A joint venture between the USGA and state golf associations has significantly increased the number of golfers with a handicap index. Darren Carroll, USGA
One of the downstream effects of the significant post-COVID rise in golf participation in America has been a windfall that state golf associations have received from the United States Golf Association.
This came about as a result of a joint strategy between the USGA and the state bodies, known in USGA parlance as Allied Golf Associations, that began in 2021.
The 57 AGAs worked with the USGA to create the USGA/AGA Community, a new, additional pathway for golfers to obtain a handicap index. The program is aimed at golfers who are not connected with a golf course or their AGA. The USGA’s goal was to double the number of golfers who have a handicap index by 2026.
The program has worked exceptionally well.
In 2020, the USGA estimates that there were 2.6 million golfers who had a handicap index. By the end of last year, that number had increased to 3.4 million. Roughly 350,000 of these ne...