Golfers play a round at a golf course. The number of active golfers in South Korea has fallen by about 430,000 over two years, according to a new survey. [Korea Golf Association]
Golfers play a round at a golf course. The number of active golfers in South Korea has fallen by about 430,000 over two years, according to a new survey. [Korea Golf Association]

The number of active golfers in South Korea has fallen by about 430,000 compared with two years ago, a new survey shows. The decline reflects both a rise in the number of people who have played golf before but are no longer active and a drop in the share of non-players who intend to take up the sport, signaling a simultaneous slowdown in retention and new entry.

The Korea Golf Association released the findings Monday in its 2025 Korea Golf Index survey. The study drew a sample of 10,000 people representative of the roughly 36.5 million adults in their 20s through 60s nationwide and was conducted in two rounds, in June and October.

The survey found about 5.81 million people actively participated in golf in 2025, accounting for 15.9 percent of the surveyed population. That compares with about 6.24 million, or 16.9 percent, in 2023 — a decline of roughly 430,000 participants, or 7.0 percent. The participation rate also fell by 1.0 percentage point.

The number of people with past golf experience, however, grew. In the 2023 survey, about 6.78 million respondents (18.3 percent) said they had played golf between 2020 and 2022. In the 2025 survey, about 7.66 million (21.0 percent) reported experience between 2022 and 2024. At the same time, the pool of non-players who said they intended to take up golf shrank from about 10.01 million (27.1 percent) to about 8.02 million (22.0 percent).

Golf activity still centered on full-course rounds. About 4.99 million participants — 85.9 percent of the total — played in a format that included a field round in 2025, though that share was down 3.0 percentage points from 88.9 percent in 2023. Among those who took up golf for the first time, driving ranges were the most common entry point at 29.1 percent, followed by indoor screen golf facilities at 23.3 percent; together the two venues accounted for more than half of all new entrants.

The motivations behind golf participation also shifted, with personal reasons losing ground. The share citing hobby as a purpose fell from 73.3 percent in 2023 to 59.0 percent in 2025, while stress relief dropped sharply from 52.3 percent to 31.9 percent. Socializing declined from 67.7 percent to 63.3 percent but remained one of the top stated reasons for playing. Business necessity rose from 16.7 percent to 19.0 percent.

The shift toward business-related play was also visible in round companions. The share of golfers who played with business associates rose from 6.1 percent to 11.5 percent, while those who played with club or association members increased from 5.9 percent to 9.4 percent.

Tee-time preferences moved toward weekdays as golfers sought to avoid the higher costs of weekend play. The share of weekday rounds rose 14.1 percentage points, from 48.1 percent in 2023 to 62.2 percent in 2025. Weekday morning slots — where greens fees tend to be lower — climbed from 21.8 percent to 31.1 percent, and early weekday dawn tee times grew from 6.7 percent to 11.6 percent. The trend points to a more cost-conscious approach to the sport alongside the overall drop in participation.

Among those with overseas golf experience, 63.5 percent continued to play abroad in 2025, down 2.3 percentage points from 65.8 percent in 2023, though more than six in 10 with prior overseas experience kept it up. Thailand was the top destination at 41.8 percent, followed by the Philippines at 32.8 percent, Japan at 32.4 percent and China at 18.1 percent. Japan's share rose 6.3 percentage points from 26.1 percent in 2023, while China's climbed 3.8 percentage points from 14.3 percent.

The full results of this and previous Korea Golf Index surveys are available on the Korea Golf Association's official website under the "Golf Index" section of its media menu.


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