Do Urban Golf Courses Provide Barriers to Equitable Greenspace Access in the United States?

Providing equitable access to greenspace requires innovative strategies in urban areas where land is scarce and expensive. One potential solution is to make golf courses, which are often exclusive and require daily or annual membership fees, more accessible to the general public. The impact of urban golf courses on greenspace access has yet to be investigated systematically, however. Here we quantify (1) the number and area of golf courses within all major urban areas in the conterminous United States, and (2) the number and demographics of people that would benefit from better access to them. We identify 6,962 urban golf courses that cover 3,102 km(2) urban land, equivalent to similar to 29 percent of all urban greenspace. We find that 3.4 percent of the U.S. urban population (equivalent to nearly 6 million people) live less than 1 km from a golf course but more than 1 km from public greenspace. Policies that make golf courses more available to the general public would substantially improve greenspace access, and associated health benefits, for millions of Americans. In most cities, however, it is wealthy, White neighborhoods that would benefit most from better access to golf courses, not the lower socioeconomic, ethno-racial minority communities that are most lacking in greenspace access. Making golf courses more accessible to the general public should therefore be considered just one component of a more diverse set of strategies to improve access to greenspace in U.S. cities.

Automated summary

Providing equitable access to greenspace in urban areas is challenging due to limited land availability. One potential solution is making exclusive golf courses more accessible to the general public. This study quantifies the presence and potential benefits of urban golf courses in the United States, showing that they cover a substantial amount of urban land and could greatly improve greenspace access for millions of Americans. However, improving access to golf courses may predominantly benefit wealthier neighborhoods, rather than addressing the inequities faced by lower socioeconomic and ethno-racial minority communities that lack greenspace access.