Frugal Golfers

[DrivingRangeJunkie]

Let's face it, Golf is an expensive game, and my own opinion is that nobody should ever have to pay too much for anything that they shouldn't really have to pay for at all. So recently I began wondering whether or not dumpster diving behind golf galaxy, sports authority, dicks sporting goods etc is worth the effort, after all I hear of stores throwing out perfectly good merchandise and I'm sure I would be able to find golf tees, golf balls, gloves, etc. all for free due to stores restocking or rollbacks or something. Does anybody else agree with me on this? Times are tough right now, if anybody should be pinching pennies right now, its golfers.

[Jay-Bird]

Wow. .

[ks8829]

Ebay, Craig's List for discounted clubs.

practice is free if you chip around a green at distances up to 50 yards.

I play a course around the area for $21 vs $33 with a resident card that cost me once a year $45 and play $26 on weekends, ask course if they offer discount days, for example. One course honors coupons for 18 holes with a golf cart for $36 from 10am - 12 noon, Mon- Thurs and the regular price is $46. Another course has discount days on Tuesday from 10 - 1pm for $26 walking vs the regular price of $36. you can also try Golf Now's website for discount in your local area.

[GaijinGolfer]

Digging in the dumpsters for free golf stuff seems kinda shady and low-class to me. Honestly, golf is only expensive if you make it expensive.
You dont have to play premium golfballs and you dont have to own high-end clubs to enjoy this game.
Compared to a lot of other hobbies, I find golf to be pretty inexpensive.

[GaijinGolfer]

  ks8829 said:

I play a course around the area for $21 vs $33 with a resident card that cost me once a year $45 and play $26 on weekends, ask course if they offer discount days, for example. One course honors coupons for 18 holes with a golf cart for $36 from 10am - 12 noon, Mon- Thurs and the regular price is $46. Another course has discount days on Tuesday from 10 - 1pm for $26 walking vs the regular price of $36. you can also try Golf Now's website for discount in your local area.

Thats pretty much what I do too. I will play either early in the morning or after 3:00pm and get discounted greens fees.

Playing par-3 courses is another great way to save money.

[Fourputt]

  TitleistWI said:

Thats pretty much what I do too. I will play either early in the morning or after 3:00pm and get discounted greens fees.

You guys who find courses with discounted green fees can count your blessings. Ain't no such thing around here. My course has Twilight rates, but they don't start until about 2 hours before sunset... Twilight starts at like 6:45 in midsummer.

And early morning is prime time... we fill up from open (5:30 in midsummer) till after 3:00 PM on any given day, usually with tee times reserved up to a week in advance. A course isn't going to offer discounts when people are willing to pay full price. And my course is typical of most of the courses I play in the Denver area.

[Razorhog]

Sometimes it's nice to live in rural Arkansas...my club membership is $100/month. Course I had to buy a used golf cart and shed space ($1000 after going 50/50 with a friend) but I can play golf whenever I want. Bring your own balls on the driving range too, which is annoying at times.

[st0wgolf08]

  Razorhog said:

Sometimes it's nice to live in rural Arkansas...my club membership is $100/month. Course I had to buy a used golf cart and shed space ($1000 after going 50/50 with a friend) but I can play golf whenever I want.

I would die, I sometimes hit 100 balls on just the range then go play, if I'm working on something, even if I bought top flite range balls, that would still be more expensive than playing!

[Fraser]

  DrivingRangeJunkie said:

So recently I began wondering whether or not dumpster diving behind golf galaxy, sports authority, dicks sporting goods etc is worth the effort

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[Smallville]

  DrivingRangeJunkie said:

So recently I began wondering whether or not dumpster diving behind golf galaxy, sports authority, dicks sporting goods etc is worth the effort . . .

Depends on what you find! I would think most of their good stuff would get sent back to manufacturers rather than getting tossed in the dumpster. But you never know . . . let us know. If you find a

bunch of good stuff some people here might go do it themselves! Of course most wouldn't admit it!

[RocketSauce]

lol, dumpster diving, hehe. never thought about it, but i really doubt if you'd find anything in there anyway. good luck with that

[microcrayfish]

A lot of people make golf more expensive than it needs to be. You don't need to spend a lot of money on equipment to enjoy the game. Simple things like playing cheap balls or the ones you find can help. Practice can be free as long as you're willing to use your own balls and go pick them up afterward. Then it's just green fees to worry about, luckily for me compared to the US green fees where I live are really cheap.

I don't think you'll find much good stuff dumpster diving behind a sports store. There's probably plenty of employees that are more than willing to take golf stuff home with them if it's about to be thrown out.

[TyCobb]

I work for Sports Authority and there is never product in the trash. Our managers check it before it gets put out (they lit(t)erally open the trash bags and empty them in the dumpster before they put them out.

Even the broken product we send back to the Vendor, so unless you want empty coke bottles, there's nothing really in our trash.

Just trying to save you an extra shower or too, so your water bill doesn't get too high.

[steviesouthpaw]

  microcrayfish said:

A lot of people make golf more expensive than it needs to be. You don't need to spend a lot of money on equipment to enjoy the game. Simple things like playing cheap balls or the ones you find can help. Practice can be free as long as you're willing to use your own balls and go pick them up afterward. Then it's just green fees to worry about, luckily for me compared to the US green fees where I live are really cheap.

There's a sensible player. I live next to an elementary school with a very big field as part of the school grounds. I'm always there using it as my range with my own balls and I pride myself on playing at courses that are inexpensive. I get very defensive when I hear golf referred to as an elitist endeavor. That absolutely exists, no argument; however, you can play this game on a blue collar level and I happen to think its best enjoyed in that fashion. Unless of course you have so much money you're looking for ways to spend it. I don't happen to have that problem.

[DrivingRangeJunkie]

Thanks for the reply guys, I know dumpster diving isn't exactly glamorous, but you never know what stores throw out. I haven't tried dumpster diving before, I was just curious as what the general opinion was. Green fees aren't really a problem around here, there are a couple of decent courses for decent prices, its just the kid in me to enjoy finding free or almost free stuff and put it to good use. I'll let you know guys if I actually go through with it.

[walk18]

let us know what you find!

[Fat Slice]

Employees will sometimes throw away product in the trash and then go back at night to pick it up. Managers have gotten wise to this and check trash and I doubt you'll find anything. Still, good luck, and I hope you don't find too many diapers.

[Mr Eagle]

  DrivingRangeJunkie said:

Thanks for the reply guys, I know dumpster diving isn't exactly glamorous, but you never know what stores throw out. I haven't tried dumpster diving before, I was just curious as what the general opinion was. Green fees aren't really a problem around here, there are a couple of decent courses for decent prices, its just the kid in me to enjoy finding free or almost free stuff and put it to good use. I'll let you know guys if I actually go through with it.

Sod all that rummiging through the garbage,

The future is RAM RAIDING, ..lets get the good stuff