• by Tony Silber , April 22, 2022

The golf-media brand Golf Digest reported record-breaking web traffic associated with this month’s Masters Tournament, topping even 2019, when Tiger Woods made a comeback and reclaimed the Green Jacket (which signifies the winner), the title announced this week.

The growth suggests a surge in golf’s popularity, especially during the pandemic. Among the statistics cited by the publication:

• Average time spent per unique visitor was up 44% from 2021.
• All distribution channels saw positive year-on-year growth, with search seeing the largest gains, producing a 28% increase from the prior year.
• The brand had its top two most-liked Instagram posts ever, and average social media engagement per post was up 259%, 319% & 55% on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, respectively.

Over the last six years, Golf Digest has secured the largest digital audience and print circulation in the game, according to the brand  It has a print-magazine reach of 3.6 million, according to its media kit, with eight million monthly unique visitors. (Competitor Golf magazine, according to its media kit, has a ratebase of 1.2 million and more than seven million monthly unique visitors.)

The 72-year-old Golf Digest, published 10 times annually in print, was sold by Conde Nast to Discovery in 2019, and now serves as part of Discovery’s Discovery Golf unit, which includes GolfTV and other assets.

"As golf enjoys a surge in popularity, our team continues to innovate and conceive of ways to meet golf audiences where they are, through free channels and our growing emphasis on service-based subscriptions," Golf Digest Vice President Marketing & Audience Development Meredith Bausback said in a statement.

The range of golf-related experiences is expanding, Bausback added, from lifelong players to those taking up the game for the first time. “We continue to think of ways to tailor content and advice for them,” she said. “Among the products we're excited to introduce in the coming months is a vertical specific for women golfers, as well as a comprehensive golf-course finder platform that will combine insight from Golf Digest editors, our expert rating panel, and average golfers.”