Welcome to Issue #50
“I'm too inconsistent to be bad all the time.”
Paul Goydos
What’s on my mind this week
Sahith Theegala getting his ball stuck in a tree, quickly followed by his umbrella. Madelein Zang skilfully using the wind at St Andrews to blow her missed putt back into the hole. Rory McIlroy getting two travelling gyms as part of his latest sponsorship deal, what do you give a man who has everything? A Pennsylvania golf course making way for a $10 billion data centre development. Tyler McCumber giving himself a two-shot penalty for a ball-marker mistake he wasn't even sure he'd made. The Toronto Blue Jays turning their baseball stadium into a nine-hole golf course, everyone wants a piece of golf these days. And autumn golf, when finding your ball in the middle of the fairway becomes an achievement in itself.
In the news
Why it matters: Global sports media rights reached $65.8 billion in 2026, up 15%, according to SportBusiness. The US now accounts for 53.9% of the market, with the NFL and NBA alone representing 30% of worldwide rights value.
Our Take: The headline growth is impressive, although the FIFA World Cup and Winter Olympics have helped inflate this year's numbers. The report forecasts a decline to $62.2 billion in 2027, with underlying growth considerably more modest. What's particularly interesting is the concentration of value in American sport. The US accounted for 46% of global rights spending in 2022. Four years later, that figure is approaching 54%. So where does golf fit into this increasingly competitive market? Its broadcast rights are spread across tours, governing bodies and major championships, each with different commercial interests and distribution agreements. That fragmentation raises questions about golf's collective negotiating power, particularly when broadcasters are making increasingly selective investments. The PGA Tour has secured substantial long-term agreements, but golf doesn't have the same unified commercial structure as the NFL or NBA. As more media investment flows towards a relatively small number of premium sports properties, golf's ability to attract and retain broadcasters will be worth watching.
Why it matters: Austin and the University of Texas are nearing an agreement to preserve Lions Municipal Golf Course, transferring ownership of the 141-acre property to the city. The historic public course hosts more than 75,000 rounds annually.
Our Take: There's a fascinating tension at the heart of this story. Lions Municipal, known locally as Muny, is Austin's busiest public golf course. Opened in 1924, it also holds an important place in American history, becoming the first public course in the South to integrate in 1950. Yet for more than 50 years, its future has been uncertain because it occupies valuable university-owned land in a growing city. The proposed agreement would protect the course while allowing the University of Texas to pursue development on surrounding property, with private donors helping make the arrangement possible. It's a reminder of the commercial pressures facing public golf, particularly in urban areas where land values can far exceed what a golf course could reasonably generate. Even 75,000 rounds a year may struggle to compete with the financial returns from alternative development. Austin appears to be finding a solution that recognises the course's value to the community. Other cities facing similar decisions may be watching closely.
Why it matters: Golf technology company Noteefy has launched an AI-powered booking engine allowing golfers to find, reserve and pay for tee times through supported AI assistants. The platform connects directly to course inventory, with operators retaining control of pricing and customer relationships.
Our Take: Golfers are already using AI to research where to play. Now they could increasingly use it to make the booking too. Noteefy, which serves more than 1,500 golf courses and resorts, says traffic referred to course websites by AI assistants increased 499% in 2025, based on its analysis of more than 200 sites. That's company-reported data, but the direction is worth paying attention to. For years, golf courses have relied on their own websites and third-party booking platforms to sell tee times. AI introduces another potential route to the customer. Noteefy's model allows bookings to go directly into the course's tee sheet, at its own rates, with the operator retaining the customer relationship. The bigger question is what happens as AI assistants become more influential in recommending where golfers play. Who gets recommended, how are those recommendations made, and will courses eventually find themselves competing for visibility within AI platforms? Golf's next battle for tee-time distribution may already be beginning.
Pic from Noteefy
Worth your time
Watch: Rory McIlroy on LIV Golf's expensive mistakes. He's certainly not holding back on this one.
Listen: A little self-promotion. I joined Colin Weston on ModGolf to talk Business in Golf and who golf should be nominated for the BiG1OO.
Read: Eight golf start-ups, some clever ideas and a glimpse at what entrepreneurs think the game needs next. A nice warm-up for our feature below.
Feature Story
The opportunity (and the trap) in golf’s start-up boom
Pic from Henslowe
Golf has spent decades building businesses around the game itself. Clubs, balls, apparel, courses and competitions.
But a new generation of entrepreneurs is approaching the industry from a different direction. They're starting with a particular customer, frustration or lifestyle, and building a golf business around it.
From sober golf communities and collectable golf balls to toddler equipment and tournament management software, the range of ideas is vast.
Over the past few months, we've featured more than 40 emerging golf businesses through our Instagram start-up series. Looking at them collectively, a pattern is beginning to emerge.
As golf's audience becomes more diverse, its commercial opportunities are becoming more specialised.
And that could have implications for both the entrepreneurs entering the industry and the established businesses already operating within it.
The value of a smaller audience
Women's golf provides perhaps the clearest illustration.
According to the National Golf Foundation, more than 8.1 million women and girls played golf on US courses in 2025, an increase of 45% between 2020 and 2025. Women and girls accounted for 52% of the net growth in on-course participation over that period.
But a growing customer base doesn't necessarily mean everyone within it wants the same thing.
Among the businesses we've featured, Tuesday Links is developing golf travel experiences for women, Zalea's Golf Co. is creating handmade accessories, while Midspring and A. Putnam are approaching women's apparel from different perspectives.
Ali Putnam explained the thinking behind her business in an interview with The First call:
"Nothing in the golf space for women felt like me."
Putnam wanted clothing that reflected her personal style and could be worn beyond the golf course. Rather than attempting to appeal to every female golfer, she identified a particular customer whose needs she felt weren't being met.
It's an approach that smaller businesses can pursue without needing the sales volumes demanded by a major apparel manufacturer.
Another example is Featherie, founded by teenage golfer Kate Korngold after struggling to find suitable performance apparel for girls her age.
According to a 2026 report in Inc., the company was approaching $1 million in gross sales, based on company-reported figures, with its products stocked in more than 100 golf clubs.
That's an example of an overlooked customer segment developing into a business with measurable commercial traction. It doesn't establish profitability, but it does demonstrate demand beyond the founder's original frustration.
For established brands, there's a question worth considering. Are these markets genuinely underserved, or have larger companies simply decided they're too small to pursue?
The answer will differ by category. But for a smaller business, a niche that doesn't interest a global manufacturer may still represent a substantial opportunity.
Pic from Swinger
The opportunity and the trap
The same pattern appears in businesses addressing much narrower problems.
ParWalker has developed a cupholder for walking golfers. Eagle Wipes offers SPF 50 sunscreen in a convenient wipe format. Jolly Golf is developing premium golf-bag organisers, while Caddy Wrap allows golfers to personalise their clubs.
These founders aren't attempting to transform the entire golf experience. They're identifying a particular frustration and developing a product around it.
That makes for an appealing starting point. A business can launch with one product, a relatively modest range and a clearly defined customer.
But there's a commercial trade-off.
Many accessories are inexpensive and purchased infrequently. A golfer might love a product but have little reason to buy another one for several years.
That puts pressure on customer acquisition costs, distribution and the ability to expand into adjacent products.
A $20 accessory might make sense when sold through a pro shop alongside other purchases. Selling that same product directly to consumers, while paying for advertising, fulfilment and shipping, presents a different economic challenge.
For some founders, the initial product will be a way into a broader category. Others may build profitable businesses by remaining deliberately small.
The important distinction is between identifying an unmet need and identifying one large enough to support the business you want to build.
Golf's expanding consumer economy
Other founders are importing ideas from outside golf.
RareShot is applying the culture of collectables and limited-edition releases to golf balls. Full Turn and APN are developing golf-focused nutrition and hydration products. On and Off the Course is bringing fragrance into the golf lifestyle market.
Meanwhile, Soba Golf is building a community around sober golf, connecting the sport with wellness and social experiences.
Pic from UK Women’s Golf Community
These businesses reflect the different ways people now engage with golf.
Some are motivated by performance. Others by fashion, friendship, collecting or wellbeing. Golf provides a shared interest, but the products and experiences being developed around it can look very different.
That creates opportunities for founders who understand consumer behaviour in other categories.
It also introduces competition for a golfer's spending that extends well beyond traditional golf brands.
The challenge is establishing whether enthusiasm for an idea translates into repeat purchasing and a commercially sustainable audience.
A passionate community can be an excellent starting point. But the size of that community, how often its members buy and what it costs to reach them will ultimately determine the economics.
Where the bigger opportunities might lie
Interestingly, consumer products dominate the businesses we've featured.
That may say as much about the accessibility of starting a consumer brand, and the visual nature of Instagram, as it does about where golf's largest opportunities exist.
Some of the less visible businesses may have a different commercial proposition.
PARFOUR and Golfdays, for example, are developing technology to simplify golf tournament management, including registration, payments, scoring and sponsorship.
Their customers aren't individual golfers buying an accessory. They're clubs, event organisers and businesses looking to improve how they operate.
If technology can demonstrably save an organisation time, reduce costs or increase revenue, there may be a clearer economic justification for purchasing it.
Software can also create opportunities for recurring revenue, although winning customers and integrating into established ways of working can be difficult.
Golf's operational infrastructure, from booking and payments to club management and data, offers plenty of potential areas for entrepreneurs to explore.
We shouldn't assume those businesses will be more successful than consumer brands. But their economics, customers and potential routes to growth are fundamentally different.
And they're probably underrepresented in the start-up stories most golfers encounter.
Pic from Del Campo Golf
What established golf businesses should be watching
There's plenty of creativity among the founders we've featured. Some will build successful companies. Others will discover that their market is smaller, or more difficult to reach, than they anticipated.
But there's a broader lesson for the established golf industry.
These entrepreneurs are paying attention to customers, behaviours and everyday frustrations that larger businesses may have overlooked, or decided weren't commercially attractive enough to address.
And as the golfing population becomes more varied, understanding those differences is going to become increasingly important.
The businesses themselves won't all succeed. Their ideas won't all prove commercially viable.
But the gaps they're identifying deserve attention, whether the companies filling them succeed or not.
For golf's established players, that may be the most valuable insight of all.
One thing from history
A greenkeeper's son makes history in Delhi
Pic from Sky Sports
The Indian Masters brought an international field to Delhi Golf Club, with a $2.5 million prize fund and some of the biggest names in golf competing.
But it was a 29-year-old local golfer who stole the show.
S. S. P. Chawrasia was the son of a greenkeeper, had worked as a caddie and taught himself to play. Ranked outside the world's top 300, he shot a final-round 67 to win by two strokes and collect $416,660.
It was his first European Tour victory, and it came on home soil.
The tournament's future looked promising. Then the financial crisis hit.
In December 2008, organisers cancelled the following year's event, citing financial uncertainty and security concerns following the Mumbai attacks. Plans to revive it in 2010 never materialised.
The Indian Masters lasted just one edition.
Eighteen years later, Delhi Golf Club is hosting another major international tournament. This week's DP World India Championship has a $4 million purse, with Rory McIlroy, Tommy Fleetwood and Shane Lowry among the field.
The tournament has changed. The money has grown. And the course where a greenkeeper's son made history is once again welcoming some of the world's best golfers.
Want your brand in front of golf’s most engaged audience? Business in Golf readers include C-suite leaders, founders, investors, operators and golf-obsessed consumers. Reach out to explore a partnership with us.
Have a good week. Until next Friday,
David