OGDEN — In recent history, golf lost a bit of its appeal, both locally and nationally.

But in the last few years, Ogden officials have seen a reversal of that trend at its two public courses — Mount Ogden Golf Course and El Monte Golf Course.

Ogden City’s PGA Golf Professional Todd Brenkman said a global catastrophe has actually brought the game back.

“Golf really took off during COVID,” he said. “The first year from 2019-2020, the golf industry saw about a 60% spike.”

He said between 2019 and 2025, there’s been a 99% increase in total rounds played at El Monte and a 120% increase at Mount Ogden.

“When we look at participation and getting people out to enjoy quality recreation, a global pandemic really was the shot in the arm for the golf industry,” Brenkman said.

Even with the COVID-19 pandemic largely fading to the background, Ogden’s two courses are still seeing surging popularity. In 2024, El Monte saw 33,165 rounds played, a 20-year high. In 2025, that number rose to 38,459 rounds played. Mt. Ogden also saw another. In 2024, the course recorded 44,793 rounds played — also a 20-year high at the time — while 2025 has seen 54,096 rounds played.

Brenkman said that prior to the pandemic, the courses were facing a lot of same headwinds that forced the closure or privatization of other public golf courses regionally and nationally.

“We spent a lot of time on the front page of (the Standard-Examiner) for a number of things related to the city maybe looking at repurposing that property,” he said.

Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski said that the prospect of closing the courses proved unpopular with the public.

“The community came out in droves in opposition to that and that’s great — now we still have all of these acres for opportunity and access,” he said. “At its origins, golf was a wealthy man’s game. That’s not the case anymore. This is affordable access.”

But it hasn’t just been old golfers getting back to playing the game.

According to Brenkman, the perception of the old game has been changing among youth.

“In the mid- to late-’80s when I was in high school, I had to sneak in the backdoor with my golf clubs or I’d get the crap beat out of me by some of my friends that I played other sports with because golf was not cool,” he said. “Now it’s changed full-circle where now it is cool and everybody wants to be involved.”

With the threat of being beaten out of the way, he said the growing ranks of their junior golf programs are good for both business and those who participate.

“You get them into the game, the game gets its hooks, you retain them for life and that’s good for the business aspect,” he said. “The important thing to me is you learn a code when you play the game and I think it bleeds into life. … I view it as an opportunity to touch these people through a game that I love that hopefully bleeds into them being successful and productive citizens.”

Brenkman said with the game growing locally and a mayoral administration that’s leaning heavily into quality of life elements, the public can expect more investment in both public courses.

“The mayor has made it very clear to us that recreation, as part of his pillars in healthy lifestyles, there’s going to be tremendous investment,” he said. “With the financial success of the golf course right now, we’re not only able to re-invest in the product at both facilities‚ and we’ve made a number of significant improvements I didn’t think I would see in my career, some of the financial success of the golf fund will allow me to assist the trail situation as well and we could expand the footprint of the winter offering as well.”

He said major improvements recently have included replacement of the irrigation systems at El Monte and Mount Ogden, a new event pavilion at Mount Ogden and ongoing renovations to both courses.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said. “With the direction I’ve been given by the mayor, these pillars that guide us , the financial success, I’m just getting started.”