Number of golf courses in France: 700 in 2026
France has about 660 golf courses in operation in November 2026, or nearly 700 when rounded. About a hundred belong to the same group, and nearly one in three sits on publicly owned land. For anyone selling to golf courses, the market is mostly golf courses outside any chain, approached one by one.
France has about 660 golf courses in operation in November 2026 (Scalon estimate), or nearly 700 when rounded: 608 have a course of 9 holes or more. Of 92 facilities in the public census checked one by one, about one in six is not, or no longer, a golf course; 62 real golf courses are missing from it.
Get the list of the 700 golf courses in France, with the contact details available.
Get the full listPublished on November 6, 2026
In this article
- How many golf courses are there in France?
- Which number to use?
- The six levels for reading the golf market
- How do you use these figures for a market study?
- Building a prospect list
- What revenue does a golf course make?
- Why the public figures differ
- Golf in France according to ffgolf
- How many golf courses are in the Sirene register?
- Frequently asked questions
- Method
How many golf courses are there in France?#
| Question | Answer to keep |
|---|---|
| How many golf courses are in operation in France? | about 660 (662), nearly 700 |
| How many golf courses have 9 holes or more? | 608 (606 per ffgolf, the French Golf Federation, end of 2025) |
| How many golf courses have 18 holes or more? | 417 |
| How many compact courses or pitch & putt (short beginner courses)? | 54 |
| How many golf courses belong to the Duval group (UGolf, Bluegreen)? | about a hundred (101 out of 778 locations examined) |
| How many golf courses sit on publicly owned land? | 204 (separately: 77 golf courses run directly by a local government) |
| How many courses in the public census? | 768 courses of 9 or 18 holes (November 6, 2026) |
| How many licensed players? | 446,547 in 2025 |
Three benchmarks for anyone selling to golf courses. About a hundred golf courses, roughly one in eight, belong to the Duval group (UGolf and Bluegreen): there, you negotiate with a headquarters. Nearly a third of golf courses sit on publicly owned land: the decision then often goes through a municipality or a public-service concession contract (délégation de service public; see public procurement notices and concessions). More than eight in ten locations examined belong to no chain, franchise or group: they are approached golf course by golf course, and 83% of locations show a phone number, only 37% an email address.
Choosing a golf course, tracking play, selling to golf courses: which number?#
The right number depends on what you want to do.
To find where to play, a national total does not help. A directory or a map by region is enough.
To track participation, compare the federation's license counts year over year, from the same source.
To sell to golf courses, count operating locations. An operator buys equipment, maintenance or services. For an offer that serves every golf course, the benchmark is 662. For an offer limited to full-size courses (mowing, irrigation, golf carts), it is 608. For a list built from the public census alone, expect one facility in six to be something other than an active golf course.
A count remains a market study, not a prospect list. And any figure you reuse should carry its unit and its date.
The six levels for reading the golf market#
To read the market without mixing up bases of calculation (the number each share is computed on), this study follows six successive levels. Levels 2, 3, 5 and 6 use the same total of 662 golf courses. Level 4 (networks) is based on the 778 locations examined one by one, before the correction that brings the total down to 662: we know which network each location belongs to, but not yet, for each one, whether it is among the closed golf courses that the public census still lists.
Level 1. The golf universe: 3,000 public listings#
The starting point is a universe of 3,000 public business listings filed under golf by online directories and maps. This is not the number of golf courses: the same golf course often appears several times (the golf course, its sports association, its restaurant, its pro shop), and the universe mixes related activities. Matched against the public census, these listings narrow the universe to 778 locations examined one by one. The total of 662 golf courses in operation is not a simple sort of these locations: it is an estimate, which removes 10 duplicates from the census and about 112 facilities that are not, or are no longer, golf courses (share measured by category on 100 checked locations), then adds 5 golf courses missing from every source.
What the 3,000 “golf” listings describe
| What the listing describes | Listings |
|---|---|
| A golf course with a course, or a service located inside the golf course | 2,288 |
| A compact course or a pitch & putt | 19 |
| A driving range, an indoor golf facility or a simulator | 102 |
| A mini golf course, a swin-golf course (a simplified French form of golf), a footgolf course | 115 |
| A teacher, a golfers' association without a course, a shop | 181 |
| Another activity (hotel, campground, other sport) | 43 |
| Insufficient information | 252 |
| Total | 3,000 |
Level 2. The format: 18 holes, 9 holes, compact#
| Format | Golf courses | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 18 holes or more | 417 | 63.1% |
| 9 holes | 190 | 28.8% |
| Compact or pitch & putt | 54 | 8.2% |
| Total | 662 | 100.0% |
Each row is rounded to the unit: their sum (661) differs from the total by one golf course.
Nearly two in three golf courses have at least one 18-hole course. The format changes the need: in the public census, half of the 18-hole courses report more than 24 hectares, compared with 7.5 hectares for a 9-hole course and 2 hectares for a beginner course. That means very different mowing and irrigation needs.
Level 3. Who runs them: company, association or municipality?#
More than half of golf courses (56.3%) are run by a commercial company, one in five (19.8%) by an association (a nonprofit club), and 11.7% directly by a local government; 2.8% have another operator or do not declare one. For the remaining 9.4%, the golf courses missing from the census, no operator is declared.
Format and operator go together: companies run 278 of the 417 18-hole golf courses, but only 86 of the 190 9-hole golf courses, where associations and municipalities carry more weight.
The detail: format and operator crossed
| Operator | 18 holes | 9 holes | Compact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial company | 278 | 86 | 10 |
| Association | 79 | 45 | 7 |
| Municipality or other local government | 31 | 34 | 11 |
| Other or not stated | 10 | 7 | 2 |
| Missing from the public census | 19 | 19 | 24 |
| Total | 417 | 190 | 54 |
Each cell is rounded to the nearest whole number: sums may differ by one golf course.
Who runs a golf course does not tell the whole story: the land often belongs to someone else. 204 golf courses, nearly one in three, are built on land whose declared owner is a municipality, an inter-municipal body or another public body. And 53 golf courses are entrusted to an operator through a délégation de service public (a public-service concession contract), a contract that the local government puts back out to competition when it expires.
In practice, for a supplier: a commercial company decides on its own, an association decides at a board or members' meeting, and a municipality buys through public procurement.
Level 4. Chains and independent golf courses: one group dominates#
Among the 778 locations examined, at least 116 (14.9%) belong to a chain: 101 to the Duval group, 15 to three smaller chains. All the others are independent, meaning outside any chain, franchise or group: each golf course decides for itself.
| Structure | Locations examined | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Duval group: UGolf (brands Garden Golf, Exclusiv Golf, Daily Golf) 62, Bluegreen 39 | 101 | 13.0% |
| Other chains: Resonance Golf Collection 10, Barrière (hotel golf courses) 3, Gaïa Concept 2 | 15 | 1.9% |
| Independent golf courses (including 20 run by one company, municipality or leisure park that has two or three golf courses) | 662 | 85.1% |
| Total | 778 | 100.0% |
Chains are counted when a public listing of the location shows their name or website: these are minimums. We find 10 Resonance golf courses out of the 13 claimed (France and Belgium) and 2 Gaïa Concept golf courses out of the 12 claimed.
UGolf and Bluegreen have belonged to the same group since 2022: together, 101 of the 778 locations examined (13.0%), about one in eight, a hundred golf courses. We count the locations that display the network's brand or website on their public listings: the total is solid, the split between the two brands less so (UGolf lists 52 courses in mainland France and the overseas départements, France's overseas administrative areas such as La Réunion and Guadeloupe). The Duval group claims 120 managed golf courses, in France and abroad. For a supplier, it is the only account of that size; Resonance Golf Collection and Gaïa Concept are much smaller. Independent golf courses are approached one by one. Afdas (the training and skills fund for the industry) cites 31% of golf courses in a chain or network (a 2019 figure, partner networks included); the 2018 EY study counted 16% in a chain, close to our figure of at least 14.9%.
Do not confuse these operating networks with partner cards: the Golfy network lists more than 180 partner golf courses in Europe, LeClub Golf more than 230 in France, including 51 UGolf golf courses (UGolf page, 2020). Outside the group's golf courses, these partners remain independent: they give discounts to cardholders, without changing owner.
The decision-makers have been in place a long time. Of the 801 current officers listed for the companies and associations of these golf courses, half are 64 or older, and 60.2% are 60 or older: expect leadership changes in the coming years.
Level 5. Where are the golf courses?#
Nouvelle-Aquitaine has the most golf courses (90), ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (86) and Île-de-France (75). Per capita, the map changes: Nouvelle-Aquitaine stays on top with 14.3 golf courses per million inhabitants, and Île-de-France drops to last among mainland regions with 6.0. But Île-de-France has more 18-hole golf courses than Nouvelle-Aquitaine: 54 of its 75 golf courses, against 51 of 90.
The best-served regions per inhabitant are often tourist regions (Atlantic coast, Normandie, Provence): a plausible explanation, but our data cannot confirm it. For a sales team, the top five regions together hold 57% of golf courses.
The thirteen regions: golf courses, share, density and format
| Region | Golf courses | Share | Per million inhabitants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 90 | 13.5% | 14.3 |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 86 | 13.0% | 10.4 |
| Île-de-France | 75 | 11.4% | 6.0 |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 64 | 9.7% | 12.1 |
| Occitanie | 62 | 9.3% | 9.9 |
| Hauts-de-France | 49 | 7.4% | 8.2 |
| Normandie | 45 | 6.8% | 13.3 |
| Grand Est | 41 | 6.3% | 7.5 |
| Bretagne | 41 | 6.2% | 11.7 |
| Pays de la Loire | 33 | 4.9% | 8.2 |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 32 | 4.9% | 11.5 |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 31 | 4.7% | 12.0 |
| Corse | 5 | 0.7% | 13.1 |
| Overseas départements (French county-level administrative areas) | 7 | 1.1% | |
| Total | 662 | 100.0% | 9.6 |
| Region | 18 holes | 9 holes | Compact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 51 | 30 | 9 |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 48 | 28 | 11 |
| Île-de-France | 54 | 19 | 3 |
| Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur | 43 | 13 | 8 |
| Occitanie | 34 | 21 | 7 |
| Hauts-de-France | 34 | 11 | 4 |
| Normandie | 28 | 16 | 1 |
| Grand Est | 34 | 6 | 2 |
| Bretagne | 23 | 15 | 3 |
| Pays de la Loire | 24 | 8 | 1 |
| Bourgogne-Franche-Comté | 19 | 10 | 3 |
| Centre-Val de Loire | 21 | 9 | 2 |
| Corse | 1 | 2 | 2 |
Each cell is rounded to the nearest whole number: sums may differ by one golf course.
Level 6. An aging set of golf courses that has stopped growing#
More than half of the golf courses with a known date (55.3%) opened between 1985 and 1994. Only 1 in 11 (8.8%) has opened since 2005. Golf courses opened between 1985 and 1994 are therefore between 32 and 41 years old.
Golf courses by opening date
| Opened | Golf courses |
|---|---|
| Before 1975 | 94 |
| 1975 to 1984 | 35 |
| 1985 to 1994 | 305 |
| 1995 to 2004 | 70 |
| Since 2005 | 48 |
| Date not declared | 47 |
| Missing from the census (date not declared) | 62 |
| Total | 662 (rounding included) |
The market also moves through closures. Of 92 census facilities checked one by one, 7 had closed, like the Amnéville golf course, closed since March 2024. A closed golf course can also come back: the Côte d'Albâtre golf course, closed on May 31, 2025, reopened under another name on May 8, 2026, with a new owner.
How do you use these figures for a market study?#
Size an addressable market#
Start from the format your offer serves. An offer for large courses (mowing, irrigation, golf carts) targets the 608 golf courses with 9 holes or more; its core target is the 278 company-run golf courses with 18 holes. Products for beginners or golf schools also target compact courses. Booking software targets commercial and association golf courses, including those run in-house by the town. The local addressable market calculator starts from this kind of denominator.
Build a sales segmentation#
Combine three axes: the format (18, 9, compact), the operator (company, association, municipality) and the chain (Duval group, Resonance, Gaïa Concept, Barrière, or none). An independent 18-hole course run by a company does not buy like an association-run 9-hole course or a municipal golf course.
Adapt a regional strategy#
Five regions hold 57% of golf courses. But per capita, density is highest in Nouvelle-Aquitaine (14.3 golf courses per million inhabitants), in Normandie (13.3) and in Corse (13.1), and Île-de-France has the most 18-hole golf courses (54).
Follow a living market#
A golf course can close, change operator or move from in-house management by the town to a concession contract. Concession contracts expire: that is when a new operator, and its suppliers, come in.
Selling to golf courses in France? Get the list for your area and your target, ready to call.
Get the full listHow do you build a prospect list of golf courses?#
A useful prospect list does not start from the 3,000 “golf” listings in directories: they include mini-golfs, teachers and associations without a course. It starts from real golf courses, then adds the columns that decide the approach: the format, the operator, the landowner, the network.
Golf courses are easy to reach by phone. Of the 778 locations examined, 82.8% show a phone number and 82.1% a website, but only 37.0% an email address; 36.0% offer online tee-time booking. For the Duval group, go through the headquarters. For a municipal golf course, check the town's procurement calendar. For the others, call the front desk and ask for the right person: the manager for a services contract, the course superintendent (the grounds manager) for maintenance and irrigation, the president for an association.
Redo the count in your département (French county-level administrative area). Open the census of sports facilities (data.gouv.fr), filter the category “Parcours de golf” (golf courses) and your département; group the courses of the same golf course (ten golf courses are declared there twice), then check each location, on its website or in the ffgolf golf course guide: in our check, 48 of 50 18-hole facilities and 24 of 29 9-hole facilities were open golf courses, but only 5 of 13 beginner courses. Add the golf courses that the ffgolf guide lists and the census misses. The table below gives our count, département by département.
The number of golf courses, département by département
| Département | Name | Golf courses |
|---|---|---|
| 78 | Yvelines | 25 |
| 06 | Alpes-Maritimes | 19 |
| 83 | Var | 18 |
| 33 | Gironde | 16 |
| 01 | Ain | 15 |
| 13 | Bouches-du-Rhône | 15 |
| 74 | Haute-Savoie | 15 |
| 91 | Essonne | 15 |
| 59 | Nord | 14 |
| 77 | Seine-et-Marne | 14 |
| 14 | Calvados | 13 |
| 24 | Dordogne | 13 |
| 44 | Loire-Atlantique | 13 |
| 95 | Val-d'Oise | 13 |
| 31 | Haute-Garonne | 12 |
| 62 | Pas-de-Calais | 12 |
| 64 | Pyrénées-Atlantiques | 12 |
| 76 | Seine-Maritime | 12 |
| 38 | Isère | 11 |
| 56 | Morbihan | 11 |
| 60 | Oise | 11 |
| 22 | Côtes-d'Armor | 10 |
| 35 | Ille-et-Vilaine | 10 |
| 57 | Moselle | 10 |
| 17 | Charente-Maritime | 9 |
| 29 | Finistère | 9 |
| 40 | Landes | 9 |
| 26 | Drôme | 8 |
| 34 | Hérault | 8 |
| 45 | Loiret | 8 |
| 49 | Maine-et-Loire | 8 |
| 68 | Haut-Rhin | 8 |
| 02 | Aisne | 7 |
| 16 | Charente | 7 |
| 21 | Côte-d'Or | 7 |
| 27 | Eure | 7 |
| 50 | Manche | 7 |
| 73 | Savoie | 7 |
| 89 | Yonne | 7 |
| 03 | Allier | 6 |
| 32 | Gers | 6 |
| 37 | Indre-et-Loire | 6 |
| 47 | Lot-et-Garonne | 6 |
| 71 | Saône-et-Loire | 6 |
| 80 | Somme | 6 |
| 84 | Vaucluse | 6 |
| 85 | Vendée | 6 |
| 18 | Cher | 5 |
| 19 | Corrèze | 5 |
| 28 | Eure-et-Loir | 5 |
| 30 | Gard | 5 |
| 42 | Loire | 5 |
| 61 | Orne | 5 |
| 63 | Puy-de-Dôme | 5 |
| 65 | Hautes-Pyrénées | 5 |
| 67 | Bas-Rhin | 5 |
| 69 | Rhône | 5 |
| 79 | Deux-Sèvres | 5 |
| 81 | Tarn | 5 |
| 82 | Tarn-et-Garonne | 5 |
| 04 | Alpes-de-Haute-Provence | 4 |
| 15 | Cantal | 4 |
| 25 | Doubs | 4 |
| 39 | Jura | 4 |
| 41 | Loir-et-Cher | 4 |
| 43 | Haute-Loire | 4 |
| 48 | Lozère | 4 |
| 51 | Marne | 4 |
| 54 | Meurthe-et-Moselle | 4 |
| 66 | Pyrénées-Orientales | 4 |
| 72 | Sarthe | 4 |
| 86 | Vienne | 4 |
| 05 | Hautes-Alpes | 3 |
| 10 | Aube | 3 |
| 12 | Aveyron | 3 |
| 2B | Haute-Corse | 3 |
| 36 | Indre | 3 |
| 46 | Lot | 3 |
| 87 | Haute-Vienne | 3 |
| 88 | Vosges | 3 |
| 92 | Hauts-de-Seine | 3 |
| 94 | Val-de-Marne | 3 |
| 974 | La Réunion | 3 |
| 07 | Ardèche | 2 |
| 08 | Ardennes | 2 |
| 11 | Aude | 2 |
| 2A | Corse-du-Sud | 2 |
| 52 | Haute-Marne | 2 |
| 53 | Mayenne | 2 |
| 55 | Meuse | 2 |
| 58 | Nièvre | 2 |
| 93 | Seine-Saint-Denis | 2 |
| 971 | Guadeloupe | 2 |
| 09 | Ariège | 1 |
| 23 | Creuse | 1 |
| 70 | Haute-Saône | 1 |
| 75 | Paris | 1 |
| 90 | Territoire de Belfort | 1 |
| 972 | Martinique | 1 |
| 973 | Guyane | 1 |
| 976 | Mayotte | 1 |
| Total | 667 |
Golf courses in operation in November 2026 (Scalon estimate): each census facility counts for the share of active golf courses in its category, each golf course missing from the census counts for one. Each département is rounded to the nearest whole number: the sum of the rows exceeds the total of 662 by a few golf courses.
What revenue does a golf course make?#
Half of the operating companies whose 2024 or 2025 accounts are published make more than €1.51 million in revenue (96 companies). In the annual survey of the Groupement des entrepreneurs de golf français (GEGF, the French golf operators' association), half of the 140 responding golf courses exceed €1.14 million in revenue per site in 2025, excluding VAT and food service (€1.31 million on average). Our higher figure covers only companies with published accounts, food service included, and one company may operate several golf courses.
At the level of the sector, the economic study carried out in 2018 for the industry put the French golf economy at €1.5 billion in revenue in 2017, half of it from operating courses and driving ranges. These amounts describe the sector, not a typical golf course: a resort 18-hole course and a municipal compact course have nothing in common.
On headcount, of the 349 of the 778 locations examined whose operator declares a headcount range, 167 employ 10 to 49 people, 160 employ 1 to 9, 12 employ 50 or more and 10 have no employees.
Why does the number of golf courses vary from one source to another?#
The French sports ministry's census of sports facilities (Data ES), queried on November 6, 2026, counts 768 courses of 9 or 18 holes, in 621 distinct facilities: 444 18-hole courses and 324 9-hole courses. These are recorded facilities, not clubs: the Fédération française de golf (ffgolf) publishes license counts instead, and counts 606 golf courses of 9 holes and more in its 2025 key figures. What this census contains, and what it leaves out, is covered in our guide to the French sports facilities census.
A useful figure therefore has three parts: a number, what it counts and its date. Without the last two, two different totals cannot be compared.
Published figures range from 606 to 885. Almost all of them are accurate; they simply do not measure the same thing. Take a simple example: a 27-hole golf course counts as one golf course in this study, as one "structure" (the federation's term for an affiliated club or facility) at the federation, as two courses in the public census (an 18-hole and a 9-hole), and may appear three times in an online directory.
| Source | Published figure | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| ffgolf, key figures 2025 | 733 structures, including 606 golf courses of 9 holes and more | affiliated structures, driving ranges included |
| ffgolf, February 2026 | 669 affiliated clubs with a course | clubs with at least a compact course |
| Census of sports facilities, November 6, 2026 | 768 courses in 621 facilities | declared facilities, closed golf courses included |
| R&A (the world governing body of golf), 2025 | 885 courses | courses of 9 or 18 holes, not locations |
| Online golf directories, 2026 | 717 to “more than 770” | published listings, driving ranges and indoor golf included |
| Scalon Observatory, November 2026 | 662 golf courses, including 608 with 9 holes or more | estimate of locations in operation: census corrected by 100 locations checked |
Our count of golf courses with 9 holes or more (608) is close to the federation's (606), which counts only affiliated golf courses. The split differs: the GEGF's Panorama du golf en France (June 2023, federation data) gives 447 18-hole golf courses and 164 9-hole golf courses, where we find 417 and 190. Our formats come from the public census, which sometimes files an 18-hole golf course as a 9-hole (we saw it on one golf course in our sample): this may explain the gap, but our data cannot confirm it. The other gap concerns small golf courses: the federation counts 79 affiliated compact courses and pitch & putt, we count 54, our least precise figure: in the sample, 8 of 13 beginner courses were not, or no longer, golf courses (mini-golfs, practice areas), and this small number does not let us say whether the gap with the federation is real.
What the other sources say
- The federation reported 738 golf facilities in 2023 (reused by the Groupement des entrepreneurs de golf français), 734 golf courses in 2024 and 733 structures at the end of 2025: the number has stopped growing.
- Afdas, the industry's training and skills fund, splits golf structures in 2026 into 65% commercial, 27% association and 8% public. On the golf courses whose operator is declared, we find 64% companies, 23% associations and 13% local governments: the share of companies matches; our public share is higher. Afdas counts structures, driving ranges included.
- The R&A, which counts courses and not locations, ranks France among the top countries in Europe with 885 courses of 9 or 18 holes in 2025.
The public census, facility by facility: what needs correcting
Of 92 census facilities drawn at random and checked one by one, 77 are golf courses in operation, 7 are closed (including Amélie-les-Bains, whose golf course is cited as closed by the regional audit court (chambre régionale des comptes) in its June 2025 report), and 8 are not golf courses or cannot be found: mostly mini-golfs and beginner areas at leisure parks or campgrounds. The census is updated by those who file its entries: 670 of its 721 golf facilities carry a 2025 update, 51 a 2026 update.
Conversely, 62 very real golf courses are missing from the census; we found them through their public listings and checked on their website or the federation's golf course guide: 19 with 18 holes (Les Bordes, Grand Saint-Émilion, Vidauban, Maudétour…), 19 with 9 holes and 24 compact. Ten census facilities duplicate a neighbor (the same golf course declared twice).
Clubs, golf courses, golf networks in France: what each figure counts
Two different totals do not always contradict each other. They often count two different units:
- The club: a structure affiliated with the federation, with or without a course.
- The golf course: a course of 9 holes or more, a compact course or a pitch & putt. It is the unit of this study: one location, however many courses it has.
- The course: one golf course may bring together several courses. Counting individual courses gives a higher total than counting golf locations.
- The driving range: a swing practice area, not a golf course. Some counts include it, others do not.
- The network: an access card to partner courses or an operating group. It counts its members, not the country's courses.
- The chain and the independent golf course: a chain runs several golf courses under one brand or group (UGolf, Bluegreen, Resonance). An independent golf course belongs to no chain, franchise or group, even if its company runs a second golf course nearby.
- The directory: a guide to golf courses in France counts the listings it publishes, not the courses that are open.
Before reusing a figure, look for its unit. A number of clubs is not a number of courses.
Golf in France according to ffgolf: licenses and facility types#
The Fédération française de golf publishes a statistics file on its licenses every year. The edition for 2025 counts 446,547 licenses, against 442,536 in 2024. The difference, calculated on these two figures, is 4,011 licenses, or +0.9% in one year, a record according to the federation.
This data dates from 2025. A license is counted per person registered with the federation: it does not say how many courses host these players.
Nor does this file give any number of golf courses or clubs. We went through all 16 pages: the count is not there. It has to be found in another federation document, its 2025 key figures: 733 structures, including 606 golf courses of 9 holes and more, 79 compact courses and pitch & putt, and 48 driving ranges.
The federation's club structure types
The licenses file does, however, distinguish several types of club structure:
- “Golf de 9 trous ou plus” (golf course of nine holes or more): a real course, of nine holes at minimum;
- “Golf compact et Pitch & Putt” (compact golf course and Pitch & Putt): short courses, where pitch putt is played on short holes;
- “Club sans terrain” (club without a course): an affiliated club that operates no course.
The last category matters. A club can exist without a course. For the federation, a golf course has at least nine holes and more than 1,375 meters; a compact course or a pitch & putt has at least six, shorter ones.
Need the list of golf courses in France? We send it with the contact details available, for the scope you choose.
Get the full listHow many golf courses are in the Sirene register?#
Sirene, the business register kept by Insee, counts business locations. A location corresponds to a SIRET number (the French ID of a business location), the fourteen-digit number of a place of activity. It is neither a club, nor a course, nor a piece of land.
To find golf courses in Sirene, you start from the activity code (the NAF code, the French activity classification code). Insee cites “terrains de golf” (golf courses) among the examples of the subclass 93.11Z, gestion d'installations sportives (management of sports facilities). This code covers many other sports facilities: you then have to single out the golf courses.
Our figures show this: of the 602 locations examined for which we found at least one active SIRET, only 230 have one under 93.11Z, fewer than 4 in 10. This code counts 8,551 active locations in the register of September 24, 2026, stadiums, swimming pools, bowling alleys and racetracks included.
Two limits change the result:
- The NAF code, also called APE code, describes the declared main activity. It does not say whether the location has an 18-hole course, a compact course or a simple driving range.
- An operator may declare a code other than 93.11Z. A count limited to that single code risks missing some. Among these locations, 178 have the SIRET of a sports association (93.12Z, sports clubs), 48 that of a restaurant and 30 that of a hotel; when the golf course belongs to a municipality, the declared SIRET is often the town hall's.
A serious Sirene count therefore states its scope: the code or codes used, the filters applied, the unit (business location or company) and the date of the register. Here, the unit is the golf location, found in the registers and on the ground, then linked to its SIRET numbers, and not the other way around.
Frequently asked questions about golf courses in France#
How many 18-hole golf courses are there in France?#
About 417 golf courses have at least one 18-hole course in November 2026. The public census counts 444 18-hole courses (440 excluding the Pacific territories): one golf course can have two.
How many licensed golfers are there in France?#
ffgolf counts 446,547 licenses in 2025, a record according to the federation, against 442,536 in 2024.
Which region has the most golf courses?#
Nouvelle-Aquitaine, with about 90 golf courses, ahead of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (86) and Île-de-France (75). Per inhabitant, Nouvelle-Aquitaine stays on top and Île-de-France comes last in mainland France.
Do UGolf and Bluegreen belong to the same group?#
Yes. The Duval group, owner of UGolf, bought Bluegreen on July 1, 2022. We find 101 locations of the group in France, 62 under the UGolf brand and 39 under Bluegreen according to their public listings.
How many golf courses are public or municipal?#
77 golf courses are run directly by a municipality or another local government. But 204, nearly one in three, are built on publicly owned land, often entrusted to a company or an association.
Why do ffgolf, the public census and the directories give different figures?#
Because they do not count the same unit: affiliated structures (733, driving ranges included), courses (768 in the public census, 885 for the R&A), directory listings, or locations in operation (662 here).
Method
Method#
Unit of count#
The unit is the golf course: a location in operation that runs at least one course of 9 or 18 holes, or a compact course or a pitch & putt (at least six holes, ffgolf definitions). A golf course with several courses counts as one. A driving range alone, a mini-golf, a swin-golf or an indoor golf facility are not counted. Scope: mainland France and the overseas départements; the Pacific territories (5 facilities) are excluded.
Building the universe#
Three sources are cross-checked. The census of sports facilities (Data ES), family “Parcours de golf”, exported on November 6, 2026: 1,823 pieces of equipment in 851 facilities, of which 716 facilities with 18- or 9-hole courses or beginner courses were kept. The public business listings filed under golf (3,000 listings, read on November 6, 2026), classified one by one by Scalon with a classification model. Golf listings located more than 1.5 km from any census facility were grouped by location and matched by name; 81 candidates were checked on the web (the golf course's website, the ffgolf golf course guide), and 62 golf courses missing from the census were confirmed.
Checking and correcting the census#
A sample of 100 randomly drawn locations (seed 20261106) was checked twice, independently, on the public web, by Scalon with two different models (Claude Opus from Anthropic and GPT from OpenAI), then arbitrated. The two readings agree on status (active, closed, not a golf course) for 96 locations out of 100, and on format for 82 of the 85 active golf courses recognized by both. After arbitration, each one differs from the final verdict on 3 or 4 locations out of 100: for a single reading, at most one error in ten (95% bound); the final verdict crosses the two. Of the 92 census facilities checked, the share that is not, or no longer, a golf course (15 of 92) lies between one in ten and one in four, with 95% confidence. Result by stratum: 48 active golf courses out of 50 18-hole facilities, 24 out of 29 9-hole, 5 out of 13 beginner courses, 8 out of 8 golf courses missing from the census.
Estimating the total#
Total = sum, by stratum, of census facilities (duplicates removed: 404 with 18 holes, 204 with 9 holes, 98 beginner) multiplied by their measured share of active golf courses, plus the 62 golf courses missing from the census, plus the golf courses missing from both the census and the public listings, estimated at 5 from the coverage of the census's active golf courses by the public listings (71 out of 77). That gives 662 golf courses, with a 95% margin of plus or minus 41 golf courses due to the sampling (621 to 703). The title rounds to the nearest hundred (700), under the Observatory's rule. The breakdowns (format, operator, region, opening) apply to each facility the share of active golf courses of its stratum; they are scaled to the total of 662.
Chains, accounts and contacts#
Chains are counted on the 778 locations examined: a location is part of a chain when its public listings show the brand or website of a group that runs several golf courses (UGolf and its brands, Bluegreen, Barrière, Resonance Golf Collection, Gaïa Concept); the others are independent. Locations that only share a company (same SIREN number, the French company ID) or a website are noted separately. Revenue is that of the operating companies (published accounts closed in 2024 or 2025, non-zero revenue, 96 companies, each SIREN counted once). Contacts are those of the public listings and websites. Activity codes and headcounts come from Insee's Sirene stock of September 24, 2026, read locally.
Limits#
The public census is not up to date everywhere: recent closures may still appear in it, which the stratum correction takes into account on average, not golf course by golf course. The share of real golf courses among beginner courses rests on 13 locations checked: the number of compact courses (54) is the least precise figure of the study. The operator of the 62 golf courses missing from the census is not declared. Chains are counted on the locations examined, before correction, and only when a public listing shows them: 116 is a minimum. The margin counts only the sampling: the estimate of golf courses missing from all sources (5, from 2 to 12) and the search for golf courses missing from the census, which discards listings within 1.5 km of a declared facility, may add a few golf courses.
Key takeaways#
France has about 660 golf courses in operation in November 2026, nearly 700 rounded: 608 with 9 holes or more (606 for the federation) and 54 compact courses. More than half are run by a company, one in five by an association, more than one in ten by a municipality; nearly one in three sits on land that belongs to a local government. The Duval group (UGolf and Bluegreen) holds about a hundred golf courses, roughly one in eight; with Resonance, Gaïa Concept and Barrière, at least 116 of the 778 locations examined (14.9%) belong to a chain. Among the 552 golf courses with a known opening date, 55.3% date from 1985 to 1994.
When making a decision, the order of priority stays the same: choose the right format, identify who operates and who owns the land, separate the Duval group, the other chains and independent golf courses, then compare regions.