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#weallwannaplaygolf - Your Max Green Fee Thoughts


The Dansome

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Funny you mention green fees, cuz I just noticed everybody in Denver raised fees pretty substantially this year. Last year, denver courses averaged 50-65 for a decent non-city course. This year I played a few early bird rounds during the week (when I was not working) for $35. Now that same course wants $75. I played one of my few weekend rounds at a cow pasture city course a couple weeks ago, and it was $50 + cart. The nicer courses want 100-150. This is getting out of hand...

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Funny you mention green fees, cuz I just noticed everybody in Denver raised fees pretty substantially this year. Last year, denver courses averaged 50-65 for a decent non-city course. This year I played a few early bird rounds during the week (when I was not working) for $35. Now that same course wants $75. I played one of my few weekend rounds at a cow pasture city course a couple weeks ago, and it was $50 + cart. The nicer courses want 100-150. This is getting out of hand...

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Two courses 'round here I play the most range from $31 walking (easy walking course) to $43 walking, $60 w/cart (no way that course is worth $60).  We have 3 "destination" type courses in town, with feed ranging from $80 to $100 with cart - only 1 of them is worth it, imo.  Those are once-a-season courses for me. 

 

Been playing in some TwinCitiesGolf.com tournaments this year and getting to see a variety of courses for anywhere from $30 to $50/round - which is a nice discount, and the Hack To Jack program gives us free entry to a half-dozen tourney's.  Also have the MNPGA discount card, with offers free "try-it" rounds at some courses, as well as lots of 2-for-1's - the problem is most of the courses are WAY out of the way.  

 

Agree that memberships are great for cash flow - best deal around is a suburban course offering a membership for under $1,000 for the season if you walk - play all you want, no restrictions.  Others offer a "Player's Card," which gives you 50% off greens fees for the season.  

 

That said, got to play Wolf Creek in Mesquite, NV earlier this season - $200 greens fee and it was absolutely, positively worth every penny.  Would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

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40-55 is a range I play locally, though a lot of times it's much less with twilight or specials. If the course is aggressive and putting money back in to it, I have no problems spending it. One local city course was redone about 6 years ago, a great lay out, and good conditions, but the green fees are around 49-60 now a city course, that I pay taxes for. Much too much for what they are giving you.

John Barry

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Luckily I'm a range rat. Only $5 buckets and the chipping/putting greens are free...

There is no spoon.

WITB
TaylorMade M3
Callaway Diablo 15°
Callaway Diablo 18°
Callaway Steelhead XR Pro 4-W
Mizuno TP-4 50, 54, 58
TaylorMade Rossa Monza Spyder

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Looking around the Atl, it looks like we are more or less middle of the pack. If you just want to get out and play, you can hit several tracks for $30-$40, but if you want to play a nicer course, you have to expect about 65-85, and if you are thinking about an upper echelon track, you need to budget over 100.  

 

OF course it was after looking at this, I actually looked at what non-members pay to play my home courses, and I realized just how spoiled I have become.  I am a member of a two course club.  The courses are ~3 miles apart, I live roughly 2 miles from either.  One of them is older and shorter, the other is a very nice Fazzio design. I pay ~300 / mo for a membership (golf, swim, tennis, fitness, social, no food min's).  That includes unlimited range and practice facilities too.  With that I can walk either course for free any weekday, or weekends after 1pm.  I can take a cart for 22 on the shorter course or 28 on the longer one. A non-member can play at guest rates for 65-85 on the shorter course and 80-110 on the longer one.

 

I sometimes think to myself that 300 a month is a lot. But, considering that I take a cart every saturday morning, and walk an additional 2-3 rounds per week  Even playing the worst / cheapest tracks in the area, I would spend  $380 / month, and that doesn't include the gas it would cost me driving the additional miles to the courses, and the inconvenience of not being able to call 10 minutes before I want to play and get on the course without issue.

 

Now, that said, Atlanta has another issue.  Limited selection of public courses. For example, the closest semi-private course to me is about 3 miles from the house.  It is a little ver  6000 yards, par 71, 72.5 rating/131 slope built in a neighborhood, with very boundaries to the homes ( and on a landfill that was retired over 25 years ago ). A discount tee time is 49 weekday and 58 weekend.  The nicer tracks, like say Pine Isle on Lake Lanier is 54 during the week, and 90 on the weekend (it is also a 40 minute drive).

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To Dru's last point this was a huge issue growing up in Fairfield County CT. There were literally only four public courses in a county of 750k people. A few have been added since but still it's hardly enough and of course the population is closer to a million. There isn't that much land available to build and anyway the cost is astronomical. Westchester county NY is no different. There are plenty of courses but we are talking big time, classic country clubs. Unless you can fork over the bucks or are in a special group (clergy, fire fighters, police and then it's limited) you are out of luck. I was shocked at how affordable golf became when I moved to Indiana.

 

A lot of the cost factor depends upon where one is located.

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Well I guess I am fortunante here in this area. I know a lot of people in the business so I play some for only cart fee. They have a lot of local deals here along with things like the "local passport" thing. Now in the fall and winter snowbird season if the weather is mild they have so much play that it is hard to get a tee time much less a good rate. the same as the spring tourist golf season. This past spring it was terrible due to our unusally terrible winter. The seasons overlapped because some of the snowbirds extended their stay. Unless you were on a motel package or extended condo package it was hard to get a tee time even if you were a member. Now in the hot summer you can get a jam up deal on afternoon golf because of the heat. I usually pay anwhere form $20 t0 $35 for riding. At my home course I only pay from $9 to $12 for walking but walkable courses are nearly impossible here due to being spread out around housing developements. And some courses will not let you walk period. In fact I play some with the golf director for several courses and I joked to him the week or so before Easter that I was going to Charlotte NC to play so I could get a tee time. He told me take me with you. Right now though you can get a tee time in the afternoons pretty reasonably but the mornings are usually a bust because of all the retirees golf leagues are going to play early before the heat kicks in.

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 G

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To Dru's last point this was a huge issue growing up in Fairfield County CT. There were literally only four public courses in a county of 750k people. A few have been added since but still it's hardly enough and of course the population is closer to a million. There isn't that much land available to build and anyway the cost is astronomical. Westchester county NY is no different. There are plenty of courses but we are talking big time, classic country clubs. Unless you can fork over the bucks or are in a special group (clergy, fire fighters, police and then it's limited) you are out of luck. I was shocked at how affordable golf became when I moved to Indiana.

 

A lot of the cost factor depends upon where one is located.

I can echo your sentiments exactly. That is what public golf was like in Charlotte in the 70s and 80s. There were a lot of people taking up the game and a shortage of public courses. On the weekends 5 and 6 hr rounds were the norm. We had a little group of 20 sometimes 30 players or so. We started going to the Pinehurst area because we were getting great deals on golf and no crowds. If you went the back roads to Pinehurst from Charlotte it only took about 1 and 1/4 hrs to get there. We car poole and split gas money so it worked good. If there was not much play we could get in 36 a day sometimes more we would play all day Saturday and drive back home. Charlotte and the surrounding are has changed on the golf scene now some of the older courses are gone including the one I grew up on but there are a boatload of new courses I have never played. I have actually gotten spoiled living down here the past 13 years. I have so many courses to choose from. I have about 12 courses within 10 miles of the house and 5 within a 5 mile radius of the house

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 G

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Several courses around here are using a Dynamic Pricing model based on t-time rather than a set fee.  it's not a bad concept really.  You can let the price dictate what time you play.

 

Before 8am   $55

8am - 10am  $50

10am - 2pm  $41

2pm - 4pm   $25

after 4pm     $18

 

Personally I like the concept, because it spreads the golfers out through the day rather than clumping them up early in the morning then again when the twilight rate begins.

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Here in Southern California we have a few courses that dip under 50. But most hover around the 60 range. I'd personally love for our local courses to dip under the 50 mark...but golf is alive and well in the Los Angeles area. There are no shortage of folks paying this and more.

Anyone from SoCal can confirm what wait times look like at some of our more popular coastal courses, and if you are an LA resident and use your Player Card to make times online you can make times 16 days in advance at numerous choice city courses. Don't wake up 30 minutes late to make your 16 days out tee time or you'll be teeing off at 11:15. It's out of control.

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