Merry Christmas! TriadGolf’s short wish list for 2026

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Triad Golf Magazine and TriadGolf.com!

It was a great year for golf in Triad. And we hope 2026 will be even better!

As we throw away gift wrap debris and take down the tree, here’s our short wish list for 2026:

1. Stabilization of Costs and Prices.

It’s become significantly more expensive to play golf since the Covid-19 epidemic. Demand is up and the number of golf seems to shrink every year. Anecdotally, I’d estimate public rates are up 30 to 50%.

But I don’t blame the golf course owners. After all, you don’t see anybody building any new public courses. There’s a lot more money is other types of development.

 Costs are a major factor. According to organizations, including the National Golf Foundation, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and the USGA, the price of fertilizers has gone up as much as 50% (some owners estimate more). Labor is also more expensive and harder to find.  

There are two good reasons for optimism, though. Oil prices and inflation – driving factors in the recent price increases – are falling. Don’t expect golf fees to drop. But is very possible they will stabilize.

• No Winter Kill or Excessive Rain.

As much as most of us long for warmer temperatures, let’s have no stretches of unseasonably warm temperatures early in the year that might cause Bermuda to come back prematurely, followed by frost. The effects of winter kill can mar most of the year for many golf courses.

Courses need rain, but not at a volume that causes damage (flooding) or keeps players off the course. Nobody likes carts path only, either.  

• Save Goodyear and Boone.

We survived 2025 without any course closings. Let’s hope golf’s momentum continues in 2026. More good news: several courses – public and private – invested in improvements. But there are a few trouble spots to monitor. 

Goodyear Golf Club, perhaps only a long par-5 away from the North Carolina border near Danville was put on the market late in the year. A very good public course, Goodyear would seem to be a no-brainer for purchase by Caesars Virginia. Let’s hope that happens.

Boone Golf Club, a popular course for Triad golfers visiting the High Country, is in danger. Owners of the outstanding course, the only one within 30 minutes of Boone and Blowing Rock, have announced plans to build housing over at least nine holes of the Ellis Maples design. Though the value of the land has been estimated at as much as $17 million, the city of Boone and/or Appalachian State University would benefit by buying it and keeping it open.