Golf tourism in Italy after the Ryder Cup: one event measured, the market never counted

What the €262 million measures, and what it leaves out

The Sheffield Hallam study follows the same eventIMPACTS approach used for the 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland and the 2018 edition in France. According to the Ryder Cup Europe release, it estimated direct impact at three levels, for Rome, Lazio and Italy, and then added wider supported activity. It counted spending by spectators and other attendees, spending by organisers and indirect and induced effects. The €262 million is the Italy-level total.

Only two parts of that total are published with a value. Spectators staying in paid accommodation in Rome generated more than 318,000 commercial bed-nights, worth €34 million to the city's accommodation sector. Spectators spent another €72 million on items other than accommodation. Together those two lines come to €106 million, about 40% of the headline figure. That share is our calculation. The release does not break down the remaining €156 million between organiser spending, other attendee spending and the indirect and induced effects. The full report was not available to us, and neither release names who commissioned it. The sports minister, Andrea Abodi, said at the presentation that the data were presented by Ryder Cup Europe and the federation.

The bed-night figure gives a rough sense of price. €34 million across 318,000 bed-nights works out at about €107 per bed-night. The study says bed-nights were "in excess of" 318,000, so the true average was at or below that level. This is our calculation, it covers Rome only, and it mixes every category of paid accommodation that spectators used.

Two survey findings are often read as evidence of a lasting effect. About 19% of event-specific visitors to Rome extended their trip before or after the event. Almost two-thirds of international spectators said they wanted to return to Italy for leisure within the next year. The first describes behaviour during the trip. The second is a stated intention, recorded at or around the event. No published study has followed those spectators up to see whether they came back, and nothing in the release says they would come back to play golf.

The €262 million is also not the largest number in circulation. Before the event, a KPMG estimate, dated 2016 by Il Sole 24 Ore and reported by Calcio e Finanza on 9 February 2017, put the value of the whole 2016–2027 project at €513.4 million, split into €277.4 million of direct and €236 million of indirect impact. That was a forecast for a twelve-year programme of events, made before any of it happened. During the 2023 week, Panorama published its own sum of "about €700 million" on 2 October 2023, built from early hotel estimates, government investment and expected visitor spending. Il Sole 24 Ore repeated "around €700 million" of "overall turnover" on 23 June 2024 without naming who estimated it. Neither of those figures uses a published method. The forecast, the newspaper totals and the ex-post study measure different things, and only the study can be checked against a stated approach.

The costs side is reported mainly through federation statements. Il Sole 24 Ore reported on 23 June 2024 that spending came to €138 million against a bid budget of €159 million, with an overall project cost of about €160 million over 2016–2027. It also reported a €60 million government loan and a €97 million state surety that was not called. These are figures given by the federation and its then president, Franco Chimenti. We found no audited account of them. They do show that the €262 million of activity and the roughly €160 million of project cost are different kinds of number. One estimates spending that flowed through the economy. The other is what the project cost to run. Subtracting one from the other would not produce a return.

Rome's hotel figures from the week also circulate widely. Panorama quoted Federalberghi Roma on 70,000 rooms booked and hotel revenue up about 20%. It quoted the city's sport councillor, Alessandro Onorato, on bookings up 15% and 94% occupancy in four- and five-star hotels, citing the Ente Bilaterale del Turismo. These were early figures given to the press during the event, and we found no published dataset behind them. Il Sole 24 Ore later reported 3.3 million arrivals in Lazio in September and October 2023, up 25% on the same period of 2022, from the same bilateral body. That figure covers every visitor to the region over two months. It cannot be attributed to the Ryder Cup, and still less to golf. For the wider picture of the city's visitor numbers, see our Rome tourism statistics.

Ten years of flat membership, and a course count that depends on the unit

If the Ryder Cup had changed Italian golf, membership would be the first place to look. The federation's figures are the most consistent series available, and they show little movement. The Italian Golf Federation had 94,090 affiliated golfers at 31 December 2024, according to its own January 2025 context document for the Open d'Italia. The same total appears in the federation's profile on the European Golf Association site, submitted in 2025: 64,611 men, 20,235 women and 9,244 juniors. The three groups add up to the total. Women make up about 21.5% of members, by our calculation.

The earlier series comes from a report Protiviti produced with the federation in October 2015. It records 96,022 members in 2009, 100,317 in 2010, 100,548 in 2011, a peak of 101,817 in 2012, then 98,824 in 2013 and 93,129 in 2014. Set against that, the end-2024 total is about 1% above 2014 and about 7.6% below the 2012 peak. Both changes are our calculations. Juniors numbered 9,558 at the end of 2014 and 9,244 in the 2025 profile.

Figures in between come from the press, and some lack a data year. AGI reported 87,662 members on 2 August 2022, citing the federation, without a data year. ItaliaOggi wrote "just over 90,000" on 18 May 2022, also without a data year. The Guardian, on 28 September 2023, quoted 94,046 registered golfers and 368 courses from the federation's bid to host the event, without a date for the count. None of these figures can be tied to the Ryder Cup. An opinion column in Sport Senators on 27 December 2023 put the peak at 101,817 in 2011. The federation's own series in the Protiviti report puts that number in 2012.

Membership growth was part of the project's financial case. Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the federation's plan expected €56 million from more members, sponsors, suppliers and television rights. The current president, Cristiano Cerchiai, was elected on 3 February 2025 with 1,719 of 2,648 votes, after Chimenti's death in October 2024. Italpress reported that he expected membership to be rising by the end of his term. That is a target, and the end-2025 count was not available when we checked.

For scale, Spain's federation recorded 317,155 licences at 31 December 2025, up from 305,603 at the start of that year. That is about 3.4 times Italy's latest total, by our calculation, though the dates differ by a year and the federations define membership in their own ways.

Course counts are less settled than membership because sources count different things. The federation's 2025 profile for the European Golf Association lists 271 courses: 128 public 18-hole courses, 88 public 9-hole courses and 54 other courses. Those three lines add up to 270, one short of the stated total. It also lists 95 stand-alone driving ranges and 30 short courses. The federation's January 2025 document instead counts clubs: 221 affiliated clubs with more than nine holes and 134 aggregated sites, made up of 94 driving ranges, two indoor ranges and 38 promotional facilities. That is 355 structures. The EY study for Assolombarda cites 356 clubs for 2024.

Older counts line up with these once the unit is clear. KPMG counted 278 courses in September 2012. Protiviti and the federation counted 279 courses and 416 structures for 2014. The figures that do not fit are the ones without a stated unit. ItaliaOggi wrote of 398 courses in May 2022 without a source. AGI wrote of 370 facilities in August 2022. The Guardian's 368 courses in September 2023 were quoted from the federation's bid. On the stated-unit figures, Italy has had roughly 270 to 280 playing courses for more than a decade. The number of affiliated and aggregated sites has fallen from 416 in 2014 to 355 in January 2025. Neither series shows a building wave after the Ryder Cup.

No published count of the foreign golfer

The most useful number for a golf tourism market is the number of visiting golfers, followed by their rounds and their spending. We found no national publication of any of the three. We checked the federation's 2026 affiliation circular and its January 2025 context document. They contain member and club counts and no figures on foreign players or green fees. We checked the Bank of Italy's international tourism survey, which is the official source for foreign visitor spending. Its 2025 release, published on 26 June 2026, reports that foreign travellers' spending rose 4.6% in nominal terms, with nearly two-thirds of the growth from Jubilee visitors. Its published pages show no golf or sport category. A 2019 Bank of Italy paper on foreign holidaymakers groups trips into products such as cultural, seaside and rural holidays. We did not inspect the survey microdata, so a golf variable could exist there unpublished. ENIT has published sports-event tourism figures, reported by Quality Travel on 14 May 2025, without a golf breakdown.

The last national estimate of foreign golf tourists is old. KPMG's Golf Advisory practice estimated, in a report covered by Golf Business News on 18 September 2012, that Italy had 50,000 to 60,000 foreign golf tourists, using 2010 data from the National Tourism Observatory. The same report said tourists played 25% of rounds in 2011, based on a survey of facilities, and modelled a latent demand of up to 190,000 golf tourists from Italy's main source markets. The latent figure is a model of what might be possible. It is not a count. We found no public body that has updated the 2010 estimate.

Into that gap have gone claims with no method attached. Golf Business News reported on 10 November 2017 that international green fees booked in Italy had risen 40% in three years and that rounds by international golfers had grown by 200,000 between 2014 and 2017. The article named no company or dataset and appeared in the context of a promotional campaign. ItaliaOggi reported on 18 May 2022 that golf tourists spend three times as much per head as other tourists and that only about 15% of their spending goes to the course. It cited no study. Both claims are still repeated.

One region has tried to measure the market. In March 2026 Assolombarda published a study by EY on the golf economy of Lombardy, with fieldwork in October and November 2025. It values golf in the region at €165–185 million a year. Club revenues account for €59–62 million, golf tourism for €103–118 million and equipment for €3–5 million. The components add up to the range. Editions of the Open d'Italia held in Lombardy are estimated separately at €8–9 million.

The tourism estimate rests partly on modelled inputs, and the study says so. The study says about 160,000 green fees were paid by international tourists at Lombard clubs in 2023, without naming the underlying dataset, and rolls the figure forward to 2025 at 2% a year. The study puts foreign golfers' spending at €300–500 a day, which it describes as 120% more than a traditional tourist, and gives typical stays of four to seven days. Those spending figures come from interviews with clubs, and the report does not give the baseline for a traditional tourist. It states that, because externally verifiable primary data are limited, many estimates are ranges built from secondary sources.

Lombardy is a large part of Italian golf by any measure. The study cites 27,225 federation members there in 2024, about 29% of the national total, and 66 clubs, falling to 65 in 2025. Assolombarda's release names Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Nordic countries as target markets, and says clubs in the lake areas, in particular the provinces of Como, Brescia, Lecco and Varese, record the highest average revenues. Those are the same areas that draw most of the region's leisure visitors, which our Lake Como and Lake Garda visitor statistics cover.

The Lombardy study cannot stand in for Italy. Its scope is one region. Its method is new. It has no earlier estimate on the same basis, so it cannot show growth since 2023. The report cites an earlier Regione Lombardia study, which it dates to 2015, that put golf tourism in the region at €70 million. The two were built in different ways, so the gap between €70 million and €103–118 million is not a growth rate. The EY report also estimates Italy's share of European golf tourism at 7%, with a third of that in Lombardy. That estimate comes from secondary market studies, not from counts of visitors.

Testing the legacy claims

The claim that the Ryder Cup started a lasting golf tourism boom in Italy cannot be confirmed or rejected with published data. The event's own effect during the week is measured. The years after are not. Federation membership is about where it was in 2014. Course numbers on a consistent unit have not risen. The only measured regional estimate has no earlier comparison on the same method. Any statement that golf tourism has grown since 2023 is therefore an assertion, whoever makes it.

Several figures that circulate with the legacy story fail on inspection. The audience figure of more than 620 million television viewers in 190 countries was given by the then federation president, Franco Chimenti, as quoted by Il Sole 24 Ore on 23 June 2024. Assolombarda repeated it as context in its release of 9 March 2026. We found no published audit of it. Attendance itself is sometimes misread. The 271,000 figure covers a week of practice and competition days. It likely counts admissions on each day, so the number of distinct people was smaller.

Some claims are accurate figures attached to the wrong question. The Lazio arrivals figure for September and October 2023 is real data from a named body. It measures all visitors to a region over two months, a period that also included the normal autumn season. The SIRC finding that almost two-thirds of foreign spectators wanted to return is also real. It is an intention, and we found no published check on whether it turned into trips. Neither figure is evidence of a lasting golf effect.

The comparison with other events is also less helpful than it looks. Paris 2018 generated €235 million by the same research team's method, so the €262 million for Rome is a like-for-like rise on that basis. That comparison says the 2023 week generated more activity than the 2018 week. It says nothing about golf travel to either country afterwards. The Scottish edition of 2014, also studied by Sheffield Hallam, was followed by a one-year legacy summary on the Ryder Cup website covering participation and bursaries in Scotland. We found no equivalent published report on Italy.

Opinion has filled the gap from both sides. A Fortune Italia column by Donato Ala on 5 September 2025 argued that the event lacked a long-term strategy and that Italy has no national portal for foreign golfers. Those are the author's assessments, and they are not data. Official statements that the event was a success rest on the same single study. Neither side can show what happened to foreign golf visits, because we found no numbers that measure them.

What this means for travelers, businesses and analysts

Travelers planning a golf trip should treat the Ryder Cup as history rather than as a guide to current conditions. Italy has about 271 courses, concentrated in the north. The federation's January 2025 document splits its affiliated base 66% north, 23% centre and 11% south, without naming the unit. Lombardy has the most federation members and clubs, ahead of Piedmont, Veneto and Lazio, according to the EY-Assolombarda study. Our Lake Como travel guide and Lake Garda travel guide cover the bases near the largest cluster of clubs. Marco Simone, the 2023 venue, is east of Rome; the Rome travel guide covers the city itself. No national figure we found shows whether Italian courses have become busier with visitors since 2023, so tee-time availability and green fees are best checked with each club.

Tourism businesses and investors should not build a forecast on a national golf tourism figure, because we found none published. The €262 million is an event estimate that includes organiser spending and modelled indirect effects. The 50,000 to 60,000 foreign golf tourists figure uses 2010 data. The Lombardy study is the most detailed recent source, but it is regional, partly modelled and openly limited by the lack of primary data. A business case can use the published pieces with their limits stated: about 160,000 international green fees in Lombardy in 2023, €300–500 a day from club interviews, stays of four to seven days and a domestic base of about 94,000 members that has not grown in a decade. Air access matters for any foreign-market plan, and our Rome Fiumicino passenger figures show the capacity at Italy's main long-haul gateway.

Journalists and analysts can cite the figures in the box above with their sources and scope stated. The following should not be repeated as fact: a Ryder Cup value of €700 million; golf tourists spending "three times" other tourists; 15% of golf spend going to courses; a 40% rise in international green fees or 200,000 extra rounds between 2014 and 2017; 398 golf courses; and any statement that golf tourism in Italy has grown since the Ryder Cup. None of these has a published method behind it.