Which City in the UK Loves Golf the Most?
Your Golf Marketing were commissioned by The Social Golfer to find out in which city golf is the most popular in the UK.
Golf has been in the news a lot recently. Whether it be because of the professional game with LIV Golf and the PGA Tour falling out and making up. The recent success of The Solheim Cup and Ryder Cup. Or, the increased level of participation in the sport, post-covid in the amateur game. The Social Golfer team wanted to know in which city ‘Golf’ was most popular.
Popular Golf Regions in the UK
There are many popular regions in the UK for people to go play golf. For example, a trip to Southport and England’s Golf Coast. Travel slightly further north-east and you’ll be in East Lothian on Scotland’s Golf Coast.
Head slightly further north and you’ll be at St Andrews, The Home of Golf. Alternatively, if you were to travel to south-east England, you can enjoy the Surrey heathland courses.
However, because these are popular golf courses to play, does that make the cities nearby them golf lovers? Alternatively, do you have to play golf to be a golf lover, or can you just watch golf?
Where Golf is Searched for the Most in the UK
In this study, we identify which cities in the UK on average search for golf the most.
Firstly, we selected the largest top 50 cities in the UK by population. Secondly, from the population of those top 50 cities, we researched the number of Google searches completed per month.
Finally, from these searches, we then extracted the number of people looking for ‘Golf’. Using all of this information, we were able to identify which UK city is the biggest golf lover and searches for ‘Golf’ the most.
Only one city in Scotland featured in the Top 10, with the other nine cities coming from England.
Golf is the ‘Most Searched term’ in Manchester
The most overwhelmingly popular golf city, as per our study, is Manchester. For every 1k searches on Google in Manchester, 136.53 of them are for golf. Bristol comes second (44.11), closely followed by the capital cities of England (London – 43.80) and Scotland (Edinburgh – 43.60)
Newcastle (37.43), Bournemouth (36.06), Leeds (35.16) and Peterborough (34.25) make up the next four places. Liverpool (34.12) and Bolton (33.96) complete the top 10 most popular golf cities in the UK.
Here is the list full list of cities which love golf the most:
| City | No. of Searches for “Golf” Per 1,000 | |
| 1 | Manchester | 136.53 |
| 2 | Bristol | 44.11 |
| 3 | London | 43.80 |
| 4 | Edinburgh | 43.60 |
| 5 | Newcastle upon Tyne | 37.43 |
| 6 | Bournemouth | 36.06 |
| 7 | Leeds | 35.16 |
| 8 | Peterborough | 34.25 |
| 9 | Liverpool | 34.12 |
| 10 | Bolton | 33.96 |
| 11 | York | 33.29 |
| 12 | Aberdeen | 32.10 |
| 13 | Milton Keynes | 31.98 |
| 14 | Glasgow | 31.13 |
| 15 | Belfast | 29.84 |
| 16 | Birmingham | 29.46 |
| 17 | Sheffield | 29.08 |
| 18 | Brighton | 28.06 |
| 19 | Norwich | 27.02 |
| 20 | Huddersfield | 26.17 |
| 21 | Swindon | 25.09 |
| 22 | Reading | 24.17 |
| 23 | Nottingham | 23.92 |
| 24 | Cardiff | 23.83 |
| 25 | Stockport | 23.01 |
| 26 | Swansea | 22.82 |
| 27 | Leicester | 21.22 |
| 28 | Dundee | 21.11 |
| 29 | Oxford | 20.70 |
| 30 | Preston | 20.45 |
| 31 | Portsmouth | 20.09 |
| 32 | Northampton | 19.76 |
| 33 | Bradford | 19.71 |
| 34 | Southend-on-Sea | 19.59 |
| 35 | Plymouth | 19.41 |
| 36 | Coventry | 19.14 |
| 37 | Walsall | 18.59 |
| 38 | Ipswich | 18.08 |
| 39 | Sunderland | 17.98 |
| 40 | Derby | 16.59 |
| 41 | Southampton | 15.84 |
| 42 | Wolverhampton | 15.43 |
| 43 | Luton | 14.97 |
| 44 | Middlesbrough | 14.72 |
| 45 | Blackpool | 14.67 |
| 46 | Sutton | 13.86 |
| 47 | Dudley | 13.06 |
| 48 | Poole | 11.33 |
| 49 | Hull | 10.59 |
| 50 | Stoke-on-Trent | 9.98 |