By Horace Gore
It’s a fact: More Americans play golf than hunt. In Texas, we often laugh at the notion of golf being more popular than hunting. After all, Texas is known as a hunting state. But a recent review of the two sports, and the fact that 90% of Texans live inside city limits, shows golf dominates over hunting by a wide margin.
On a national level, there are 11.4 million hunters and 25.6 million golfers. In 2022, 40 million golfers were worth $102 billion to the economy. At the same time, deer hunters were worth $21 billion, but all activities using firearms accounted for $149 billion.
Golf, deer hunting aren’t cheap
The national average for a harvested deer is $1,250, while the Texas average is $3,900 per deer. However, the high Texas price tag comes for the best deer hunting in America. Private ownership of Texas deer habitat makes for the best in hunt quality, safety, equipment security, and enjoyment. By the way—have you priced a round of golf lately?
In many ways, hunters and golfers experience the same thing—the challenge. Golfers want to break par, and hunters want the bag limit. The challenge takes both back to tee off or go to the field with rifle or shotgun. If the golfer has a good score for 18 holes, or the hunter gets a buck or a limit of doves, the challenge has been met.
Hunting license purchases in Texas
Dove and deer comprise the majority of license-buying Texans, adding up to 1.2 million hunting license sold to 800,000 deer hunters. This sounds like a lot of hunters, but Texas has some 22 million license-age residents. When you check the figures, only 6% of Texans buy a license, and only 4% deer hunt. Dove hunters add up to some 400,000 (2%), followed by small game, waterfowl, and varmint hunting.
With 27 million Texans living in town, and 3 million living rurally, it’s no wonder city-folks look more to golf as an outdoor sport as opposed to hunting. Most city dwellers have little contact with rural people, where hunting takes place. And, there’s usually a golf course nearby, making it much easier to play golf than to find a place to hunt—especially to deer hunt.
If Texas follows the national trend, we have about twice as many golfers as hunters, and the game of golf is gaining every year. As a rule, young people follow their parents or close friends in choosing outdoor sports. Since fewer adults hunt, it follows that their children will choose some other outdoor sport—and golf waits a short distance away.
Don’t get me wrong—there is nothing wrong with golf. I’ve tried to be a golfer myself. But for some reason, I have always preferred the smell of gun powder to hitting a little ball with a big club, and wondering where the ball went.
