Member vs. Pay as you Play

Used to pay as I played, but, having very little time, becoming a member of a private club was really the only way to go. This way, on long summer evenings, my wife and I will sometimes tee up close to 9 p.m. and play maybe 5 or 6 holes (the course is only 15 minutes from our house). You would never do that if you were having to pay a green fee.

Also. we had no golfing friends before joining, so being members helped us to find a group of like-minded people with whom we now love to spend time. We woudl never have met them if we hadn't joined.

Playing a round at my course will cost more than $125 a round if I were to pay as I play.. Instead I've joined a corporate membership where I can play 3 times a month on the weekends and unlimited during the weekday (not that I'm even able to get there on the weekday).  Sometimes, if other people don't reserve I can play up to 4 or 5 times on the weekends during the month.. It is still a pretty good deal not to pay as I play.

I joined a membership for the first time this year. It worked out really well. Previous to that I was always pay to play.

I pay as I play because I like to play more than one place and when I had a membership in the past I tended to play there more often just to make sure I got my money worth of golf in.

Currently a member of the course closest to the house.  The membership is cheap compared to most places and It allows me to walk for free. The cart fees are a lil higher then most places.  I am thinking of canceling the membership next year because I want to be able to play more full rounds instead of nine holes, and i can usually find golf nows for as cheap or as cheap in the long run (monthly fee plus cart fees) as the cart fee I have to pay.  

Though it is nice being 6 minutes from home

I think I am an anomaly.  I live in the Phoenix area in the cooler months and in the mountains (7500' ASL) during the  late spring, Summer and early Fall months.  I am a Desert Rat (e.g. native to AZ) but don't tolerate the desert summer temperatures very well these days.  As to the Anomaly, in the phoenix area I play with a couple of leagues and we mostly play muni courses (keeps the price down).  Both leagues are mostly seniors but not limited to that age  group.  Since we play during the week most jobs don't allow someone to who still works for a living to play with us on a regular basis.  In the Summer months I belong to a private club.  I have never really thought of myself as a CC sort of fellow but where I live is a small town and there are  only 3 courses available.  Two are private clubs and the other is a semi private executive course. There are 3 other courses 17 miles away and one is open the other two are private.  We have a reciprocity agreement with the two private courses but it is expensive to play there.  The open course just is not to my liking.  So there is a great course 27 miles from my house and for the first few years I owned the place that is where I played.  But driving 54 miles 3 or 4 times a week is just to time consuming (there are no freeways in the area) not to mention puts a lot of miles on the vehicle.  So finally a few years back I joined one of the private clubs 5 minutes from my house.  I like but it is more expensive this way. Also there is a lot of "organized" play that is both a pain, events you don't care for, and fun, events you like.  But it comes with the membership so you can't avoid it.  

I'm a member at 2 courses, but both are public courses that just happen to offer memberships.  One still has a $3 fee for each 18 holes ($2 for cart and $1 for what he calls capital improvements), the other has no additional charge.  These are not clubs, just open fee memberships available to anyone.  I paid about $800 for memberships for both courses, and that's a family membership for both my wife and myself.  That's too good a deal to pass up

I like this option and did the men's club thing at a course near where I lived in Phoenix metro.  Also joined the Senior men's club at the same course.  But that option just isn't available in my elevated home area.  I left the two clubs for the leagues as both leagues have circuit they play and I like doing different courses plus the league membership fees are like $20/year.  We all purchase a "city card" and with this our senior rates are usually less than $45 green fees at the courses we play even in peak season.  

That would be worth it for me, however I played the one course here I think less than 30 times and the membership is 650 so I'd have to golf there even more to make it worth the cost. There was a 5 course membership here that was around the same price, however there was only really 1 course on that list that I would have cared to play and it's the course that closed Oct 18. At some point, if I move closer to the Dayton area I may try to get in on the discount thing they have that lowers the price on multiple courses, but as it stands in my area there's nothing worth a membership unfortunately. 

Impressive thread bump!

Pay as I play.

For my wife and I, it was too expensive to pay as we play, given the number of rounds we play per year.  We ended up playing a lot of late afternoon rounds,  I scoured golf discount sites for bargains and it became a chore.   Two years ago, we became a member and never regretted since.   We still play other courses once in a while but they have to be special courses.

I pay when I play. I use to be a member at a couple of private places, but gave it up. I just found that private courses had a few too many "elitest snobs" in there memberships. I am going to join a men's club where I golf now for tournament reasons. 

 Been  a member of two clubs over the last 8 years. Eagle Point GC for three years then Centennial GC for 4 years and now back to EP again.  Neither is a private club as most course here offer annual rates to singles and families. Eagle Point does have a limited membership though of 330. 

Exactly my situation.  My rota now consists of ~30 courses; variety is important to me.

I pay as I play because I only play about once or twice a month and never saw a deal that worked for that infrequent of play. We just look for the cheapest decent course so we play about three different courses regularly. One course we like to play is beautiful and very well maintained cost $26 in the summer and $29 in the winter. http://www.royalstcloudgolflinks.com/