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

[hoselpalooza]

19 minutes ago, Malvern said:

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

 

yeah, as @myspinonit reiterated, it seems there are a lot of golf courses in new zealand. however, i suppose it depends on how densely concentrated the courses are and how easy it is to access them. california has more than 2x the number of courses as NZ and is only about 1/3 bigger. though if there are a lot of great courses close together in NZ it could provide an edge due to lower cost and being less crowded.

 

edit: here's a website with a map showing many/all of the courses in NZ: https://en.leadingcourses.com/oceania+new-zealand/clubs-map.html

 

but if anyone has a better source please do share.

Edited September 6, 2020 by hoselpalooza
map

[mgoblue83]

It doesn't get any better for golf than northern Michigan in the summer. As for the rest of the year probably California or Arizona but I really wouldn't mind the cold and wind of an Ireland or Scotland. Could compromise with the pacific northwest year around. Not a fan of flat courses with lots of humidity like you find in the southeast.

[Chanceman]

My final recommendation is the village of Delamere in Engand, near Liverpool. It is geographically central in the UK and Ireland and has easy access to a thousand great golf courses all  of which you can play without being a member. It is within easy reach for weekend trips to places like Ganton or Wales, you can play Open courses like Hoylake within an hour, you can be in London in 2/3 hours, you can fly to Paris anytime, you can take a train to St Andrews, a one hour trip to Ireland, and you are surrounded by golf courses and awesome natural beauty. And you can be a member at Delamere Forest, one of the UK's nicest courses. I would be there tomorrow but with 60 Covid cases a day we are in total lockdown with a 9pm curfew. Go figure.

[Lark]

On 9/4/2020 at 12:01 AM, hoselpalooza said:

 

man, if i won mega millions that's probably where i'd head. probably my favorite part of the world. top 3 at the very least. ?

 

anyway, i wanted to encourage as much creativity as possible so no constraints for answers. that being said, as a single digital nomad i'm very keen to learn about relatively inexpensive yet livable places anywhere in the world. e.g. i've been day dreaming about NZ since @gentles mentioned it above.

Agree. It would be hard to beat Monterey. 

[hoselpalooza]

1 hour ago, Chanceman said:

It is geographically central in the UK and Ireland and has easy access to a thousand great golf courses all  of which you can play without being a member.

 

wow, you weren't exaggerating: https://www.englandgolfer.com/maps/golfmap.cfm

 

thank you for all of your suggestions, much appreciated!!

Edited September 7, 2020 by hoselpalooza

[Malvern]

1 hour ago, Chanceman said:

My final recommendation is the village of Delamere in Engand, near Liverpool. It is geographically central in the UK and Ireland and has easy access to a thousand great golf courses all  of which you can play without being a member. It is within easy reach for weekend trips to places like Ganton or Wales, you can play Open courses like Hoylake within an hour, you can be in London in 2/3 hours, you can fly to Paris anytime, you can take a train to St Andrews, a one hour trip to Ireland, and you are surrounded by golf courses and awesome natural beauty. And you can be a member at Delamere Forest, one of the UK's nicest courses. I would be there tomorrow but with 60 Covid cases a day we are in total lockdown with a 9pm curfew. Go figure.

 

Good suggestion, if I could do the winter weather I'd probably head closer to Southport, we were there last year, gotta be the most underrated place to tour. Be hard to beat that stretch of Birkdale/Hillside/S&A

 

Hope you are hanging in OK down in "Dantown" and back on course shortly.

[hammergolf]

St. Andrews...

[milesgiles]

On 9/4/2020 at 1:20 AM, Emthree said:

Probably California, around the Monterey peninsular. 

 

There isn’t another area in the world where so many truly world class golf courses in a small area.

 

You must be joking

 

east Lothian (as mentioned)

fife coast

southport

surrey/berkshire (at least 20 top, top courses within 40 mins of Heathrow)..

 

very lucky in the uk, it’s a genuine year round golf climate. Rarely too cold or too hot, enough rain to keep it lush (can move west to east if it’s too wet where you are) and this makes native grass maintenance very easy and cheap

[freowho]

The fact that you said "live" changes the setting a lot for me although if money was no object I would quite happily have two homes and chase the weather. But if we are talking 1 home there are lots of places I would love to visit like Long Island, Scotland, Ireland, but the weather would turn me off living there all year. I'd have to be in shorts and short sleeve shirt for most of the year and I don't handle the humidity well. As long as there was plenty of good golf I wouldn't need to play a top 20 course every week. Southern California, Spain/Portugal, Perth or Sydney would do nicely. I'm in Australia and even though Perth and Sydney have few world class golf courses they have a lot of high quality members courses that more than satisfy my need to whack a little white ball around.

Australia is actually a fantastic place to have a golfing road trip. Very safe for caravans, campervans etc and almost every town has a golf course. Sand greens are an experience. 

[gentles]

On 9/5/2020 at 8:54 AM, hoselpalooza said:

 

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. 

 

Tons of good golf around Auckand, albeit it is a very expensive place to live. Close to major airport that connects NZ to the rest of the world.

 

Queenstown is our equivalent to the rocky mountains - skiing, golf, nature hikes etc. Very popular with tourists, albeit not so much at the moment as our borders are closed.

 

Bottom of the south island or the middle of the north island have a great mix of affordable places to live, tons of great very affordable golf. If you aren't relying on a big city for work, I would stay out of the main centres. 

 

https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-courses/oceania/new-zealand for a geographic view of where the good golf is. 

[Chanceman]

On 9/7/2020 at 11:56 AM, Malvern said:

 

Good suggestion, if I could do the winter weather I'd probably head closer to Southport, we were there last year, gotta be the most underrated place to tour. Be hard to beat that stretch of Birkdale/Hillside/S&A

 

Hope you are hanging in OK down in "Dantown" and back on course shortly.

 

Not sure I could handle Southport, it seemed a tad dull to me being one of those old fashioned English seaside towns where Jack and Jill used to go for the holidays. The golf is brilliant though.

And as for NZ, its a nice place to visit but I would not want to live there. 

[scagnetti]

On 9/3/2020 at 11:12 PM, RyanBarathWRX said:

Australia and the sand belt, or Scotland, if you could make it sunny all the time

this:

I havent read the rest of the thread, but this all day... Ive worked and played there, and the sand belt is something else, the city has four seasons but not as cold as US winters... 

 

this is number one of three options: Tuscany, Monterey, and Melbourne. in reverse order of course.

[hoselpalooza]

3 minutes ago, scagnetti said:

this:

I havent read the rest of the thread, but this all day... Ive worked and played there, and the sand belt is something else, the city has four seasons but not as cold as US winters... 

 

this is number one of three options: Tuscany, Monterey, and Melbourne. in reverse order of course.

 

thanks for your comment. could you please elaborate on tuscany? it's not something i would imagine as a top 3. but i haven't been there so perhaps that has something to do with it ?

[scagnetti]

35 minutes ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

thanks for your comment. could you please elaborate on tuscany? it's not something i would imagine as a top 3. but i haven't been there so perhaps that has something to do with it ?

 

more the food and lifestyle. i love it there... it's incredibly expensive, and the golf is distant but decent if you are anywhere other than Florence. But an hour drive in just about any direction you can find a world class facility. If yer a resident, not even a citizen, memberships are evidently fairly cost effective, perhaps more so than in the US without initiation, social or F&B fees...

 

[Chanceman]

I'm sure my wife would love Tuscany but not enough good golf for me. France might be OK though as there are some great courses around Paris like Fontainebleu and Chantilly and you can go anywhere from there to find golf. Euro trains are fab.

Edited September 9, 2020 by Chanceman

[eddiebigeddie]

On 9/4/2020 at 11:42 AM, Myherobobhope said:

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)

What course are you a member at?  There's several nice ones up in L-ville...unlike my neck of the woods in S Central Ky.

[Myherobobhope]

3 hours ago, eddiebigeddie said:

What course are you a member at?  There's several nice ones up in L-ville...unlike my neck of the woods in S Central Ky.

Hunting Creek.

 

It's not a bad track. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you are ever up this way and want to play it... I think it's $60 + $20 cart fee, which isn't cheap but is reasonable enough. 

[Sniperman]

I’ll stay where I’m at...Sunny Southern CA.  Munis all around, an hour’s drive away from PGA Tour hosting public courses, year round golf, jump to pool after a hot round, or meet family at the beach post round.  
 

My only complaint in CA is I’m limited to what I can buy for my other hobby ??

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

5 minutes ago, Sniperman said:

I’ll stay where I’m at...Sunny Southern CA.  Munis all around, an hour’s drive away from PGA Tour hosting public courses, year round golf, jump to pool after a hot round, or meet family at the beach post round.  
 

My only complaint in CA is I’m limited to what I can buy for my other hobby ??

 

I’m just not happy with the smoke currently enveloping everything. Even West Side is smokey. Well the smoke did fend off another heat wave. Heheh.

 

Except for the pandemic and fires, I do rather enjoy this region as well.

[hoselpalooza]

7 minutes ago, Lincoln_Arcadia said:

 

I’m just not happy with the smoke currently enveloping everything. Even West Side is smokey. Well the smoke did fend off another heat wave. Heheh.

 

Except for the pandemic and fires, I do rather enjoy this region as well.

 

a friend in area said the sky looks like a pumpkin spice latte ?

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Just now, hoselpalooza said:

 

a friend in area said the sky looks like a pumpkin spice latte ?

That just about sums it up nicely Lol

[Sniperman]

1 hour ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

a friend in area said the sky looks like a pumpkin spice latte ?

I personally like plain black coffee, but my wife did say tis  the season for pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks! 
 

My friends are still teeing up tomorrow, I’m sitting out. ?

[hoselpalooza]

3 minutes ago, Sniperman said:

I personally like plain black coffee, but my wife did say tis  the season for pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks! 
 

My friends are still teeing up tomorrow, I’m sitting out. ?

 

smart man. i spent more than a few hours outside last weekend despite gnarly smoke in CO and my throat took days to get back to normal. just not worth it. ?

[Sniperman]

2 minutes ago, hoselpalooza said:

 

smart man. i spent more than a few hours outside last weekend despite gnarly smoke in CO and my throat took days to get back to normal. just not worth it. ?

Def not worth it...especially I won’t hear the end of it from wifey if I start complaining of my throat or cough! ?
 

How bout that crazy 180* turn on the weather in CO!? 
 

[hoselpalooza]

26 minutes ago, Sniperman said:

Def not worth it...especially I won’t hear the end of it from wifey if I start complaining of my throat or cough! ?
 

How bout that crazy 180* turn on the weather in CO!? 
 

 

my goodness! going from 100* F one day to below freezing the next (with 6" of snow!!) is something i've never experienced. and just when all the snow melted in the backyard the solar panels dumped another 6" covering 2/3 of the lawn. the dogs (inside at the time) freaked out at the noise but they'll never know how lucky they were not to get buried in the avalanche. backyard security footage could've made a pretty funny video though... ???

Edited September 12, 2020 by hoselpalooza
words

[miamistomp]

 Pumpkin spice--looks the same going in as going out according to a Starbucks barrista  i know  who had to help clean the restrooms ???

 Pumpkin belongs in pies not drinks

[pup142]

Fort Myers,Naples area for summer golf. Well not this

year as COVID 19 has closed some nice golf courses to residents only. This year is a weird year  as it seems  winter people stayed and the golf

courses are crowded. Normally in the summers you can play great courses with really no one on the golf course.Winter time here for golf is way too expensive so I fish and it works out great. 

Edited September 15, 2020 by pup142

[mikedejong33]

Cabo. Awesome links golf on the ocean, but perfect weather every single day. We go for a week in Feb most years and stay at Diamante. It is absolutely perfect I think.

[clp34vmp]

Edinburgh. Easy access to both the East Lothian and Fife/St. Andrews courses while living in an amazing city. I'd love to make this happen. My wife is on board. My daughter is in her first year of high school, but once she gets to college it could theoretically be possible. Not sure whether it will be feasible, though, but I enjoy dreaming about it. I've already picked out our neighborhood and everything.

[Big A HG]

I remember going to Pinehurst almost 15 years ago.  You could buy a two bedroom lakefront condo for $125k in Pinehurst.  I'm not sure what they would cost now, but heck, I could have semi-retired years ago.  I'm assuming if you work at Pinehurst, you'd get some sort of playing privileges.  I'd work part time at the course to pay the bills, then play the rest of the time.