The study commissioned by Carl’s Golfland, a retailer in Michigan, took an “objective look” at the best getaway destinations based on economic, industry and travel data, instead of subjective opinions and “golfiness” rankings. Minnesota (second) also finished ahead of expected favorites Florida (third), California (fourth) and Arizona (seventh).
Carl’s Golfland, a retailer in Michigan, recently commissioned a study to determine an objective ranking of the best places for golfers to take a $3,000 golf getaway vacation. The study was done “objectively [using] economic, industry and travel data,” instead of “opinions and subjective ‘golfiness’ rankings,” the retailer explained.
The study’s methodology was devised around “a metric that looked at what you’d actually care about when you decide to secure that green time and book that flight: the cost of the trip and the likelihood that you would actually enjoy your time on the links,” Carl’s Golfland explained.
Nine key factors were selected for the study and given a multiplier of one, two, or three, “depending upon how important we thought they’d be to a person booking a trip,” Carl’s Golfland explained.
These factors affecting cost were given the most value :
- Average cost of green fees, from the U.S. Economic Census of 2017.
- Cost of roundtrip flights to the state
- Number of 100 best public courses in each state
- Number of days with no rain
Less value went to things that would affect the vacationers’ ability to play, such how crowded the course would be and, again, the weather, as specifically measured by:
- Hours of sunshine
- Total number of courses in each state
- Number of courses per capita
Finally, the least value was given to how easy it would be to pick up equipment and souvenirs, as measured by:
- Golf stores per capita
- What percentage of their sales were for golf products
“So, we didn’t really care about things like how many pro golfers come from the state, how many top 100 private courses there are [in the state], or even how many sets of clubs we ship to a given state,” Carl’s Golfland noted. “And of course, no ‘golfiness’ score based on how much we associate a given state with golf.”
The study’s most noteworthy finding, the retailer said, was that California, Arizona, and Florida didn’t make it into first or second place. Instead, Kansas took top honors, followed by Minnesota. Iowa (sixth), Wisconsin (eighth), Idaho (ninth) and Michigan (tenth) were other states not as readily associated with golf vacations that placed in the top ten.
“Interestingly, when using the Economic Census on the golf and country club industry, we found that states with more golf courses actually tend to have higher green fees, bucking the supply/demand trend,” Carl’s Golfland noted.
The retailer also noted that Michigan’s ranking may have been affected by the lack of available Economic Census data for that state.
The five worst states for golf vacations, based on the Carl’s Golfland study, were Vermont, New Jersey, Washington, West Virginia and Alaska. “With the exception of Vermont the main culprit [leading to the low rankings for those states] seems to be expensive flights and bad weather most of the year,” the retailer said.
Here are the complete rankings for all 50 states, showing overall rank and also rank in the three weighted categories (cost, course and weather):
Rank | State | Cost Rank | Course Rank | Weather Rank |
1 | Kansas | 2 | 19 | 7 |
2 | Minnesota | 1 | 13 | 20 |
3 | Florida | 27 | 2 | 12 |
4 | California | 41 | 1 | 6 |
5 | North Carolina | 18 | 6 | 19 |
6 | Iowa | 6 | 3 | 24 |
7 | Arizona | 35 | 11 | 1 |
8 | Wisconsin | 3 | 5 | 32 |
9 | Idaho | 14 | 28 | 9 |
10 | Michigan | 15 | 20 | 17 |
11 | Nebraska | 5 | 4 | 43 |
12 | Colorado | 37 | 16 | 4 |
13 | South Carolina | 17 | 38 | 16 |
14 | Virginia | 25 | 27 | 15 |
15 | Arkansas | 31 | 15 | 14 |
16 | Georgia | 40 | 10 | 13 |
17 | Illinois | 23 | 8 | 36 |
18 | Indiana | 12 | 7 | 42 |
19 | Kentucky | 7 | 17 | 38 |
20 | Massachusetts | 20 | 23 | 29 |
21 | Hawaii | 32 | 29 | 23 |
22 | Wyoming | 4 | 50 | 11 |
23 | Missouri | 29 | 25 | 22 |
24 | Nevada | 45 | 37 | 2 |
25 | South Dakota | 13 | 41 | 18 |
26 | Connecticut | 19 | 22 | 41 |
27 | Maine | 21 | 24 | 34 |
28 | Mississippi | 36 | 18 | 21 |
29 | Ohio | 11 | 21 | 45 |
30 | Oregon | 24 | 14 | 44 |
31 | Oklahoma | 43 | 40 | 5 |
32 | New Hampshire | 10 | 44 | 40 |
33 | Delaware | 26 | 33 | 30 |
34 | Pennsylvania | 28 | 26 | 37 |
35 | North Dakota | 16 | 39 | 27 |
36 | Rhode Island | 9 | 49 | 31 |
37 | Texas | 49 | 31 | 10 |
38 | Alabama | 44 | 12 | 28 |
39 | New York | 33 | 9 | 47 |
40 | New Mexico | 47 | 47 | 3 |
41 | Montana | 30 | 42 | 35 |
42 | Utah | 39 | 46 | 8 |
43 | Maryland | 48 | 32 | 26 |
44 | Louisiana | 46 | 30 | 25 |
45 | Tennessee | 38 | 35 | 33 |
46 | Vermont | 8 | 48 | 46 |
47 | New Jersey | 42 | 34 | 39 |
48 | Washington | 34 | 36 | 49 |
49 | West Virginia | 22 | 45 | 48 |
50 | Alaska | 50 | 43 | 50 |
[ajax_load_more id=”3389380877″ container_type=”div” post_type=”post” progress_bar=”true” progress_bar_color=”ed7070″]