Golf fans will long remember the PGA Championship's return to Wisconsin's Whistling Straits for the way it ended, but the state's golf industry will no doubt savor memories from the way it began: with the release of a study detailing the sport's economic impact on the Badger State.

While some of the game's greatest players were trying to determine what was or wasn't considered a bunker on Pete Dye's lakeside design, golf and government officials were praising the results of the "Wisconsin Golf Economy Report," an independent study commissioned by GOLF 20/20 for the Wisconsin allied golf associations and prepared by SRI International. The report, conducted from 2008 data, found the total economic impact of golf in Wisconsin is $2.4 billion. It also revealed that golf provides more than 38,000 jobs in the state and contributes $771.5 million of wage income.

The release of Wisconsin's economic impact study comes less than six months after similar reports from New York state and San Diego, California, were unveiled. By comparison, those studies showed that golf generates a total economic impact of $5.3 billion in New York and $3.7 billion in San Diego.

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