Living on a golf course?

[squaddie]

I will be moving this year (due to losing a job) and was considering buying a house next to a golf course, hopefully at least public or semi-public course so I could play on it.

Since I already know all the pros to living on a golf course, are there any disadvantages? Does the house's proximity to the course contribute to the home's value or take away from it? I assume contributes.

[ZmaXimus]

I was just talking about this this weekend. The only negative I see to living off a golf course is the noise from the mowers. I'm sure it can get annoying..

[denver_nuggs_15]

There are several cons. Your house can get pelted by balls if you live along a fairway. Even if you live across the street from a fairway, you can still get hit. Those damn mowers are out at 5 in the morning. If you don't mind being woken at that hour, more power to you. For me (and most others), it's a problem. Some people may walk in your yard if they hit a ball there. Most people don't, but some do.

[squaddie]

Ah, good points on the mowers, as I never would have thought of that.

I'm not an early riser and I'm sensitive to outside sounds. Definitely a deal-breaker. Thanks for the advice!

[Jay-Bird]

..Those damn mowers are out at 5 in the morning...

I think this realization just destroyed my dream of living on a golf course. I honestly had never considered that before. Damn.

[bogeyhitter25]

You've gotta get shatter-proof windows.

[uttexas]

The other issue is privacy. I enjoy the outdoors, will occasionally jump in my pool without swimtrunks. I wouldn't be able to do things like this in my backyard if I lived next to a golf course. If you have a dog, the dog might swallow a few balls. I believe in most housing markets, golf course proximity might increase value, but personally I would never do it. I enjoy playing different courses as frequently as possible. I'll call around to get the daybreak tee time, so it feels like you are the only ones out there. My foursomes set a good pace, and we usually leave the group behind us a hole and a half back by the time we putt in on 18.

[billysandy]

An advantage could be finding loads of golf balls hit into your garden or just outside your house and selling them on the internet! So many people use Pro-V1s and they can sell for a good price on eBay if you clean them up a bit.
Mowers and smashed windows would definately put me off though!

[MiniMoe]

I used to work on a golf course maintenance crew. I have been pelted with a BB at 5:00am more than once. If you do buy a house on a course get one on the back nine. If the mowers start on 1, then you have several hours before they get to your area of the course.

[FortAsel]

There are several cons. Your house can get pelted by balls if you live along a fairway. Even if you live across the street from a fairway, you can still get hit. Those damn mowers are out at 5 in the morning. If you don't mind being woken at that hour, more power to you. For me (and most others), it's a problem. Some people may walk in your yard if they hit a ball there. Most people don't, but some do.

If I was an american, living in the US, and someone did that to me, they'd lose 3 balls... Anyway, if you got me a house in one golf course, I'd take it every day. Just the prospect of being able to play golf 24/7, before going to school/ work... that would be a dream come true. I wouldn't really care about the temperature/time/broken windows/mowers etc... I'd just have to adjust.

[pshizz]

if you belonged to the course you lived on, then you could always use the hole you live on for practice early in the morning or right before dark, when no one is out. This woul be a dream come true for me, considering i already drive 2 miles to do this! lol.

[flopdarock]

i grew up living next to a course... after school id volunteer at the range for free games... got to know everyone... got discounts on lessons/gear...
depending on where your house is located... it would get pelted by balls... mine fortunately/unfortunately wasnt in the right spot for a cache of free balls but my neighbors 3 houses down had trash barrels full...
you get used to the mowers and dont even hear them after awhile...
golfers coming close to your back fence is kinda creepy at times...
playing the same course day in an day out gets boring... great for the scorecard cuz you know every nook an cranny of the course... till you play an unfamiliar course and wonder why youre 10 strokes higher

[tjy355]

Since I already know all the pros

Golfers urinating on your shrubbery and entering your yard to look for lost balls.

[Doctorfro]

It depends on where you live on the course. Living to the right side of a fairway is probably a horrible location. I live next to a tee box. No flying projectiles coming in my back yard. We like it alot. Occasionally you will have some of the drunk redneck type golfers come by who want to shout obscenities. Luckily they are few and far between. But other than that we don't see too many other drawbacks. It's been mostly a positive experience.

[RC]

There are some dubious benefits to living on the right side of a golf hole if your house is set back and you have a good sized swimming pool at about 230-240 yards off the tee behind a strong iron gated fense. A good friend at an uscale Private CC had this set up and each day he or his wife would harvest some great balls out of the pool. His garage was filled with boxes of golf balls. It was his Titliest magnet.

[microcrayfish]

You could always buy a house really close to a course without actually being on it or right next to it. You'd still be really close so you could play whenever you want and you wouldn't get all the cons.

[RemyM]

You have to take the good with the bad living on a course. I live on the 6th hole of a public course, a 500 yard par 5 and my house is about 85 yards from the green. The 4th green and 5th tee are off to one side of the house but there is a house between ours and that part of the course. We get about 1 ball per week during peak season, more earlier in the season before the trees get leaves and on days of charity events when there are more non golfers playing. In 40 plus years there have only been 2 broken windows, but location is everything, if your house is behind a green, look out. If you like to sleep with your windows open then early morning noise can be an issue, we usually close ours and use the A/C more. I'm usually up by 6 am every day for work or golf so it usually isn't an issue to me, but my wife sleeps later. The regular mowing isn't really a problem, they cut the rough by my house in the late morning or afternoon, but in the fall the blowers are a bit loud blowing off the greens in the morning. Then there is noise from golfers, we hear the crack of drivers from the tee and the yelling of 'fore' plenty of times, then of course the cursing from poor shots, and screams of joy from made putts. I have neighbors that like to complain about everything and I always ask them, "wasn't the course there when you bought your house?" To me that's like buying a house across from a school and complaining about school buses and noisy kids or buying a house across from a fire house and complaining about sirens waking you up. To me the best part about living on the course is the view from my large patio and the peaceful evenings after dinner on it having drinks when play ends and you're living on acres of open space.

[David in FL]

Privacy......or lack thereof is a biggie. Try to avoid being next to the cart path and definitely avoid any proximity to the teebox. You don't want people looking into your backyard, patio, or pool area all day long and hearing the somewhat colorful comments that result from bad drives at 8am over your morning coffee.

DO NOT get a house that's 180 yds out on the right side of the fairway unless you really enjoy collecting golf balls!

There are good golf course lots and bad. Weed out the bad and you can have a beautiful view without too many issues.