Play the same course or explore new ones?

[MrBandit]

This is a question that came up the other day, just wondering out loud. Do you preferred playing the same course i.e. your home course every weekend, or do you like to to venture out play other courses.

I know some people feel that they only play the one course and won't venture out. Comfort level, don't like to travel beyond 15mins.. etc..
And you if you belong to a CC you pretty much obligated to play the same course.

For me I loose focus because is the same course, you know what your going to hit every time and not into it as much as you should.
Playing different courses you are force to focus and adjust to different greens, terrain , line of site. I feel it test your game a little more. 

What is you guys opinion?

Edited March 24, 2021 by MrBandit

[Letthebigdogshunt]

I have been a ;member of each course in my county. Yet when I was member of each course I pretty much played 90% of my rounds at that course. We also had home and home play at other courses with our men and women's club. Also we  had couples home and home play. So while my wife and I played mostly at the home courses we did play others as well. 

Edited March 24, 2021 by Letthebigdogshunt

[MrBandit]

8 minutes ago, Letthebigdogshunt said:

I have been a ;member of each course in my county. Yet when I was member of each course I pretty much played 90% of my rounds at that course. We also had home and home play at other courses with our men and women's club. Also we  had couples home and home play. So while my wife and I played mostly at the home courses we did play others as well. 

I would agreed that if you invest in becoming a member at a CC you pretty much obligate to play there since you are investing in the facilities.  Playing outside of that would not make much sense.
 

[Shapotomous]

I do like to know a little about the course before picking one to know if it's worth spending the $$ on. 

I like playing varied courses because you can't just lock into standard club per hole plus or minus one depending on the wind that day. 

A lot of golfers have games that don't travel because they can't look at a yardage and elevation change to pick a club for a shot.  They have a club recipe they follow for holes they have played a boatload of times.   

eta....I do like going back a second & third time to a course to see what improvement I can make after knowing some of its "gotcha's".  

[MaxEntropy]

A little bit of both. I play in a league (always same course) and I like traveling around and playing different courses. I also enjoy playing new-to-me courses, but like to have someone with local knowledge.

[Kansas King]

I tend to play the same course but mostly out of convenience. I do play a fair number of other courses throughout the year so I generally don't feel like I get stuck in a "rut" on my home course. I would say that I have rarely ever felt burnt out on playing the same course over and over again. I would actually say that as my handicap has gone down, I've enjoyed playing other courses less and less to a certain degree. When you are playing well and keeping the ball out of trouble, so many elements that make courses interesting don't actually impact your round anymore. So for me, I look for course with interesting layouts that force you to make strategic decisions more than just look cool or are in perfect shape. I don't like wide open "resort" courses as they are just that, wide open with no real choices to be made. I've actually started to care less and less about course condition over the years. I've learned that golf courses that don't even have a discernable fairway from the rough can be equally fun as a course that is perfectly manicured. It really all comes down to core understanding of trying to get the ball from the tee box to the hole in the fewest strokes possible, whether your crossing a pasture or playing on zoysia, it doesn't matter. That doesn't mean I don't love a well manicured course but it's not a high priority.

My home course has some interesting risk/reward decisions that can really change a round and change how the course feels. When you play a course that has holes that require some strategy, there becomes so many variables that unless you play every single day, you probably won't get burnt out. The other part is who you are playing with. If your course has a good social membership, it can make going out of your way less enticing. 

[MNUte]

Salt lake has several great courses and a lot of variety in the types of courses (hilly mountain style courses, tree filled river courses, wide open but long, etc). So I love bouncing between them and focusing on different aspects of my game depending on the course. Far more mentally stimulating in my mind.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

I have been a member at my course for over 12 years but I am torn on going to other places to play for a few reasons. First reason, its the best golf course in the area and if I go to another course that is reasonably close (within 30 minutes) the conditions are not as good and the courses are crowded. My course is private and is a Robert Trent Jones course.  The second reason, it is the closest to my house and I never need a tee time.  I can decide right now to go play, put on golf clothes, grab my clubs and be on the tee box in 15 minutes including travel time of 6 minutes.

Do I get tired of playing the same course? Yes, played mine several hundred times.

Do I get annoyed playing a course in poor condition in comparison to mine? Yes and the other local courses are not as challenging as my course.

Do I hate having to wait between shots due to slow play in front of me? Yes  

I do get to play other courses through work, usually out of state taking customers out to play or charity tournaments but I'm leaving this out of the equation.

But I did state in my 2021 goals for the year that I would get out and play other courses more. This will help round out my handicap better. I will just have to drive out of town. My club does have reciprocal arrangements with other private clubs but they are an hour to an hour and a half away.   

[Pandaman]

I play other courses maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I do like and enjoy the change and the fresh challenges.  But then again I am pretty erratic so get a fair bit of variety at my home course anyway.

[MrBandit]

8 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I have been a member at my course for over 12 years but I am torn on going to other places to play for a few reasons. First reason, its the best golf course in the area and if I go to another course that is reasonably close (within 30 minutes) the conditions are not as good and the courses are crowded. My course is private and is a Robert Trent Jones course.  The second reason, it is the closest to my house and I never need a tee time.  I can decide right now to go play, put on golf clothes, grab my clubs and be on the tee box in 15 minutes including travel time of 6 minutes.

Do I get tired of playing the same course? Yes, played mine several hundred times.

Do I get annoyed playing a course in poor condition in comparison to mine? Yes and the other local courses are not as challenging as my course.

Do I hate having to wait between shots due to slow play in front of me? Yes  

I do get to play other courses through work, usually out of state taking customers out to play or charity tournaments but I'm leaving this out of the equation.

But I did state in my 2021 goals for the year that I would get out and play other courses more. This will help round out my handicap better. I will just have to drive out of town. My club does have reciprocal arrangements with other private clubs but they are an hour to an hour and a half away.   

If you have invested in play in a Private club, you have made the investment that
a) the club is the best around and worth the investment,
b) that traveling outside you 15-20min are to play is not worth it
c) not worrying about tee times, or  conditions.
d) slow play is everywhere, private (members feel they don't need to hurry) and public (they don't understand how to move along)

But you last point to rounding out your HC playing different courses, do you become complacent because you know your course.  is your 6-7HC only good on that course, and when you go to a different course layout , a bit harder, that HC jumps up to a 9-10, or maybe it doesn't. just as an example.
 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

1 minute ago, MrBandit said:

If you have invested in play in a Private club, you have made the investment that
a) the club is the best around and worth the investment,
b) that traveling outside you 15-20min are to play is not worth it
c) not worrying about tee times, or  conditions.
d) slow play is everywhere, private (members feel they don't need to hurry) and public (they don't understand how to move along)

But you last point to rounding out your HC playing different courses, do you become complacent because you know your course.  is your 6-7HC only good on that course, and when you go to a different course layout , a bit harder, that HC jumps up to a 9-10, or maybe it doesn't. just as an example.
 

I did leave a key ingredient out on purpose. My wife works at my club as the office manager which comes with membership. So its all free for me. But I try not to post about it. There could be people reading that are members and paying between $250 and $300 a month which could cause some hard feelings if you know what I mean.

Although a great course it is in a rural area and membership level is low. Like 300  to 350 families that have diverse memberships. Social dining, pool only, full memberships. So even with slow play members you can go around them, skip a hole or two and go back and play them later, or play through. Last week I needed par on 18 to shoot 72. I got a bogey due to an ill timed duck hook drive. After I finished up on 18, I drove back to the tee on 18 and played it again and made par. Just because i knew I could and in part because I was pissed.  No crowds, never groups on every hole. Truthfully a golfers dream. But it is the same course over and over. Even playing the back before the front doesn't add excitement after several hundred rounds. But every once in a while I'll make my own course by playing different tees. Alternate between blue, white, and gold in the same round.  I always try to improve my play / handicap. It's a challenge to keep it where it is on a course that can get you in trouble. But to your last point, is my handicap good to travel with or is it based on knowing where to hit and what club to use on every shot?.  We will find out this year. 

[Middler]

I’d go bonkers if I played the same course all the time, might even lose interest in golf! 

It’s nice to have one regular course, member or not, that you know inside out - e.g. every hazard, when to layup/not, best misses, best approaches, and really know the green reads all over. I play my home course once or twice a week, but I’m part of a group of 8 that travels to a different course every Wednesday. We have 16 reasonably priced courses within an hours drive in our rotation, and we add new courses from time to time. That said, when I lived up near Chicago, many of the courses within an hours drive were 2-5X the cost. In NC, reasonably priced golf courses are everywhere! 
 

[Edit: the advantage to a home course is meeting other players. Though I play away every week, I met every one of my 20 or so golf buddies at the home course. That’s an important reason to have a home course IMO.]

[RickyBobby_PR]

I play various courses but there’s a few I play here or when I go back home that I could play all the time without any issues of boredom or whatever 

[MrBandit]

15 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I did leave a key ingredient out on purpose. My wife works at my club as the office manager which comes with membership. So its all free for me. But I try not to post about it. There could be people reading that are members and paying between $250 and $300 a month which could cause some hard feelings if you know what I mean.

Although a great course it is in a rural area and membership level is low. Like 300  to 350 families that have diverse memberships. Social dining, pool only, full memberships. So even with slow play members you can go around them, skip a hole or two and go back and play them later, or play through. Last week I needed par on 18 to shoot 72. I got a bogey due to an ill timed duck hook drive. After I finished up on 18, I drove back to the tee on 18 and played it again and made par. Just because i knew I could and in part because I was pissed.  No crowds, never groups on every hole. Truthfully a golfers dream. But it is the same course over and over. Even playing the back before the front doesn't add excitement after several hundred rounds. But every once in a while I'll make my own course by playing different tees. Alternate between blue, white, and gold in the same round.  I always try to improve my play / handicap. It's a challenge to keep it where it is on a course that can get you in trouble. But to your last point, is my handicap good to travel with or is it based on knowing where to hit and what club to use on every shot?.  We will find out this year. 

So the truth comes out.. your wife is keeping you closed by not letting your wonder out for "Golf" LMAO!!!!! That is a great deal.. good for you. 
My motto is have Clubs Will Travel, am about to drive 1 1/2 to play a new course to me out west. 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

3 minutes ago, MrBandit said:

So the truth comes out.. your wife is keeping you closed by not letting your wonder out for "Golf" LMAO!!!!! That is a great deal.. good for you. 
My motto is have Clubs Will Travel, am about to drive 1 1/2 to play a new course to me out west. 

Good luck and have a great round. PICTURES! 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Just now, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Good luck and have a great round. PICTURES! 

 

4 minutes ago, MrBandit said:

So the truth comes out.. your wife is keeping you closed by not letting your wonder out for "Golf" LMAO!!!!! That is a great deal.. good for you. 
My motto is have Clubs Will Travel, am about to drive 1 1/2 to play a new course to me out west. 

 Here is the truth as I play it'

"Hi dear I was thinking of stopping by and having lunch with you.  OK see you at 12:00. Well since I'm already here i think I'll squeeze in a quick 18 holes." 

[ParFore74x]

I was one that played only my home course for quite a while but have since been convinced to venture out. I have five course within 20 minutes of my house so there really is no reason for me to just stick to the one. I’ve found it to be quite a bit more enjoyable since I no longer het into a groove where I know exactly what I am going to do at each hole before I even get there. I guess I like variety when it comes to golf. 

[DiscipleofPenick]

I've always preferred to travel around and play a different course every time out, with some of my favorites in the rotation. However in recent years to be able to play the amount of golf I want and have it be affordable, I've purchased a membership to a local public course. So 80% of my rounds end up being there. It's still enough that I can travel around a bit. I've not yet had the pleasure to join a country club.

Take Dead Aim

[Shapotomous]

1 hour ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

I did leave a key ingredient out on purpose. My wife works at my club as the office manager which comes with membership. So its all free for me. ......

This is absolute genius!!  Note to self.... When the current spousal unit comes to her senses and trades me in for a more changeable model that she can mold into her ideal man; ....and I lose my mind and want to get into a relationship again;  .....I will troll the online dating sites for a country club manager, accountant, greenskeeper or even sand trap groomer....  really my bar is very low.....  I learn so much beyond golf clubs on this forum!!!       

[stephenmatt]

Last year I was not a member at any clubs and traveled all around my area to different places but this year I got a membership at a club right down the road. I like playing new courses but learning and playing one course is cheaper and since a bunch of my friends are members there also it works out great.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

4 hours ago, Shapotomous said:

This is absolute genius!!  Note to self.... When the current spousal unit comes to her senses and trades me in for a more changeable model that she can mold into her ideal man; ....and I lose my mind and want to get into a relationship again;  .....I will troll the online dating sites for a country club manager, accountant, greenskeeper or even sand trap groomer....  really my bar is very low.....  I learn so much beyond golf clubs on this forum!!!       

You are welcome!

Alternate in...... Become a member at a club and then tell them " you know what you need is a person that can do ______________. I know someone if you are interested.  Hint Hint it works.

[HardcoreLooper]

Club membership is definitely a matter of personal preference.  I belonged to a private club for a couple years, I loved my course, the membership was pretty good, but overall, I hated it.  I love playing different courses, and paying greens fees when you're paying dues just ate away at me.  And when I did the math on what my per-round cost was, I realized that I could do better going back to playing public courses.  I grew up working at a private club (caddying/pro shop), so my relationship with private clubs is... complicated.

With all that being said, my status might change in the next month (public course with memberships, not private at all).  Probably not, but we'll see.

[TBT]

I don’t belong to a club anymore, the private clubs anywhere close to me are VERY EXPENSIVE and they are all 20-25 minutes away.

There are a couple of public courses that offer “annual passes” but if you can’t play 5+ times a month you won’t break even.

The public course I play the most often has 2 18 hole courses so we tend to alternate so you don’t get in a rut.....I would like to travel to other courses in the area more but my buddies all have houses on 1 of those 2 courses and own their own carts so getting them to go anywhere else is impossible.


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[DiscipleofPenick]

I don’t belong to a club anymore, the private clubs anywhere close to me are VERY EXPENSIVE and they are all 20-25 minutes away.

There are a couple of public courses that offer “annual passes” but if you can’t play 5+ times a month you won’t break even.

The public course I play the most often has 2 18 hole courses so we tend to alternate so you don’t get in a rut.....I would like to travel to other courses in the area more but my buddies all have houses on 1 of those 2 courses and own their own carts so getting them to go anywhere else is impossible.


Sent from my iPad using MyGolfSpy

That's what a lot of courses in my area do, they have a players card. But it's like 10-12 rounds before you get a free one, or 10% off, which is like 4 bucks a round. Not really a deal and then you're tied to that course.

Then there's 4 others that grouped together and offer a cheap membership package, but you're required to pay a cart free every time you play. And they're dump courses anyway.

Take Dead Aim

[ZenGolfer]

18 hours ago, MrBandit said:

This is a question that came up the other day, just wondering out loud. Do you preferred playing the same course i.e. your home course every weekend, or do you like to to venture out play other courses.

I know some people feel that they only play the one course and won't venture out. Comfort level, don't like to travel beyond 15mins.. etc..
And you if you belong to a CC you pretty much obligated to play the same course.

For me I loose focus because is the same course, you know what your going to hit every time and not into it as much as you should.
Playing different courses you are force to focus and adjust to different greens, terrain , line of site. I feel it test your game a little more. 

What is you guys opinion?

I tend to play the same rotation of courses because theres so many great, cheap courses within a 20 minute drive of home but its fun to venture out and try new courses sometimes too.

[tony@CIC]

We belong to a private Club - in fact we live on the course in a Condo in Ohio. There are advantages and disadvantages. We can play whenever we want and as many holes as we want (think running out in the evening and playing 5 or 6 holes). For as much we play (we have an unlimited play package), I figured out that we pay under $10./round not including how much our golf cart cost (that we bought 8 years ago). Also there are a bunch of guys I play with in our Condo community - generally the night before, my phone goes wild with texts from guys wanting to play the following morning. So one big advantage is that if you're new to an area or looking for playing partners, you get to make golf friends real fast. 

The disadvantages are obviously it could get boring, since we know the course so well - however, being adjacent to the Lake, course conditions vary a lot.   You can also mix it up by playing from different tees. However, my favorite is a weekly group outing of about 20 guys to a different course within about 30 mins. There are about 6 of them and that does mix it up a bit and BTW who thinks golf can be boring, especially for a mid to high handicapper . So playing the same course with the occasional road trip helps. 

Our Condo in Florida also has a course within the development - 27 holes. However, we decided to hold off joining it til next year - partly economics, partly we wanted to see and play other courses in the area. We've played 6 different courses within 20 miles including the one in our development. We really like playing one course that's about 10 minutes away because it's different and more challenging than our 'home' course in Ohio. We've also been paired up with some fun people. However, we've only gotten to meet our immediate Condo neighbors to the right and left of us - so we figure joining the onsite Club next year will solve that problem.

So back to the original topic the takeaway for me  is it depends on what you're looking for. 

 

 

[PMookie]

There are only three public access courses within a 35 minute radius here, so I generally only play two of them. I can’t afford the $400/mo dues at the CC here locally, and that course is boring anyway. Sadly, back home in SE Michigan, there are 30 courses within that same radius! I take my clubs with me when I go on the road for work, and I really enjoy playing new courses, so if all things were equal between here and Michigan, I wouldn’t join anywhere and I’d just travel around to play new places, or at least have a few to rotate through.

[JDHolmes]

I play at one course a lot for regular practice rounds (Memorial Park Houston, home of Houston Open) so its a tough course. I play other courses also as there are many reasonably priced courses to choose from. I also play tournament golf which gets me into tougher courses at $125ish a round. Good variety and I get the competition when not "practicing".

If club member, Id tend to play that one only.

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[Larryd3]

I'm fortunate to belong to a private club that has 36 holes and both are different from each other and challenging.  One way to change it up is to play from different tees periodically, really makes it a different course, especially playing from the Red (women's) tees.  totally different course and takes a different mindset to play it that way.  We also have ability to play 3 other courses in the Tampa area for just cart fees.  One is fairly close and has 27 holes but not anywhere near as good as our home courses.  The other 2 are on the other side of town so with traffic issues, probably around an hour commute.  Kind of irks me when I got to one of those 3 that I have to pay for a cart since I'm on an annual cart plan at the home course.  I'll play somewhere else every once in awhile but really runs up the monthly golf costs.  

[Larryd3]

4 minutes ago, JDHolmes said:

I play at one course a lot for regular practice rounds (Memorial Park Houston, home of Houston Open) so its a tough course. I play other courses also as there are many reasonably priced courses to choose from. I also play tournament golf which gets me into tougher courses at $125ish a round. Good variety and I get the competition when not "practicing".

If club member, Id tend to play that one only.

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just a note that I lived in Houston for many years and Memorial Park is a great golf course especially considering it's city owned.  Lots of challenges there and really enjoyed playing it.