Your golf club’s superintendent may be making more money than you are. The average head superintendent in the United States earned $82,573 last year, according to a study by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, while the average “certified” superintendent now takes home $98,187.
Yes, the number of rounds played on U.S. golf courses got a nice, 5.7 percent bump last year. Nonetheless, our nation’s average 18-hole golf course saw just 32,000 rounds in 2012, which the National Golf Foundation says is 20 percent less than it got in the late 1980s.
Data compiled by the Employee Benefits Research Institute indicates that 57 percent of U.S. workers have socked away less than $25,000 for their retirement. (The amount doesn’t include the value of their houses, which may no longer be worth much either.) This number is so low it’s hard to believe. So if you’ve ever wondered why Baby Boomers don’t play as much golf as their forebears in previous generations, maybe it’s because they can’t afford to.