The Leonard Curtis Golf Finance Report 2026 landed this week, and while the headlines are dominated by LIV Golf’s implosion and the PGA Tour’s $451m reported loss, I keep coming back to a quieter insight buried near the end of the report, especially for golf travelers and operators.
It reads: “LIV’s expansion into non-traditional golf markets such as South Africa and Australia has demonstrated the potential to globalise the sport beyond its established strongholds.”
The report lays out a fascinating picture of golf’s financial ecosystem. The PGA Tour averaged around $1.4bn in revenue between 2020 and 2024, peaking at almost $1.9bn in 2022, while prize money across the Tour now routinely sits in the $8–25m range per event. Golf, in short, has never been wealthier. website-files
But wealth concentrating at the top of the pyramid is precisely what creates opportunity further down it. The report raises the question of whether, with LIV’s Saudi funding ending after 2026, there could be a rebalancing of the ecosystem, with greater levels of investment flowing into the amateur, development, and club game.
For destinations like South Africa, that rebalancing isn’t theoretical. It’s already happening in the hearts and minds of affluent golfers who are asking: where do I go next?
Here’s a number from the report that stopped me: the median traditional golf viewer is 64 years old, while creator-led content attracts a median audience closer to 28, with a majority under 35.
Two audiences. Both travelling. Both are seeking different things.
The 64-year-old has disposable income, takes two to three golf trips a year, and wants a bucket-list experience. The 35-year-old discovered golf through YouTube, wants to play somewhere that tells a story they can share. South Africa speaks to both, fluently.
The report describes golf as now evolving into a multi-layered ecosystem that links professional competition, media, participation, technology, and commerce into a single, interdependent system.
That language could just as easily describe what a great golf tour to South Africa looks like. It’s not a tee sheet and a hotel. It’s whale watching off Hermanus, wine in Franschhoek, a game drive at dawn in the Kruger, and a round at one of the most dramatic courses in the world.
South Africa has long punched below its weight as a golf destination in the American market. The rand, the flight, the perception of complexity, all cited as friction points. But friction is what a great concierge is for.
What the report doesn’t say (but implies)
The Leonard Curtis report focuses on elite tour finance, but the forces it identifies have direct downstream effects on golf tourism. Rising purses and global TV coverage normalise destinations. When LIV played in South Africa, it put South African golf on screens in living rooms in Connecticut, Texas, and California. LIV’s open-access distribution prioritised reach over immediate revenue, aligning with broader shifts in how sport is consumed. The visibility those events created doesn’t disappear when the funding does. website-files
Golf is in a period of profound disruption and expansion. As the report notes, capital is flowing into the sport with increasing intensity, drawn by premium demographics, global reach, and significant operational upside. The affluent golfer sits right at the centre of that premium demographic.
The report ends with a line I keep coming back to: “Those who understand the ecosystem, not just the sport, will define what comes next.”
That’s exactly what we’re building at South Africa Golf Tours.
If you’re thinking about what a bespoke South African golf experience could look like, I’d love to talk.
Insights drawn from the Leonard Curtis Golf Finance Report 2026.
