Private, Public, or both

[Quinn07]

In my region of the country (Canada) there is a corporation that owns a bunch of courses, where if you join one you can play the others (in most cases) for free. This is great, because in my city there are three other courses I can play, which allows me to change things up. There are 4 other cities that have course in them which i can play which at the farthest is 4 hours away.

Can't see the point of playing the public courses when I can a multitude of courses with one membership.

[atrapasuenos]

I play all the time at my private club, around here we don't have public courses. I think that if in all Mexico there are 4 public courses, there are a lot, it's a shame.

Regards!

[ctowntex]

I do a bit of a mix of both, but predominately private clubs, but i do mix it up with my friends clubs as well. We like to take each other out on our respective private clubs to see who has the homefield advantage

Same here. I don't have a "home" course but all of my buddies are members at the local clubs so I get to bounce from course to course.

[AbsoluteZero]

Same here. I don't have a "home" course but all of my buddies are members at the local clubs so I get to bounce from course to course.

I wish I could do this more, but both courses near me have a limit of 5 visits per guest per year... yes, I could always use a different name, and yes I have done that before

but I don't like the "I'm cheating the system" feeling I get. Do most private courses cap any one guest at 5 times per year?

[PiKapp23]

Personally, the only reason I would ever join a private club is if I just had too much money and didn't know what to do with it all, or lived in an area that didn't have very many public courses available. I do not like to play the same course even 2 rounds in a row most of the time. I play about 30 different courses every year in OH, WV, KY, and IN with occasional rounds in NC or SC. The only upsides I can see to private clubs is for practice and convenience, but that's not worth the cost for me. My Dad was a member of a private club back in the late 70's/early 80's and they hired him as an teaching assistant when he lost his job in 82 or 83. When I have talked to him recently he has said he didn't think he would join a club now because of the number of courses available and the costs associated with private clubs.

[kingofcars08]

Ill guess that above san francisco, there are about 25 courses from the golden gate bridge up to healdsburg. (about 45 miles of highway I think) Out of those, about 5-10 of them are private. I will play anywhere, dont get me wrong, and I love a few of the public courses around here, but the condition of the private clubs out does the best of the public courses by plenty. I worked at a private club, and have buddies that work at two private clubs, and about 4 public, so together we all play a couple times a week for free at all of our courses, its unfair to you guys Im sorry, but it is the greatest thing on earth right now. Yesterday for example I walked 18 holes at Sonoma Golf Club, the 2nd nicest private club in the north bay, home of the Champions Tour Charles Schwap Cup, and played from the same tees they did. It was magestic, the greens are lightning fast, the fairways have no blemishes, there are ice cold water bottles to take with you every two holes! Not to mention, I never saw anybody on the course the entire day, just the way its laid out. I agree its rediculus to spend 175,000 to join a club, but it IS worth it, and thats a course I could play everyday for my lifetime and not regret it.

[ctowntex]

Personally, the only reason I would ever join a private club is if I just had too much money and didn't know what to do with it all

Maybe we have cheap private clubs and expensive public courses here in central Arkansas but it seems to me over time it would be cheaper to be a member of a club if you play a lot.

The most expensive club in town has a $2000 membership fee and is $180 a month in dues. Now this is a Lindsey Management course and once you join one you have access to all of their courses. I don't know how many that is but I know there is quite a few of them in AR and the surrounding states. I would estimate that I spend up to $100 a week in greens fees at public courses from March to October (8 months) which comes out to being $3200 a year. The private price I mentioned earlier would be $4160 the first year and then $2160 dollars a year after that if dues don't go up. Long story short, I could save $1000 a year if I would just man up and join the private club. I'm not a member anywhere and I may be leaving some other expenses out but correct me if my math is wrong. To touch on your other point PiKapp, it can be boring to play the same course over and over but my buddies just play different tee boxes each round and that will change the course up dramatically.

[sam004]

Public and muni course for me.
Kind of spoiled here, Chicago area has over 200 courses to pick from.
Just can't seem to get on any at the moment... :(

"I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member"

-Groucho Marx

[chipper2]

I enjoy playing different courses. Since I travel some on business, I am not home enough to justify private membership. Since starting to play golf in August of 2000 I have played almost 550 different courses in 12 countries and 35 states.