New 2026 data shows 74 percent of golfers aged 18 to 34 plan to buy a membership or season pass, and clubs adding racquet sports are seeing four times the per-square-foot revenue of a golf-only footprint. The buyer has changed. Most membership models and pricing structures have not caught up yet.
The buyer profile has moved faster than the product
Seventy-four percent of golfers aged 18 to 34 now say they plan to buy a membership or season pass. The median age of club visitors has dropped more than seven years since 2019. This is not a marginal shift in the customer base, it is a different customer arriving with different expectations.
Forty-five percent of millennials say they prefer flexibility over a long-term commitment, and with roughly 60 percent of Americans working remotely at least part of the week, demand is moving toward tiered access rather than the traditional full initiation model built for a five-day office schedule.
The revenue case for going beyond the golf course
Pickleball participation grew 223 percent between 2020 and 2024. Racquet courts now generate roughly four times the revenue per square foot of a tennis court, and clubs building them are capturing a category still under-supplied relative to demand. The wellness category tells a similar story: the global wellness industry is on a path toward $7 trillion, and 63 percent of members stay longer at clubs that include wellness amenities in the membership.
None of this is new information to clubs that have already built out F&B and practice-facility revenue. What's changed is that the case for going beyond the golf course is no longer just a margin argument, it is now a demographic one. The buyers showing up want the amenity mix, not just the tee time.
A 223 percent jump in pickleball participation is not a trend to monitor. It's a capital allocation decision waiting on someone to make it.
Where clubs are structurally exposed
Average waitlists run around 70 prospective members per club, and initiation fees at premium clubs range from $50,000 to more than $400,000. A rigid, six-figure, all-at-once initiation model filters out exactly the buyer the data says is showing up: younger, mobile, income-flexible, and unwilling to commit to a decade-long fixed structure before trying the club.
Clubs sitting on deep waitlists can afford to experiment. A tiered or flexible product tested against a small slice of the waitlist doesn't put existing full-membership revenue at risk. Most clubs simply haven't built the product to test.
What operators should actually build first
Prioritise amenity mix over another golf-only capital project. Racquet sports and wellness aren't a diversification bet anymore, they're what the incoming buyer is already asking for. Pilot a flexible or tiered access product against a defined slice of the waitlist rather than overhauling the full membership structure at once. Build family and multigenerational programming, since expanding beyond golf is what captures both the parent's initiation fee and the household's broader discretionary spend.
The club that still treats racquet sports and wellness as ancillary is leaving the same money on the table SGH has flagged in clubhouse and F&B revenue before. The difference now is that demand, not just margin, is pulling in that direction.
The pricing mistake most clubs are about to make
The instinct at a lot of clubs will be to treat this data as a reason to discount, to make membership cheaper or more accessible in order to court younger buyers. That reads the data backwards. A 74 percent buy-intent rate among 18 to 34 year olds isn't evidence of price resistance, it's evidence of strong demand meeting a product built for a different buyer's schedule and cash flow. The fix isn't a lower price, it's a different structure: more entry points, more flexibility, more amenity breadth, at the same premium the market has already shown it will pay.
Clubs that discount to chase this cohort will train exactly the wrong lesson into their pricing power. Clubs that restructure the product around how this cohort actually wants to buy will capture the same revenue with a wider funnel feeding it.
Questions worth asking before your next planning cycle
Are younger golfers actually buying private club memberships?
Yes. Recent data shows 74 percent of golfers aged 18 to 34 plan to purchase a membership or season pass, and the median age of club visitors has dropped more than seven years since 2019, reversing the assumption that private clubs skew toward an ageing membership base.
Why are golf clubs adding pickleball and padel courts?
Participation in pickleball grew 223 percent between 2020 and 2024, and racquet courts now generate roughly four times the revenue per square foot of a tennis court, making racquet sports one of the highest-return uses of club land outside the golf course itself.
Should clubs offer flexible or tiered membership instead of traditional initiation?
The data supports testing it. Forty-five percent of millennials prefer flexibility over a long-term commitment, and with average waitlists running around 70 prospective members per club, most clubs have room to pilot a tiered product without putting full-membership revenue at risk.