The cost of golf... getting to high?

[Smooth spin scott]

Want to hear your thoughts on a topic which is getting alot of discussion within my core group of golfers. Ok we are all fairly comfortable in terms of money but not members of a private golf course. Do you think green fees, cart fees, range buckets, cost at a range to practice bunker shots etc are becoming a little too outrageous? Wether its the local muni charging $50 for a round on poor greens and dry dirt filled fairways or the high end public course charging $200+, how do we stop this craziness? I realize the supply and demand theory , specifically for corporate golf during the week, but comon... a day of golf now can set you back hundreds. Also, although I truly believe in junior programs and inner-city clinics and I know there are alot of you giving up personal time (free - including myself) in order to help young kids get into the game. My question is how are these kids ever going to be able to afford to actually play?

 

Let's hear it I know not all of you are living the Bill Gate way of life...

[evanaamodt]

Well to be honest I think that you are right but when you think about it thats what they need to do to survive and make money in their part of the business. The nice courses seem to put alot more money into the course and have more maintance members/employers which they need to pay, so they have the higher cost for green fees. The not as nice courses dont put as much money into their course and thats why they dont get much out of it. Just my 2 cents I guess. Maybe someone else can elaborate on this a little more. But ya I agree with you on the junior part because Im a fellow junior and some courses I just flat out can't afford because of the fact of prices. But lots of courses are getting better on offering us more juniors rates.

[CowtownTexas]

My suggestion is to move to Texas. The cost of golf here is very, very cheap when compared to the rest of the country. This is whether you play a public course or join a country club.

 

For example, there are 57 golf courses in Tarrant County (this doesn't include those in the Dallas area, but specifically Fort Worth and the western Metroplex). The muni's around here cost between $8 and $40 depending on when you play. The most expensive public courses cost less than $100 per round.

 

Also, while there are a couple of extremely expensive country clubs, most are fairly affordable. I only know of one club in Tarrant County (Vaquero, where many PGA players live including Leonard, Crane, Hamilton, and others) where dues are more than $500 per month.

 

We're pretty blessed to have an extremely low cost of living here, but that's probably why we're the fastest growing city of 500K or more in the US and the 3rd fastest growing region.

[Golf_Beauty]

There was an intersting article about this very subject here in Seattle. You can read it about it here>>Boom and Bust

[DemolitionMan]

Collectively, the golf course industry is extremely inefficient. I will acknolwledge the business is tough. I would not own a golf course without a real estate tie-in or it has to be a resort destination. Aside from that, most of your local public golf courses are poorly run. Some of it is the fault of the course operators at a local level and some of it is the fault that as an industry they are trying to build a business without an educated customer base and a poor plan to educate their customer.

 

I see a lot of courses / industry pundiots crying over how the game takes too long and it's driving away customers, but I see very little being done about it. This is where Europe is way ahead of the U.S. in golf education. Lucky for the U.S. it's a nothing industry anyway, so Europe continues on doing what they do best: golf and socialism...just kidding...well...maybe not.

[arkstorm]

Its all a matter of supply and demand. Here in Philly, the best courses are private and priced out of reach for most young working professionals. So my only option is to pay an inflated rate that seems to go up 5% every season at the public courses. In areas of the city where public tracks are abundant the price reflects the abundance c. $50. Here on my end of the city you can expect to pay $65+ because there are fewer courses within reach. I would rate these as sub-premium courses. The premium courses cost no less than $100 per round. So the way to clean up in the golf industry here would be to open a sub-premium course and charge $40 a round...but no one is going to do that with land costing such a premium. In fact, a sad epilogue to this post is that the one course in the area that is still $40 is rumored to be closing down to make way for a new housing development.

[Furrankee]

It's OK in my area, but the practice fees are ridiculous. There's no such thing as a $3-4 bucket with about 30 balls. The minimum is 60 balls for $7. And you have to pay to practice for chipping, pitching and bunker practice. Ridiculous.

[cam]

There was an intersting article about this very subject here in Seattle. You can read it about it here>>Boom and Bust

 

Thanks for the link, great read (im in the greater Puget Sound area).

 

Im not sure if greens fees in general have gotten out of hand, but the cheaper muni courses have.

 

My personal favorite course is Washington National, beautiful course. Its around $65 + cart during peak hours. I just cant afford to play it that often though. I know, some of you are thinking play a cheaper muni course. Well, the problem is they are only marginally cheaper. For instance, Riverbend (in Kent) is around $40-$45 + cart and the course is barely playable (in my eyes). The fees should be closer to $20-$25.

 

That is the norm in the Seattle area. Nice courses (public) cost around $60 and the rest are $40 or so. I feel like Im wasting $40 playing a course in the condition some are in. For my money I'd rather play 1/2 as often and play on a nice course.

 

For instance I played Druids Glenn last year (fee @ $40) and one of the greens had almost no grass on it! It was mostly sand with a few patches of grass. It was so bad that my group couldnt even putt. Once we were on the green we just had to pick up the ball.

 

Another drawback of the cheaper courses. The are never any marshalls out keeping play moving and the players seem to lack the effort to care for the course (repairing divots, ball marks, etc).

[rhnh7063]

Here in the Hudson Valley NY area, golf is about the only thing affordable. It's cheaper to play golf at a couple of the local 9 hole courses than it is to go bowling. A nice course like Casperkill CC in Poughkeepsie can set you back $50 to $75 for 18 with a cart, and the practice range includes a free chipping and putting green (seperate greens, too!). There's a 9 hole course on the Vasser college campus in Poughkeepsie, decent shape, $9 without cart. Once you get past the cost of the clubs (and property/school taxes for the honor of living here), it's not that bad.

[Smooth spin scott]

I am from Toronto and the lowest green fees here are around the $50 range... Any less you're playing in an old corn field with gopher holes and broom sticks as flags... haha You think with all the competition within the city limits we would see clubs being more competitive in respect to specials etc. Oh well, just kills me looking at my golf expenses so far this summer. I guess my wife gets a few less gifts under the tree this year.

[captaincheat]

Here in Regina, Sk., the fees are CHEAP. The city tracks are $32/round prime time, cheaper for twi-light. The condition is excellent. I have played all over western Canada and played some VERY pricey clubs, but the tracks here stand up very well.

[Golf_Beauty]

There was an intersting article about this very subject here in Seattle. You can read it about it here>>Boom and Bust

 

Thanks for the link, great read (im in the greater Puget Sound area).

 

Im not sure if greens fees in general have gotten out of hand, but the cheaper muni courses have.

 

My personal favorite course is Washington National, beautiful course. Its around $65 + cart during peak hours. I just cant afford to play it that often though. I know, some of you are thinking play a cheaper muni course. Well, the problem is they are only marginally cheaper. For instance, Riverbend (in Kent) is around $40-$45 + cart and the course is barely playable (in my eyes). The fees should be closer to $20-$25.

 

That is the norm in the Seattle area. Nice courses (public) cost around $60 and the rest are $40 or so. I feel like Im wasting $40 playing a course in the condition some are in. For my money I'd rather play 1/2 as often and play on a nice course.

 

For instance I played Druids Glenn last year (fee @ $40) and one of the greens had almost no grass on it! It was mostly sand with a few patches of grass. It was so bad that my group couldnt even putt. Once we were on the green we just had to pick up the ball.

 

Another drawback of the cheaper courses. The are never any marshalls out keeping play moving and the players seem to lack the effort to care for the course (repairing divots, ball marks, etc).

 

I've found one course that plays very nice and is only $18 for 18 holes. Can you believe that?? Walter Hall in Everett. They have a starter, marshalls and a cart girl that you see regularly, not just on the first three holes. The super is trying very hard to maintain the course, by evidence of the conditions. Try there and tell me what you think.

[housey]

when i started playing again it cost me over $6000 to buy equipment and join a club, since then I have probably spent $6000 more and I only came back to the game in August 2005...

[phillypete]

In Augusta the locals laugh at anthing over $40 on a weekend, and they play some real nice courses. This is of course because all those tracks survive by being able to sell tee times dawn till dusk for $500+ a person for one week in April.

 

Now on the other hand like arkstorm said Philly was awful. The muni's in and around in Philly look more like landfills and the semi's and privates are so expensive you need to submit to a credit check for a tee time. Now however travel 45 mins up the road (thats 2hrs I-76 time) to Limerick and you can have your pick at decent courses in the 45-60 range. Where I live now all the courses are getting plowed up for new plastic houses that all look the same. The courses that are still around come in two varieties modern semi priviate or old school dog track with greens the size of small umbrellas.

 

Next year I'm concidering joining one of the semi privates, but not b//c of greens fees. My practice habits are killing my wallet. $10 a for a large bucket and $3 to putt. In augusta there is a range with a deal all the balls you can hit for 12 bucks! I told them they should call it the Vijay deal... oh and free putting green. Actually most of the courses will let you hit balls and putt for free if they recognize you as a regular patron... Can you tell I miss the south?

[golfr03]

I play for free at Everett Golf and Country Club because I work their (it is one of the most well kept and best course in the area until a few hours away) but I went to Walter E Hall with a friend and I was surprised to find it in a little better shape than I remebered, the only thing is the greens are extremely bumpy, like putting on gravel, if they fixed that it would be a nice course. I guess with 500 people playing on it every day it would be pretty hard to get them flat though. But to the actual point, I am glad I work at EGCC because I couldnt afford golf anymore, except for the 90 day $100 junior pass at Legion and Walter.

[bd8802]

There was an article about the rise of the nice daily fee golf courses in GolfWeek (or some publication like that) a while back. It was an interesting read. They do have an effect on all of golf. There are some private clubs hurting as a result of the nice daily fee public courses because the are losing members, and they are also driving up the price of a nice round of golf for joe average.

 

I am lucky to be in an area (Lawrence, KS) that has rather reasonable golf reguardless of your situation. Our muni, Eagle Bend, costs 23$ (walking) during peak hours. A nice daily fee golf course, Alvamar Public, will set you back 39$ (walking) druing peak hours. We also have two country clubs. Alvamar Private -- membership also gets you access to Alvamar Public -- is rather unexpensive for a CC. Fees are around 250 bucks for a single membership. I have no clue what Lawrence CC fees and dues are, but I hear they are much more expensive than Alvamar.

 

At times I think that golf is getting to expensive, but in my area you get what you pay for. For a normal round of golf, I don't see the need to spend more than 50 bucks. If you are going somewhere special with friends / family then I can see spending more. I guess I care more about the people I am playing with than the course. Unless that course is something like Peable Beach, ect.

 

/bd

[Choppy_McDivot]

maybe instead of wasting time complaining about it you should work harder so that you can afford to do the things that you love in life

 

My $0.05

[RagingAardvark]

In Augusta the locals laugh at anthing over $40 on a weekend, and they play some real nice courses. This is of course because all those tracks survive by being able to sell tee times dawn till dusk for $500+ a person for one week in April.

 

Man, after my long weekend in Augusta, it HURT to come back to Colorado and play some of our crummy courses for more than I paid to play NICE ones in Augusta. Augusta got bumped up on my list of fun places to visit :yahoo:

 

Here in Colorado, it varies, but it's more expensive than back home in NE Ohio. I pay anywhere from $18 to $50 for 18 holes at the muni courses I'll play (the high-end publics go up to $150 or more). I choose to walk so that chops some of the cost out. There are some real nice "muni" courses that are decent priced, but the cheap ones are filled with bubbas, you know the type. I actually had a 9 hole round at one take, no joke, 3.5 hours! I was almost ready to start whipping people with my clubs. :yahoo:

 

I've been so frustrated that I have though about joining a private club just so playing was less painfull. The fees are crazy though :bad:

[lhsgolfer2]

great article golf beauty. I also live in washington, where there seem to be good deals if you're willing to look. As a junior golfer, some courses are really accomodating. I played the first few years of my golfing career up at old Wally World (walter hall) but find that as your game improves the layout does not challenge the skilled golfer. I would try Snohomish, whose fee's aren't too bad (10$ for junior) and course is generally in good condition and a tough track.

 

Overall the cost of golf here is reasonable, i think that here especially we have a broad range of course types, you spend anywhere from 20-100 dollars. Our nice public courses seem to be in the 75$ range on weekends for 18, and many offer "play all day" specials.

 

As far as driving ranges are concerned, the nicer the range the more expensive the balls. The columbia super range is an excellent practice facility, but it used to cost me like $8 to hit 70 balls and chip and putt on their chip and putt course. Now it costs 11$, which i find ridiculous. However, there is a grass range in snohomish hat give you about 120 balls for 6$, and chipping and putting is free.

 

It seems to me that golf courses are allowing cheap play if you are willing to plat during specified times.

And a big thanks to guys like Smooth Spin Scott for volunteering their time so that guys like me who aren't bill gates can enjoy the game for the right price!

 

mike

[Smooth spin scott]

Choppy isnt it a catch 22, work harder to enjoy golfing= less time to golf.

[NikeTaylormade891]

Its all a matter of supply and demand. Here in Philly, the best courses are private and priced out of reach for most young working professionals. So my only option is to pay an inflated rate that seems to go up 5% every season at the public courses. In areas of the city where public tracks are abundant the price reflects the abundance c. $50. Here on my end of the city you can expect to pay $65+ because there are fewer courses within reach. I would rate these as sub-premium courses. The premium courses cost no less than $100 per round. So the way to clean up in the golf industry here would be to open a sub-premium course and charge $40 a round...but no one is going to do that with land costing such a premium. In fact, a sad epilogue to this post is that the one course in the area that is still $40 is rumored to be closing down to make way for a new housing development.

 

 

Your from Philly, I am from Delco. What courses do you play?

[lidomkj]

Everyone agrees that golf is not the cheapest sport to play compared to many others (what do you really need to play basketball, soccer, baseball, etc?)

 

Anyway, golf can be expensive if you are not doing a little bit of homework. Most people in this forum have found ways to get equipment cheap, but should use the same "flea market" mentality on playing courses.

 

I have found some ways over the years to save some money, some I have done or know people who are using them. Not every suggestion will work for you.

 

1) Play during off hours or peak season. Many course offer deep discounts during off peak times after 2-3 or will let you play only 9 holes late evening.

 

2) Work part-time at a local course. Many places have days that employees play for free(1 day or anytime during slow periods) and you get discounts on equipment!

 

3) Look for package or group discounts. Get several foursomes together and you can often find discounts including overnight accomodations.

 

4) This applies to equipment, but search the internet, price matching, ebay, etc.

 

5) Befriend the starter, pro, counter worker, anyone who can get you on for free or offer their employee discount to you. Take them out to the bar, sporting event, or any social event for free and they will definitely return the favor. The good old "Scratch my back and I'll scratch yours!" technique.

 

6) Play local tournaments you are eligible for. Many times you are playing a top notch private course for less money than if you were playing as a guest (You might actually win money or pro shop credits and play for free!)

 

7) Join a local golf club, often cheaper for groups.

 

8) Search the internet for deals! Does much more than just GOLFWRX or buying equipment. Many places such as last minute golfer or other services offer specials (discounted rounds, buy one get one).

 

9) Ask your course for frequent player info. Some will get you a free round after playing a set number of rounds. I have found some courses that do not offer it, but since I came out there so much or bring a ton of people with me, they make a special arrangement with me.

 

10) Negotiate with a private course if you are looking for a membership and shop around. Many private courses (not the elite with 10 year waiting lists) are in competition with one another. Many will waive certain fees or reduce them if they think you will go somewhere else. Or try looking with a friend or your co-workers. The more quality people you are bringing to the table, the more they want to work with you.

 

11) Run your own local scramble or tournament or volunteer to help with an established charity event. Often you get to play for free for the work you put into it.

 

12) Walk! The execise is good for you and also saves you $20 or more by not paying cart fees. Not all courses let you during peak times, but many will.

 

These are just a few suggestions, let's see if anyone else has any to help reduce the cost of golf!

[raehtz10]

Isn't bad where I grew up. Jackson County is host to over 500 holes of golf, 188 lakes and 27 public parks covering 17,000 acres. With the third largest number of public golf holes per capita in the United States and the second oldest harness racing track in Michigan, there is year 'round fun indoors and out.

[wkuo3]

I hate the so called weekend rate for even on Fridays.

Why are they thinking that weekend players have to pay a premium for golf?

I had stopped or play fewer rounds at some of the local courses which I frequent in the past years. when I had to pay more than $30 for walking at an early bird weekday rate ( first couple of hours of daylight ) at one of the local public course. I stopped going there and play somewhere else.

 

Supply and demand is the law of survival, when they don't have enough rounds played, they'll lower the golf fee or run special rate to get golfers back. I mean, it does not cost more for materials to up-keep the golf course on the Coast line than somewhere in the Mid-West? Several local Muni courses had lowered the rate with better conditions, and now they are packed all the time.

 

Don't like it; don't give them your penny.

[cody]

Since I work in course maintenance I can say that the cost of playing is understandable but what I am sick of seeing the prices of lessons for beginners. I think head pros should be encouraged by speeding up play and getting more play not making big bucks teaching grip and then saying come back for another hour tomorrow. Ok im through and to you guys out there teaching decent players ahigher level swing im not saying you I just think someone getting their first lesson should not pay as much as a 10 handicap.

[toddnt]

I hate and dont understand why you pay 150+ for a round and then they hit you for 10 buck for a yardage book, but thats So Cal I guess.

[Desert Golf]

I live in the Palm Springs area and golf is very inexpensive from May thru September. $25 dollar rounds can be had at many clubs and even upper scale public courses such as the Classic Club (PGA Course) can be played for $50. Yes it is hot but the courses are in good shape and you can finish in well under 4 hours.

 

November through March is a different story and the same clubs will charge from $100-$200. During the winter, I look for specials and will usually buy a frequent player card that limits the fees to less than $60 a round.

 

Over 100 courses to choose from in the Coachella Valley...

[kentutz]

It's an expensive game. It adds up quick... especially if u're a club hoes.

[wkuo3]

For most of the golfers, we're not members of some private country club and we do have a life outside the hours we spend on the golf course.

 

What's happening now, whether it's right or wrong, the "business" of golf is driving a lot of the golfers and potential golfers away, by the escalating cost to play and stay with the game.

 

I love to be able to play golf every minutes outside of my job and family life. Rising cost for green fees and new equipment costs had driven me from 70 rounds + per year to currently less than 40 rounds per year, and it hurt my game a great deal.

[TRAV1]

maybe instead of wasting time complaining about it you should work harder so that you can afford to do the things that you love in life

 

My $0.05

Choppy isnt it a catch 22, work harder to enjoy golfing= less time to golf.

 

Not necessarily. Maybe it's about working smarter, but I agree with Choppy... eventually you have to learn that you have to sacrifice and earn it. How much is golf worth too you? Nobody gets what they want without giving something else away. As for working smarter, read the Four Hour Work Week.