ORONO, Maine – Maine’s 138 golf courses pump about $205 million into the state’s economy, according to a University of Maine study released Thursday.

The sport has grown steadily over the past century, and 22 new courses have opened since 1990 with five more under construction as of last March.

The report published by the Maine Agricultural and Forest Experimental Station was based on figures from 1999, the last year for which complete statistics were available.

Greens fees and memberships accounted for two-thirds of golf revenues, with the the remainder coming from food and merchandise sales and golf cart rentals.

The industry supports a total of 4,753 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers.

On average, a course generated about $50 in revenues for an 18-hole round of golf, which is similar to estimates in other states. Of the 1.7 million rounds of golf played in 1999, about 516,000 were played by out-of-state residents.

“The industry is clearly a significant part of the economy. It’s difficult to say how it might compare to other types of recreation since separate studies look at each industry in a different manner. Golf is a factor in every county of the state, even though it is concentrated in the southern and coastal counties,” said Todd Gabe.

Gabe and study co-author Tom Allen are with the university’s Department of Resource Economics and Policy.