How many courses?

[Mark_Rowlinson]

How many golf courses are there worldwide?

The only piece of information I can add is that there are around 3,000 in the British Isles.

[Brian_Gracely]

According to Golfweek, there are ~ 17,000 in the US.  

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Brian, thanks - we're up to 20,000 already.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Mark,

Adding up the numbers in parentheses next to each country on this list should give a good idea:

link to number of courses in each country around the world

There are probably a few countries left off the list, but it wouldn't add any significant amount.  The only thing is how the numbers are determined.  Is the # besides each country the # of courses or clubs, because the 16000 listed for the U.S. differs from Golfweek's estimate of 17000.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Scott,  That's very helpful.  For my purposes it doesn't have to be 100% accurate, so this is near enough.  Interesting to see that there are 55 courses or clubs in Iceland - it looks terrific there, utterly natural, just like the 19th-century.