{"id":428894,"date":"2026-01-25T11:45:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:45:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/428894\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T11:45:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T11:45:09","slug":"what-makes-maine-the-golfiest-state-in-america-tougher-golfers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/428894\/","title":{"rendered":"What makes Maine the \u2018golfiest state\u2019 in America? Tougher golfers."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The passion and\u00a0hardiness\u00a0of golfers in Maine has earned the state the title of America\u2019s \u201cGolfiest State\u201d by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usga.org\/content\/usga\/home-page\/articles\/2026\/01\/golf-boomed-2025-more-than-82-million-rounds-posted.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">United States Golf Association<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>It was based on 2025 data compiled by the USGA.<\/p>\n<p>According to the USGA, Mainers played 523,883 rounds of golf despite having only 200 playable days a year. That was more rounds per golfer, per course and per day than any other state in the country.<\/p>\n<p>The USGA analyzed handicap index data across all 50 states. It factored in course count, rounds posted, total golfers and seasonal playability.<\/p>\n<p>Maine has 17,831 handicap index holders among its 112 courses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt speaks to the fact that we have limited days so Mainers will play when conditions aren\u2019t perfect,\u201d said Brian Bickford, executive director of the Maine State Golf Association and a Cumberland native. <\/p>\n<p>He noted that Mainers are a \u201clittle tougher and put up with a little more\u201d than golfers in some other states.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe play in more diverse conditions. \u201cWe\u2019re okay with that. It\u2019s just another element of the game instead of it being a barrier,\u201d said the Maine Golf Hall of Famer.<\/p>\n<p>Bickford said golfers in other states may see that the temperature is 45 degrees and elect to wait until the next day to play.<\/p>\n<p>But Mainers will go out and play when it\u2019s 45 degrees \u201cbecause it could be 40 degrees the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The COVID pandemic ended up being a boon to the golf industry in the state, Bickford said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince the pandemic, we have grown in rounds every year and, based on what I have for numbers, we have more than doubled the number of rounds from 2019 to 2025,\u201d said Bickford. \u201cAnd that\u2019s with the loss of 10 percent of our golf courses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said the influx of tourists in the summer has elevated the numbers of rounds being played.<\/p>\n<p>Bickford said one thing the state offers is a wide variety of golf courses including island courses, mountain layouts, courses along the coast, and courses near the potato fields in Aroostook County.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d Bickford said of that range. <\/p>\n<p>He considers the \u201cGolfiest State\u201d designation a significant honor and said he\u2019d like to see golf featured more prominently in how the state of Maine markets itself to tourists. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The passion and\u00a0hardiness\u00a0of golfers in Maine has earned the state the title of America\u2019s \u201cGolfiest State\u201d by the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":428895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[19628,427,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-428894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-engage","9":"tag-golf","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}