Municipal, State and Federal Golf Facilities Invited to Participate in the Third Annual U.S. Municipal Golf Study

Benchmark Reporting Facilitated by Greenlight Advisors and Supported by the National Golf Course Owners Association

Chicago, IL (October 1, 2025)

Greenlight Advisors and the National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA) invite all municipal, state and federal golf facilities to participate in the 2025 U.S. Municipal Golf Study, an annual research report that provides municipal golf facilities with a clear financial picture that their operators can use to understand the muni landscape, and help them make better-informed operational decisions. Eligible facilities that want to use this personalized, comprehensive and up-to-date benchmarking to improve their operations should sign up at https://signup.golfclubbenchmarks.com by October 31, 2025.

This study and its findings are critical to reaching and maintaining operational excellence: the confidential, 40-metric benchmark report and analysis provides valuable insights into how municipal golf courses compare to similar operations, highlighting potential financial and operational opportunities that may emerge. 

The study collects income, revenue and expenses for all participating facilities; armed with these general perspectives and comparisons — and a critical analysis of their own data — municipal course operators can reassess their business strategies and make informed adjustments to capitalize on new prospects. The data may also help them identify areas for improvement, and ways to enhance service delivery to their communities. 

“[The study’s data] helps me tell a story to our city council, for instance, when we’re doing a budget presentation,” said Matt Kammeyer, golf division director for Salt Lake City. “Within our municipal entity, water costs have risen quite dramatically over the past four years. It’s been a 75% increase in costs for us. So I’m interested to see what other courses are paying and where we fit within that as a percentage of our overall budget.” All six of Salt Lake City’s municipal courses participated in the 2024 study.

As part of the benchmarking process, Greenlight Advisors will evaluate and grade participating golf courses’ financial and operational performance data against industry benchmarks, classifying each metric as Top Quartile, Median or Bottom Quartile within a customized “Best-in-Class Report CardTM.”

“We pride ourselves on empowering golf course operators to make informed decisions through a critical analysis of their data, helping them easily identify areas for improvement, and enhancing service delivery to their communities,” said Mike Suglich, CEO at Greenlight Advisors. “We are extremely pleased with the growing participation, industry support and positive feedback we have received from our U.S. Municipal Golf Study.”

“Benchmarking has always been about using data more efficiently, being able to see where the best of the best are compared to our performance; and figure out how we get to that,” said Eric Rein, Director of Golf at Palm Beach County. “The data allows us to analyze our performance and supports our mission to provide affordable golf to everyone at a price that will bring them back time after time.” 

As a partner of this annual initiative, the NGCOA is offering the first 25 non-member participating municipal facilities a special Municipal Membership into its NGCOA Municipal Operators Community, where operators can engage with their peers through a dedicated online forum, and virtual and in-person educational programming. Municipal facilities that sign onto the 2025 U.S. Municipal Golf Study will also have the opportunity to attend the association’s Golf Business Conference 2026 being held in Orlando, Florida January 19-21 (which also includes elements of the co-located 2026 PGA Show, January 21-23.) 

“After receiving extremely positive feedback on the U.S. Municipal Golf Study from the Municipal Golf Operators Community last year, we are thrilled to continue our efforts partnering with Greenlight Advisors on the 2025 Study,” said Jay Karen, CEO of the NGCOA. “Armed with these financial and operational benchmarks, our quickly growing base of Municipal Golf Course Operators can gather a clearer picture of how their course is performing, make better informed decisions, and communicate those plans more effectively with decision makers and the community.”

Municipal, state and federal golf courses interested in participating in the 2025 study must sign up by October 31, 2025 at https://signup.golfclubbenchmarks.com. Participants will receive details and next steps once registered.

About Greenlight Advisors and GolfClubBenchmarks.com

Founded by CPAs, Greenlight Advisors provides consulting services and portal tools that illuminate data in easy-to-read benchmark reports. They pioneered benchmarking for municipal golf course operators in 2022 after successfully gathering data from hundreds of municipal golf courses across the United States, and published the first ever municipal operators benchmarking study. Today, they continue to compare financial and operational results to regional and national averages, enabling businesses to make informed decisions and improve financial performance. Learn more at greenlightadvisors.com.

Golf Club Benchmarks provides a cloud-based data capture and reporting portal to help the club’s management team easily identify underperforming areas of the club that will result in improvements to the club’s operational and financial performance. Learn more at golfclubbenchmarks.com. 

About The National Golf Course Owners Association (NGCOA)

The NGCOA is the leading authority on the business of golf course ownership and management. The association represents and promotes the interests of golf courses as the principal businesses and economic assets of the game of golf. The not-for-profit organization is the only trade association dedicated exclusively to golf course owners and operators. Through advocacy, education and information resources, purchasing programs and networking opportunities, the NGCOA helps golf course owners and operators run more successful businesses. For more information or to join, visit ngcoa.org or call 800-933-4262. Learn more about the NGCOA Muni Community at https://www.ngcoa.org/membership/join/muni-community

Mike Suglich