Catering To Golfing Lifestyles A Growing Real Estate Niche In Wyoming

In the late 2010s, the golf industry was wringing its collective hands over a lack of growth in the industry after a protracted decline. 

What a difference time and a global pandemic makes. Golf is popular again — in a multibillion-dollar industry sort of way.

It’s so hot, in fact, that it now demands its own Realtor. Enter Golf Life Navigators, a Florida-based real estate venture that matches golfers with housing. 

Golf Life Navigators bills itself as “eHarmony meets Zillow for golf,” and while the company first focused on Florida, it’s now expanding nationwide. 

It has already tapped at least one Realtor in Wyoming, Anne Fish with Engel & Volkers’ Jackson Hole branch. 

Golf, she told Cowboy State Daily, does have a lot of ins and outs for those who want to live that lifestyle. 

“It’s a unique buyer,” she said. “The buyer, to understand what the golf life is like, I mean, they want to know is it snooty? Are people approachable? Is it a full-time community?”

Those answers and many others depend on location, location, location.

“They definitely need to understand the relationship between the club and the neighborhood,” Fish said. “In some courses, you have to be a member to live there. You have to own property to be a member. In other golf communities, you don’t have to own to be there.

“You can live outside the club and still be a member. So, you have to know how to navigate all that, and that’s why I love the name Golf Life Navigators.”

Growing Up Golf

Fish is ideally suited to help “golf lifers” find just the right property. Not only did she grow up around golf courses, but it’s been a big Wyoming hobby for most of her adult life. 

“There was a guy who’s a very famous coach, who coached people like Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite, who was the golf pro at my parents’ country club,” Fish said. “So, I’ve just kind of been around (golf) a bunch. And then I got into it again in my 30s.”

By “into it” Fish means she lived at Teton Pines Resort and Country Club for a while, as well as playing golf across Wyoming. Lately, she lives in Idaho at the Bronze Buffalo Ranch’s Teton Springs which, among other outdoor adventures, offers access to an 18-hole Byron Nelson-designed golf course. 

Nelson was a professional American golfer during the 1930s and ’40s, known for his fluid swing. He’s considered one of America’s greatest golfers and has helped design several top-notch courses across America.

To say the Bronze Buffalo’s golf course is epic isn’t to understate things at all. In photos, it looks like something straight out of a Hollywood movie set. But it’s not a movie set at all. It’s for real. And it’s golf heaven — for those who can afford to live there.

Demographics Of Golfers

Fish found Golf Life Navigators when she was at a big real estate conference in Austin, Texas. She was impressed with the demographic research the company has done.

“They have done all the numbers to understand the demographics of who is buying in different areas and kind of what the trend is,” she said. “And the trend used to be, ‘Gosh we don’t want to live inside a gated community. We want to live — you know we love to play golf — but we’re going to live elsewhere.”

Today though, that has radically changed, as has the age group most interested in golf life. It’s no longer retirees looking for the golf lifestyle. It’s millennials, who Fish said are very interested in the social aspects this lifestyle can offer.

“The No. 1 reason people like to join (golf) clubs is for the social programs,” Fish said. “And last year, what the club members wanted was wine tasting. Forty-four percent of the people who answered (Golf Life Navigators’) survey said, ‘We want fun events to do with other club members, like wine tastings.’”

Wine tastings it is, then.

Another significant statistic Fish mentions is that 80% of brokerage program users are combining their real estate search with finding a golf club and a home. That’s already making the golf real estate a $147 billion industry, and Golf Life Navigators is just getting started.

Pandemic Inspired Playbook

Growing the game of golf had long been a motto for the industry since its near catatonic state in the 2010s, but the messaging only really caught fire when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. With health officials urging people to socially distance, golf started to look young again. 

It was the lifeline golf had long been seeking. By 2023, golfers had played a record 500 million rounds of golf in the United States, according to the National Golf Foundation. In 2024, it was on track for a 2% year-over-year increase with more than 3.4 million people hitting a golf course somewhere for the first time.

Fish believes another thread that’s probably helping boost golf's popularity of late is the Netflix show called, “Full Swing.”

It’s a reality television show in the mold of Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive, but for golf.

“(Full Swing) started in 2023 and they’ve done three seasons so far,” she said. “They just follow these professional golfers in just day-to-day life.”

Family, friends, games of golf — Netflix viewers tuned in for 53.1 million hours of the first season, according to Netflix numbers, a stat that’s comparable to shows like season 5 of “Suits,” and season 1 of “Better Call Saul.” 

That figure exceeded Netflix’s expectations for the show and puts it in the clubhouse as one of the most-watched golf programs out there.

Wyoming Has Much To Offer Golfers

Wyoming doesn’t have a lot of golf courses compared to other states at 65 or so in all, but it still has a lot to offer those interested in the golf lifestyle, including some beautiful scenery to go around the golf courses it does have, as well as cameo appearances by wildlife like moose and bear. 

Cowboy State Daily reached out to Golf Life Navigators, but did not receive a response from them at the time of this article’s posting. But Fish said Golf Life Navigators is looking for other realtors to represent them in the Cowboy State. 

Fish’s territory alone has about a dozen golf courses, counting those on each side of Teton Pass. There’s also a statewide tournament golfers can participate in as well. 

“You can play on all the different courses around Wyoming for that,” Fish said. “You’ve got the Powder Horn up in Sheridan, which is a great club, and we’re going to play there later this summer. I’ve played at the Casper Country Club and the Laramie Country Club. And even though we’re only open for five months in the summer, there’s plenty of wonderful golf courses in Wyoming — Shooting Star, Snake River Sporting Club, the Hoback Canyon.”

Fish said for locations outside her territory, she would plan to refer clients to other realtors in Wyoming, rather than try to sell those particular properties herself. 

“I started in real estate in Jackson in 2001, so I’ve been in real estate in Jackson for a long time,” she added. “And then I started really heavily working on the Teton Valley, Idaho side in 2020 so I do both sides of Teton Pass.”

Golf Properties In Jackson Start At $1.5 Million

Properties that offer a golfing lifestyle range in price from $1.5 million or so on up to $12 million or more, Fish said. 

“There are some pretty stunning homes in Teton Valley,” Fish said. “And there are some $3 to $5 million homes on our two private golf courses in Teton Valley, Idaho.”

At Snake River Sporting Club, one home has listed for $10.8 million, Fish said, and Teton Pines has a $7.25 million home listed, as well as an $11.75 million home. The latter has floor-to-ceiling electric glass doors that can expand the great room to include the patio and overall is what Fish described as “stunning.”

“It’s just perfect for entertaining,” she said. “And it’s nice because it’s a three-minute walk to the clubhouse.”

A clubhouse that has a “wonderful” dining room for those who’d rather not cook that evening. 

“It’s a gated community and you do have to become a member of Teton Pines,” she said. “And people can call me about that, or I can direct them to the membership chairman.”

Knowing the ins and the outs of each golf club is the other strength Fish brings to the table as a realtor for those interested in immersing in golf life. She knows which properties require membership and which don’t, as well as what other perks each individual property has to offer.

“I watch golf, I play golf, I sell golf,” she said. “I mean, I just love it. So, watch it, play it, sell it. I guess that is kind of my motto.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.