Billion-dollar golf market bets on AI to drive growth

Golf is experiencing something of a boom. After a resurgence during the pandemic, participant numbers reached record levels last year.

More than 160 million people around the world practiced some type of golf in 2025, which represents an increase of almost 50% compared to 2023. It is estimated that in the USA alone the number of participants will exceed 50 million by 2026.

Driving ranges like Topgolf and indoor virtual simulators have also helped increase participation in the sport, with a new wave of casual players driving demand for golf gadgets. And in 2026, where there are gadgets, there is artificial intelligence.

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The global golf equipment market reached an estimated value of US$20.9 billion in 2026, according to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, and is expected to reach US$26.7 billion by 2031. Among the most influential factors identified for this projected growth is the adoption of artificial intelligence-based technology.

Its impact is being felt from the club shop floor to the fairway - even reaching a virtual version of the sport's most important assistant: the caddy. Botronics, a startup based in Nivelles, Belgium, has developed an autonomous golf cart billed as a digital caddy that can not only carry clubs but also offer advice.

The iXi cart uses two cameras and a GPS preloaded with maps of more than 40,000 fields to drive autonomously, with players able to issue commands through hand gestures or voice control.

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If the user removes a golf club from the mounted bag, an AI camera installed on the front of the cart will recognize that the user is on the putting green and will preemptively begin rolling toward the next tee.

The front camera can film each shot and play it back on a screen that offers a frame-by-frame analysis of the technique, with the footage can be shared with coaches via a companion app.

The screen offers suggestions on club selection and where to aim, with a built-in computer displaying a real-time view of the course.

"Think of it as a computer on wheels, which is not only programmed to do amazing things, but will also continue to evolve," Laetitia Fraikin, chief revenue officer at Botronics, told CNN.

"What's a caddy?" she added. "It's someone who is in the right place at the right time, someone who watches what you do and gives you advice, someone who basically gives you everything you need so that you can get the most out of your game, so that you can perform better, so that you can make better decisions... all of these things are now possible to do on a physical golf cart."

In development since 2021 and initially scheduled for delivery to customers this summer, the cart is currently in the "advanced prototype" phase and is expected to begin shipping in June 2027 after testing with golfers, Fraikin said.

With a retail price set at $5,385, discounts were offered to those who pre-ordered the stroller as part of a crowdfunding campaign that raised around $1 million.

About 125 units were pre-ordered within the first 10 minutes of becoming available, said Fraikin, who believes the uptake reflects the growing demand for AI-driven innovations among both tech-savvy and traditional golfers.

"There's a group of people who say, 'Look, I don't really want to understand what's going on (with technology), I just want to be able to focus 100% on my game,'" Fraikin explained.

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Club tuning and clones
Sport was one of the first to adopt AI.

Golf equipment giant Callaway has been using machine learning to develop club designs since 2019, and its Ai Smoke line of irons was designed using an AI model that analyzed thousands of swings.

Rival manufacturer Wilson launched its Fit AI mobile app in 2024 to help club-fitting staff at golf stores and courses across the United States choose the best option for customers. Customers hit a few balls in front of a launch monitor - a device that measures the physical data of a golf swing and club swing - and then feeds the real-time results through an algorithm to generate club recommendations.

Mas agora várias empresas estão colocando a IA diretamente nas mãos dos jogadores de golfe. In April, two-time US Open champion Bryson DeChambeau led a group of investors in acquiring, for an undisclosed "eight-figure" sum, Sportsbox AI, a technology company whose 3D Golf app creates a motion-captured avatar of the user during the swing to provide feedback on how to improve.

Nicknamed "The Scientist" for his eagerness to harness technology in pursuit of performance gains, DeChambeau revealed earlier this month that he had consulted Google's AI assistant, Gemini, to help him resolve some issues with his swing.

Ele também fez uma parceria com o Google Cloud no ano passado, desenvolvendo um treinador de IA que pode ser executado em um smartphone.

Similarly, SWEE is a mobile app that is releasing AI-created "clones" of real golf coaches as part of a subscription service that allows users to receive personalized feedback and training plans for their swing.

No campo, a IA está transformando os telêmetros, dispositivos usados por jogadores de golfe para medir distâncias. Arccos' Smart Laser claims to use data collected from more than 1.5 billion shots and 25 million matches to generate a strategy for each shot, suggesting a recommended club and target based on factors such as wind speed and altitude.

Desafios e regulamentações
No entanto, existem barreiras à adoção desses produtos. The costs and complexities of adopting new AI technologies pose "significant challenges" to their integration into sport, according to a 2025 study led by Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.

Golf already faces a perceived financial barrier to entry into the sport, with Mordor Intelligence highlighting the high initial investment and total cost of equipment as the most significant obstacle to growth in the global equipment market.

The iXi costs thousands of dollars more than a standard cart, the Arccos rangefinder starts at $299.99 and requires an annual subscription fee of $199.99 after the first year, while a set of Callaway Smoke irons can run nearly $800.

Furthermore, golf is a sport famous for its adherence to tradition, and not all technological advances are allowed in competition.

The Arccos rangefinder has a "competition mode" setting that disables advanced metrics to comply with professional tournament rules, a feature Botronics is also incorporating to ensure its cart can be used exclusively as a manual conveyor rather than a smart caddy.

"A lot of the things we do are still unregulated, so it will be interesting to see where regulation goes," Fraikin said.

"Nem tudo será um problema, mas espero que algumas coisas sejam."

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Source: CNN