By 1960, professional golf in America had a television audience, a commercial infrastructure, and a generation of superstar players. It had prize money, endorsement deals, and a growing middle-class participation base. In the span of roughly one decade, the sport had transformed from a regional pastime of the affluent into a nationally visible professional enterprise.

But in 1960, professional golf was still, in the most meaningful sense, an American sport. The PGA Tour was American. The major championships were predominantly American or British. The players who defined the game were American, with the notable exception of Gary Player. The money, the television deals, the corporate sponsorships — all of it was concentrated in the United States.

What happened over the next four decades changed all of that permanently.

Between 1960 and 2000, golf became genuinely global — not just played in many countries, as it had been since the colonial era, but commercially significant, professionally organized, and culturally embedded in societies as different from each other as Japan, South Africa, Australia, Spain, and South Korea.

Understanding how that happened — what forces drove it, what obstacles it overcame, what it produced — is essential to understanding the sport we watch today.

The Mechanism of Global Spread

Golf’s global expansion in the second half of the 20th century was driven by several converging forces operating simultaneously in different parts of the world.

Television was the first and most fundamental. As American golf broadcasts became internationally available — initially through tape delay and later through satellite transmission — audiences in other countries were exposed to the professional game at its highest level for the first time. People who had never seen golf played well watched Palmer, Nicklaus, and Player compete on American courses and understood, viscerally, what the game could be.

Economic development was the second force. Golf requires significant infrastructure — land, maintenance equipment, water, skilled labor. It is not a sport that takes root in economically struggling societies. As Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other Asian economies grew rapidly through the 1960s and 1970s, golf became both affordable to play and symbolically associated with the upwardly mobile professional class that was driving that growth. Playing golf meant something in these societies — it signaled status, connection to the global business culture, and participation in a world beyond national borders.

The success of international players on the American and British tours was the third force. When Gary Player won majors in America, South African golf grew. When Seve Ballesteros dominated the British Open and won the Masters, Spanish golf and European golf broadly experienced a surge of participation and investment. Success at the highest level created visibility, and visibility created aspiration, and aspiration created participation.