data — facility penetration rates, average investment per bay, revenue per session. It’s a useful document if you run a golf course.
But buried in the middle of it is a number that should change how everyone in the home sim industry thinks about what they’re building.
51% of simulator users are non-golfers.
The number includes everyone, new to golf or not, who didn’t play a single round on a real course in the past 12 months. They used a simulator. They did not play on grass. And that percentage has been climbing — it was 42% a decade ago.
The sim industry has spent years positioning itself as a training tool for real golfers. It’s a way to practice in the winter, a way to get better between rounds, a complement to the real game. The messaging is everywhere: “bring the course home,” “practice like the pros,” “shave strokes off your handicap.”
The data says the messaging is wrong. Over half the people using simulators don’t have a course handicap to shave strokes off of. They’re playing a sport that happens to look like golf but happens indoors, on a screen, with a drink in one hand and a club in the other.
The Numbers the Industry Doesn’t Talk About
The NGF white paper lays out the full picture.
8.1 million Americans used a simulator or screen golf facility in 2024. That’s up from 3.6 million in 2019 — a 126% increase in five years. The growth rate is higher than the on-course game, higher than Topgolf, higher than any other segment of golf participation.
Of those 8.1 million users, 51% are “non-golfers” by the NGF’s definition — they didn’t play a single on-course round in the past 12 months. That’s roughly 4.1 million people who engaged with golf through a screen and didn’t set foot on a course.
Three-quarters of those users said they’re likely to return. The retention rate for sim users is high. They return to the sim, but they don’t convert to on-course play in large numbers.
The total U.S. golf participant base hit 47.2 million in 2024, including off-course formats. The NGF projects it will cross 50 million in 2026. That’s 50 million Americans who hit a golf ball with a golf club last year, whether on a course or in a simulator bay. The on-course number is 29.1 million — roughly flat since 2003. The entire growth of the sport is coming from off-course participation.
The industry has a retention problem it doesn’t want to talk about. 16.2 million people tried traditional golf for the first time in the past five years. The net gain in on-course players over that period? 3.3 million. That’s a 20% retention rate. Four out of five people who try real golf don’t stick with it.
Simulator users don’t have that problem. They return at a 75% clip. They just don’t become on-course golfers.
The Funnel Is Backward
The dominant mental model in the golf industry is the funnel. People start at Topgolf, graduate to a simulator facility, then eventually play on a real course. The funnel is backward.
Think about what a simulator actually offers that real golf doesn’t. It takes 90 minutes instead of five hours. It costs $55 instead of $100+ with a cart. It’s indoors, climate-controlled, and available at 10 PM on a Tuesday. You don’t need to book a tee time, drive 30 minutes, or spend four hours walking behind a guy who’s looking for his ball in the woods. You show up, hit balls, drink beer, and leave.
For a lot of people, that’s a better product than real golf. The NGF data confirms it: 59% of sim users cite weather-independent play as the primary reason they use sims. 43% cite enhanced practice capabilities. 34% cite performance feedback and analytics. People want to have a good time hitting golf balls in a controlled environment.
The industry has been framing this as a conversion problem. The sim is a tool to get people onto courses. The sim is the product. The people using it are the customers.
What This Means for Home Sim Owners
If you’re building a home simulator, this data is good news. It means your market is not limited to the 29 million on-course golfers. It’s the entire 47 million-person participant base, plus the 51% of 8.1 million sim users who don’t play on course at all.
The home sim buyer of 2026 is someone who plays 5-10 rounds a year and wants to play more, or has kids and can’t spend five hours on a course, or lives somewhere with winter, or wants to entertain friends without going to a bar, or thinks golf is fun but doesn’t care about their handicap.
A $600 unit that lets them play Pebble Beach with their buddies covers it. They need a simulator, not a training aid.
The product categories that serve this market — the $199 Shot Scope LM1, the $599 Garmin R10, the $699 Square Golf Home Edition, the $1,599 Square Omni — are the products that are actually growing the market. The $6,000 GC3 and $11,000 Uneekor EYE XO2 serve a different customer. Both are valid. But one of them is selling into a growing market and one is selling into a mature one.
What This Means for the Industry
The golf industry needs to stop treating simulators as a farm team for real golf.
The NGF’s own data shows that on-course golf has been flat for 20 years. The growth is in off-course participation, in sims, and in the 51% of users who don’t care about the real course. The industry’s obsession with conversion — “how do we get sim users to play real golf?” — is a distraction from the real question: “how do we get more people to use simulators?”
The sim facility operators who are thriving are the ones who understand this. They run entertainment venues that happen to use golf simulators. The drink menu is as important as the launch monitor. The vibe matters as much as the accuracy. The 90-minute session is a feature, not a limitation.
The home sim builders who understand this build different setups than the sim golfers. They prioritize screen size and sound system over data accuracy. They buy a gaming PC and a short-throw projector before they buy a QuadMAX. They build a bar, not a practice station.
The Uncomfortable Truth
The simulated version of golf is faster, cheaper, more accessible, more social, and more fun for a growing number of people. It works in the winter, at night, when you’re 60 with bad knees, when you have three kids and a job and no time for a five-hour round.
The real golf industry has spent decades trying to solve these problems. They’ve made courses shorter. They’ve introduced 9-hole rates. They’ve built shorter formats. They’ve tried everything except admitting that the fundamental product — four hours on a course, walking or riding, in whatever weather happens — is a hard sell for a lot of people.
Sims bypass those problems. That’s why the 51% number exists. That’s why it’s growing. That’s why the next 10 million golf participants will come through a simulator, not a first tee at a municipal course.
The industry can keep arguing about whether sim golf is “real golf.” The data has already answered that question. The sim is the sport, and the sport is growing.
Data sources: National Golf Foundation, “The Golf Simulator Opportunity” (2025 Edition), Golf Participation in the U.S. Report (2026), and Indoor Golf Alliance Demographic Study (2026).