{"id":62292,"date":"2026-09-07T00:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T00:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/62292\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T00:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T00:50:16","slug":"survey-golf-is-australias-most-expensive-sport-australian-golf-digest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/62292\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey: Golf is Australia\u2019s most expensive sport \u2013 Australian Golf Digest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cost and accessibility of golf have long been debated by fans and critics alike. New data now settles it:\u00a0golf is Australia\u2019s most expensive sport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">New research by sports equipment retailer\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tx.bz-mail-us1.com\/1\/l\/4aeb9b61cb6046e095c11540f8650033?rl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.networldsports.com.au%2Fcost-of-keeping-fit\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Net World Sports<\/a>\u00a0analysed AusPlay participation and spending data to reveal\u00a0the most and least cost-effective ways to stay fit in Australia.\u00a0They also surveyed 1,000 Australians to discover how the cost of fitness has influenced their behaviour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australiangolfdigest.com.au\/the-participation-boom-continues\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The participation boom continues<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Key findings from the survey include:<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Golf is Australia\u2019s most expensive way to stay active,\u00a0costing $1,545 a year. 86.7 percent of participants pay to play, and adult participation is at 4.6 percent.<br \/>\u2022 Golf costs $1,335 more than the cheapest sport, recreational walking, with recreational walking leading to only a $210 average annual sum for participants.<br \/>\u2022 Pilates is Australia\u2019s second-most expensive sport and the most expensive gym and studio activity\u00a0at $1,109 a year, yet $436 less than the annual cost to play golf.<br \/>\u2022 Recreational walking is Australia\u2019s cheapest and most participated activity,\u00a0representing the most accessible price points in the fitness landscape,\u00a0with 50.2 percent of adults taking part but only 5.8 percent paying anything at all, at a mean of $210 per year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The top 10 most expensive sports in Australia\u00a0<\/p>\n<tr>\n<td>Rank\u00a0<\/td>\n<td>Activity<\/td>\n<td>Participation rate<\/td>\n<td>Average expenditure\u00a0<\/td>\n<td>Percentage who pay\u00a0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>1<\/td>\n<td>Golf<\/td>\n<td>4.6%<\/td>\n<td>$1,545<\/td>\n<td>86.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2<\/td>\n<td>Pilates<\/td>\n<td>7.2%<\/td>\n<td>$1,109<\/td>\n<td>67.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3<\/td>\n<td>Fitness\/Gym<\/td>\n<td>34.1%<\/td>\n<td>$874<\/td>\n<td>57.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>4<\/td>\n<td>Cycling<\/td>\n<td>8.3%<\/td>\n<td>$596<\/td>\n<td>20.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>5<\/td>\n<td>Yoga<\/td>\n<td>5.1%<\/td>\n<td>$552<\/td>\n<td>46.0%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>6<\/td>\n<td>Football\/soccer<\/td>\n<td>5.6%<\/td>\n<td>$540<\/td>\n<td>48.7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>7<\/td>\n<td>Bush walking<\/td>\n<td>17.5%<\/td>\n<td>$535<\/td>\n<td>14.9%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>8<\/td>\n<td>Running\/jogging<\/td>\n<td>16.5%<\/td>\n<td>$499<\/td>\n<td>22.4%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>9<\/td>\n<td>Australian football<\/td>\n<td>2.4%<\/td>\n<td>$424<\/td>\n<td>50.3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>10<\/td>\n<td>Cricket<\/td>\n<td>2.5%<\/td>\n<td>$414<\/td>\n<td>50.1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The cost and accessibility of golf have long been debated by fans and critics alike. New data now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23235,23236,23237,44,23238],"class_list":["post-62292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ausplay","tag-cost","tag-expensive","tag-golf","tag-net-world-sports-survey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}