The National Golf Foundation and Players 1st are pleased to recognize 31 daily fee and municipal golf facilities that earned 2026 GolfersVoice Awards based on the outstanding customer satisfaction and loyalty scores received from their customers.
GolfersVoice is a customer experience platform used by golf facilities to collect survey feedback from golfers and evaluate the associated data against benchmarks of similarly priced properties. The 2026 awards celebrate public facilities with the highest customer-supplied scores on four key categories: Loyalty/Net Promoter Score, Course Conditions, Food & Beverage and Staff/Customer Service. Each award category is segmented by two different price points for equitable peer evaluations.
“Traditional Top 100 rankings have their place, but golf facilities deserve a ranking and recognition podium for delivering exceptional customer experiences as well,” said NGF President and CEO Greg Nathan. “Many courses were operating at near capacity levels in 2025 and still delivered an experience that prompted their golfers to voice their satisfaction and loyalty at the highest levels.”
Exemplifying the national reach of the 2026 GolfersVoice Awards, single category winners included Heritage Shores Golf Course (DE), The Jewel Golf Club (MN), Desert Willow Golf Resort (CA), and The Club at Sunrise (NV). Sand Creek Station (KS) and Skyway Golf Course at Lincoln Park West (NJ) have the distinguished honor of winning two categories in the 2026 awards.
25 other clubs earned Top 5 or Honorable Mention awards – see complete list below:
Notably, 17 of the 31 golf facilities earning 2026 awards list did not receive such recognition last year. These outstanding newcomers are Atkins Golf Club, Blackhawk Golf Course, Boughton Ridge, Colonial Park Golf Course, Cypress Head, Deerpath Golf Course, Heritage Shores Golf Course, Johnson Park Golf Course, New Albany Links, New Berlin Hills, Old Tappan Golf Course, Riverside Golf Course, Shady Rest Golf and Country Club, Skyway Golf Course at Lincoln Park West, The Club at Sunrise, Towhee Club and Wild Dunes Resort. Leading management companies like Destination by Hyatt, KemperSports, PGA TOUR Golf Course Properties and Troon Golf were often represented amongst the field of 2026 winners.
“Being recognized by the National Golf Foundation as a new and multi-category winner for 2026 is a tremendous honor,” said Jim Buyze, General Manager at Atkins Golf Club at the University of Illinois in Urbana. “This award highlights the commitment and passion our team brings to every aspect of the golf experience. Atkins Golf Club is built around delivering memorable experiences, and this recognition affirms our focus on exceptional service, outstanding course conditions, and creating a welcoming destination for golfers of all backgrounds, especially our valued Fighting Illini community.”
For golf facilities earning 2026 awards, the data shows a commitment to delivering very welcoming, customer-first experiences for guests booking rounds at their courses.
GolfersVoice allows golf course operators to evaluate ongoing satisfaction at their facility, enables MCOs to compare results across a portfolio of courses, and helps management create programs, services and promotions based on the results. Participating courses can seamlessly integrate GolfersVoice with their current POS/Tee Sheet software, receive real-time alerts on detractor customers, track their customer wallet share, and use built-in AI tools to summarize answers from verbatim and custom questions.
Course operators and MCOs interested in learning more about GolfersVoice and the criteria for the associated annual awards should contact Kevin McLendon at kmclendon@ngf.org or Peter Smith at peter@players1st.golf.
About the NGF
Founded in 1936, the National Golf Foundation is a dynamic membership organization supported and trusted by thousands of golf related businesses and individuals who rely on NGF to provide the most up-to-date, accurate and objective insights on the state of the game and business of golf. It is the only trade association for everyone in the golf business, advocating for growth by educating and connecting its members. NGF is also the leading marketing services provider in golf, leveraging a database of 3 million golfers and the industry’s most comprehensive worldwide database of golf facilities. Additionally, NGF’s research arm works with individual companies to help them better understand their markets and grow their businesses.
About Players 1st
Players 1st is the world’s leading supplier of Customer Experience solutions specifically designed to help golf course operators improve business results by providing actionable insights to elevate their player’s experience. Players 1st has forged strategic partnerships with leading national golf associations across Europe and North America, combining their expertise in customer experience management with industry best practices to deliver a powerful, easy to deploy solution for public and private course operators to help them take care of their most important asset – their members and guests.
Contact:
Kevin McLendon
National Golf Foundation
Vice President, Marketing Services
(561) 354-1646
Peter Smith
Players 1st
SVP/GM
(480) 686-6141
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