If you could live anywhere in the world to play golf...

[biggys]

Scottsdale or Hilton Head.  Have visited both but don't know if i could pick between them.  

[Chanceman]

Apart from my home town, Melbourne, with its multitude of sand-belt courses and year round golf, I think a nice village near London in England would be hard to beat except for one thing - the weather.

From there you would be in easy reach of all 10 Open rota courses, some amazing local courses as well as every course in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as having short flights to all Europe's top courses in Amsterdam, Paris and Spain.  

If weather and lifestyle aside from golf was critical then maybe Monterey/Big Sur but then there is the issue of the traffic!!! And you would want to be guaranteed private club membership which dont come cheap in that area.

[eastriver]

would love to hear answers where money is a factor.  mid-Atlantic or southern Appalachia (NC, SC, TN, ...)?  Ozarks?  As a New Englander, I'm perfectly fine playing in 40* temps, which I hear drives most people inside down there.  I mean, let's be a little more realistic about our fantasy lives.

[The Pearl]

The New Zealand idea sounds pretty dreamy.

 

In the states this would pretty easy to pull off if summer/winter locations were used and money was no object.  

[sabram]

Surrey, Dublin or Fife.

 

Surrey, west of  London has IMHO the best non-links golf in the world that one can access without being a member, and an easy train ride to London for it has to offer

 

Dublin is an awesome city with a lot of great golf

 

Fife... so much great golf with Edinburgh nearby as well as a short drive to all of the East Lothian courses

[Qqq123xx]

This is a tough one. I would be more of a stay in an area for couple/few years and then move on. Kinda like a herd of heifers munching up all the grass then move on to greener pastures. If I had to choose would be Europe in general. Moving around for the seasons. And that train pass (Europass) is the best. 

[hoselpalooza]

6 hours ago, Superbrit said:

Its a cliche but St Andrews, me and the wife have already decided where retiring there

 

But due to circumstances over the last 6 months we are talking about moving there in the next 18 months

 

crazy times we're living in and i hope this is a silver lining for you and your wife. st andrews looks like a wonderful place to retire.

[Superbrit]

1 minute ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

crazy times we're living in and i hope this is a silver lining for you and your wife. st andrews looks like a wonderful place to retire.

 

It was a case of saying to each other why wait, who knows whats round the corner and what crazy stuff is going to happen, so where starting to plan

[hoselpalooza]

4 hours ago, Chanceman said:

Apart from my home town, Melbourne, with its multitude of sand-belt courses and year round golf, I think a nice village near London in England would be hard to beat except for one thing - the weather.

From there you would be in easy reach of all 10 Open rota courses, some amazing local courses as well as every course in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well as having short flights to all Europe's top courses in Amsterdam, Paris and Spain.  

If weather and lifestyle aside from golf was critical then maybe Monterey/Big Sur but then there is the issue of the traffic!!! And you would want to be guaranteed private club membership which dont come cheap in that area.

 

i spent quite a bit of time in melbourne during my golf hiatus. even if you're biased i could see why you'd choose to live there and play golf despite options to live elsewhere. melbourne is a wonderful place!

 

somewhere near london is a great choice, too. and i completely agree about the weather -- there's about one month out of the year during late-summer when it gets so hot and humid the tube is borderline insufferable. i'm sure this isn't what you meant though ?

 

lastly, if you can afford private membership to a club somewhere on the monterrey peninsula you can probably afford to fly to the golf course in a helicopter, bypassing all of the traffic. only slightly kidding.

[hoselpalooza]

3 hours ago, eastriver said:

would love to hear answers where money is a factor.  mid-Atlantic or southern Appalachia (NC, SC, TN, ...)?  Ozarks?  As a New Englander, I'm perfectly fine playing in 40* temps, which I hear drives most people inside down there.  I mean, let's be a little more realistic about our fantasy lives.

 

this is an excellent request and i hope people take you up on it. you're right -- practically speaking, there are a lot of places (like northern california) that are simply out of financial reach for many people.

 

for fun, i've begun searching in my spare time for places with a low cost of living and good quality healthcare where you can also play lots of golf. most of the search results seem to target retirees which is interesting but not so relatable to my current situation. i haven't bookmarked these results, but since there are people in this thread discussing retirement options i'll try to remember to share when i find something relevant. 

 

and for people who aren't ready to retire it would be great to learn about places where you could work remotely and enjoy lots of golf. 

[Myherobobhope]

13 hours ago, MaxBuck said:

Palm Springs area (LQ) for 9 months, then maybe Spain for the other three.  Still waiting for COVID to allow me to figure out summers, but I got the 9 months figured out perfectly.

Got to do less than 180 days in California for tax reasons, my friend! 

[Myherobobhope]

42 minutes ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

this is an excellent request and i hope people take you up on it. you're right -- practically speaking, there are a lot of places (like northern california) that are simply out of financial reach for many people.

 

for fun, i've begun searching in my spare time for places with a low cost of living and good quality healthcare where you can also play lots of golf. most of the search results seem to target retirees which is interesting but not so relatable to my current situation. i haven't bookmarked these results, but since there are people in this thread discussing retirement options i'll try to remember to share when i find something relevant. 

 

and for people who aren't ready to retire it would be great to learn about places where you could work remotely and enjoy lots of golf. 

Honestly, I'm pretty happy in Louisville... Golf mostly shuts down in November-February, but it's a decent sized city with a good cost of living... I'm a member of a country club that's not super expensive, but the course is nice and the people are friendly... It's also walking distance from my house.

 

I wish we had a better practice facility, but I could move further out of town and join the place that U of L practices at... it's got an amazing practice facility (and a less nice golf course)

[garzar]

Near the classic sand-belt courses in Australia. Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath, etc. Throw in the beer, the cheer, and the topless beaches and i'm all-in.  ?

[MattM97]

Anywhere but Toronto, Canada. I wouldn't mind having a membership to a club that doesn't cost a small fortune for yearly dues and initiation fees, would be nice to play more than once a week too. 

[puttnforthe8]

16 hours ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

super jealous. what's the story behind this?!!

 

Nothing extraordinary.....My company was expanding its current operations and so decided to go for it.  Lived outside of Dublin and had membership at a couple of courses.  Played pretty much everything in Ire.  Then was able to do a lot in Scotland as well.

[The Pearl]

20 hours ago, gentles said:

New Zealand not a bad shout. A cold day in winter Is about 40* F, and it rarely gets hotter than 85* F in the peak of summer. Second only to Scotland in golf courses per capita, including a decent number in the top 100 in the world. Typical course membership will be around $750 USD to full playing rights, no initiation fees. Maybe a handful of courses in the country have a green fee higher than $80 USD to play. 

 

What area/part of New Zealand would you recommend?

[hoselpalooza]

1 minute ago, The Pearl said:

 

What area/part of New Zealand would you recommend?

 

i've been looking into this today and am actually very keen to get some local knowledge. the north and south islands seem to have some notable differences in terms of weather, rainfall, and so forth. 

[chipa]

I started playing golf in the Fayetteville NC area and honestly after 20+ years I see there was a lot to offer, especially when one gets the discount cards. I lived in Orlando for a few years and there is certainly a lot of golf too at good prices($35 at Disney) but it definitely took more time to get around because of the traffic.

 

I would have to say the Fayteville/Pinehurst/Southern Pines area would still be my favorite. Plus the latter places are in the county so one can still get around too.

[Chip Out Sideways]

I lived in Edinburgh for 5 years so East Lothian and Fife were very close. The golf was great but the weather wasn't. I now live in Berkshire - golf in Berkshire and neighboring Surrey also great and weather a lot better. However I have a timeshare in the Algarve, Portugal, and have always wanted/dreamed of moving there and nothing has changed. I also lived in Texas and spent a lot of time in San Diego but the Algarve still wins for me.

[kwcsports]

I liked Arizona a lot. I'd go there, nice weather, not super expensive, fly to Vegas in an hour. Yeah I'd pick Arizona.

[sdiver68]

AZ

[postfold]

Spoiler

 

I'd love to spend a few years in Scotland.  I'm sure the weather would get me eventually, but not for a while.  In the U.S., Pinehurst area for spring and fall, northern Michigan for summer.

[WarEagleGolf]

Sea Island GA.   Kiawah Island SC.   

 

Great weather.  Lots of courses.  Food - oh yeah.  Hotties, plenty.   

 

[tiderider]

On 9/4/2020 at 6:49 AM, eastriver said:

would love to hear answers where money is a factor.  mid-Atlantic or southern Appalachia (NC, SC, TN, ...)?  Ozarks?  As a New Englander, I'm perfectly fine playing in 40* temps, which I hear drives most people inside down there.  I mean, let's be a little more realistic about our fantasy lives.

?? ... it's a fantasy ... 

 

if i won the lottery, i'd move to coeur d alene and play gozzer ranch from may-oct, or whenever ... money won't get you into the bluebloods of the world, and gozzer is a top golf course in a great location ... could see london or uk in general, as chanceman suggested ... one could easily be invited to join a host of clubs in england or scotland ... 

 

realistically ... well, that could be anywhere with 18 greens ... 

[hoselpalooza]

13 minutes ago, tiderider said:

?? ... it's a fantasy ... 

 

if i won the lottery, i'd move to coeur d alene and play gozzer ranch from may-oct, or whenever ... money won't get you into the bluebloods of the world, and gozzer is a top golf course in a great location ... could see london or uk in general, as chanceman suggested ... one could easily be invited to join a host of clubs in england or scotland ... 

 

realistically ... well, that could be anywhere with 18 greens ... 

 

13 minutes ago, tiderider said:

?? ... it's a fantasy ...

 

^ true, but for some people it could be a real fantasy to actually plan for. e.g. perhaps you want to make retirement goals? or maybe you're a young person who can work from anywhere with an internet connection and golf is your #1 hobby.

 

when i posted OP i wanted to encourage all kinds of answers. that includes places like coeur d'alene, a 9-hole muni with sand greens in a sleepy mid-western town, and everywhere in between ?

 

anyway, thanks for your answer. i've been through coeur d'alene but didn't bring my sticks. such a gorgeous place and i hope to play there sometime. 

[Chanceman]

On 9/5/2020 at 7:44 AM, Chip Out Sideways said:

I lived in Edinburgh for 5 years so East Lothian and Fife were very close. The golf was great but the weather wasn't. I now live in Berkshire - golf in Berkshire and neighboring Surrey also great and weather a lot better. However I have a timeshare in the Algarve, Portugal, and have always wanted/dreamed of moving there and nothing has changed. I also lived in Texas and spent a lot of time in San Diego but the Algarve still wins for me.

 

Ah yes hard to beat a time share in Spain or Portugal !!

 

[golfho50]

Myrtle Beach if just for Golf. Nothing close as far as choices. Have lived in FL (Miami, Orlando, Jupiter) , GA, IL, VA, OK, MO, NY and Asia. Florida is great overall....plenty of courses and great prices. Anywhere in Orlando, or S.FLA (Dade, Broward, PB County) you have 20-30 courses within 30 minutes.

[Malvern]

As someone who is relatively unencumbered, I have thought about this before. Require somewhere English speaking, temperate/sub tropical climate (low-mid humidity), I will take a majority of sub 60 (15 celsius) days over plus 90 (33), concentration of great (not just good) golf courses, close to an international airport (within 150 kms)

 

For me, it rules out most of the US apart from mid/southern California (don't flame me, I don't exactly know every micro climate in the US), Asia and even in my own country, anywhere from Sydney north.

 

For those asking about NZ, apart from Queenstown which fails my weather test there isn't the concentration of courses.

 

Probably leaves the answer (flagged by Chanceman) as the Sand Belt/Peninsulas in Victoria, Australia, Kent/Surrey UK (weather a bit iffy) and Johannesburg, RSA leaving aside other concerns as a possibility

Edited September 6, 2020 by Malvern
.

[myspinonit]

6 minutes ago, Malvern said:

As someone who is relatively unencumbered, I have thought about this before. Require somewhere English speaking, temperate/sub tropical climate (low-mid humidity), I will take a majority of sub 60 (15 celsius) days over plus 90 (33), concentration of good golf courses, close to an international airport (within 150 kms)

 

For me, it rules out most of the US apart from mid/southern California (don't flame me, I don't exactly know every micro climate in the US), Asia and even in my own country, anywhere from Sydney north.

 

For those asking about NZ, apart from Queenstown which fails my weather test there isn't the concentration of courses.

 

Probably leaves the answer as the Sand Belt/Peninsulas in Victoria, Australia, Kent/Surrey UK(weather a bit iffy) and Johannesburg, RSA leaving aside other concerns as a possibility

My thought would be NZ.  Love the poeple too. .  I guess you know NZ better than me but I understood from our trip there last winter there are a ton of courses, very reasonably priced,  in fact second in the world to Scotland oer capita. This. quote from a fast Google search " There are 390 golf clubs in New Zealand which places the country second in the world for the number of course per capita for the population of 4 million.."

Edited September 6, 2020 by myspinonit

[Malvern]

3 minutes ago, myspinonit said:

My thought would be NZ.  Love the poeple too. .  I guess you know NZ better than me but I understood from our trip there last winter there are a ton of courses, in fact second in the world to Scotland oer capita. This . quote from a fast Google search " There are 390 golf clubs in New Zealand which places the country second in the world for the number of course per capita for the population of 4 million.."

 

Perhaps there is enough good golf around Auckland, certainly a membership here: http://www.taraiti.com/ would be suitable.