Value Golf - How do you keep the $$ reasonable and play more?

[Otis32]

I have a general rule about what I want to spend in most situations on my golfing habit. $1 a ball and $1 a hole.

I can acheive this a lot of the time by doing a couple of things.

1. Buying older generation golf balls. My current pick is the Precept Laddie 24-Ball Value Pack.

2. Walking rather than riding and playing courses that start twighlight fees at 4PM or 5PM.

Admittedly I can't get this done all the time. I still by a couple dozen better balls every year and often ride & pay full greens fees when playing with friends or groups on weekends but with a family, a mortgage, retirement savings etc. etc. golf can be a big expense.

Equipment expenditures aside how do some of you keep the costs in check?

[JBird]

I usually don't play the most costly courses but a $35-40 18 or a $18 9 hole is about the average cheapest that you will find around here.  I have an older pull cart I got off my dad when he upgraded to a new Clicgear push cart so I don't ride.  I usually bring a water or gatorade and a snack from home instead of buying at the course as well.  I also play twilight at least once a week on average once summer comes as well.

[nevets88]

Might want to look into social coupons - group coupons. I dunno the sites though, but they've been mentioned here. Social Living and Groupon are obvious, but I forget the golf specific ones.

[chilipepper205]

You can also book tee times online and save money. The course I just played yesterday would have been $40 for 18 plus cart, but I booked online and only payed $26 for the same 18 plus cart. There are many websites available to book online tee times.

[dhanson]

i don't think this is the norm for most areas, but there is a company called " Great Life Golf " in my area that has 15 locations and you can play them all for $50 a month plus a one-time initiation fee as much as you want plus access to all the fitness facilities (i think there are 3).

[Valleygolfer]

Course membership pays off for me. $600 for a limited membership at my closest course. Saves me gas money from driving to other courses and I can play 1 to unlimited amount of holes. If I get there late evening I am not paying full green fees for a few holes. I play more golf not worrying about playing a full round every time.

[Otis32]

Originally Posted by dhanson

i don't think this is the norm for most areas, but there is a company called "Great Life Golf" in my area that has 15 locations and you can play them all for $50 a month plus a one-time initiation fee as much as you want plus access to all the fitness facilities (i think there are 3).

Just gave it a quick look and appears to be a pretty good deal. About $1000 per year which is a little less than a season pass at some OK courses in the twin-cities.

Also liked the arrangement someone posted on here a while back that Ryan Moore was trying in the Seattle area. I'd be all over a similar deal if it were ever available in my area.

[Jmdmbike]

Golf is still a bit pricey around here, so I do a couple things. I buy an affinity card for $99 that offers 20% discounts on the courses they cover (some good ones) plus a free round of golf that is usually worth about $80 on it's own, I walk rather than ride and there are a few golf sites where you can get better prices by booking through them.

[glk23]

Originally Posted by Otis32

Just gave it a quick look and appears to be a pretty good deal. About $1000 per year which is a little less than a season pass at some OK courses in the twin-cities.

Also liked the arrangement someone posted on here a while back that Ryan Moore was trying in the Seattle area. I'd be all over a similar deal if it were ever available in my area.

I joined one of the Ryan Moore courses and pay $50 a month for unlimited twi-light golf.  Played 7 rds in Feb., 6 in Mar., and 4 so far in April. There are also plenty of $18-22 twi-light courses in my area to mix it up a little.  I plan on easily staying below $20 per round for the season.

[shamus]

There's an annual deal here in the Twin Cities called the metro golf card in which you get 32 rounds for $320. There are 8 courses on the card and I can play each 4 times. This is the 1st year I bought the card and so far I like the deal a lot. I also walk instead of ride.

[Jonnydanger81]

I almost always walk.  Every two times I walk it saves the cost of the next round.  I have a pull cart for the hilly courses and just carry for the flat ones.  Early year a lot of places are cart path only anyways.

Sometimes I'll go golfing with clients and one of us are able to expense the round for business.

I keep a full water and some nature valley bars in my bag all the time rather than stopping at the turn.  I usually don't drink beer while playing either.

Early evening rounds in the summer are awesome.  Some places it's $20 for all you can play after 3 or 4.  We always get more than 18 in.

I don't really go cheap on the equipment or balls or anything.  I'll go in with some friends on a big bucket of recycled balls but that's about all.  I figure with the amount of times I play I want stuff that is going to hold up.

[meenman]

I dont, it is more important to me to play on Saturday mornings and  not be stuck with 5 hour rounds and to play the balls/equipment I choose to play.

I've seen the lines at public courses when the price drops - to me it is not worth saving a few bucks and not know how many holes I am going to get in.

Private clubs have their benefit - but you will never see it in your wallet.

[Otis32]

Originally Posted by meenman

I dont, it is more important to me to play on Saturday mornings and  not be stuck with 5 hour rounds and to play the balls/equipment I choose to play.

I've seen the lines at public courses when the price drops - to me it is not worth saving a few bucks and not know how many holes I am going to get in.

Private clubs have their benefit - but you will never see it in your wallet.

Definately not the case here in MN. Play is way down and the courses are typically only crowded at peak weekend times.  In fact there are a couple courses close to my house that I simply don't play because they won't allow twilight golf until 6 PM or seldom offer discount rounds.

[eich41]

Originally Posted by meenman

I dont, it is more important to me to play on Saturday mornings and  not be stuck with 5 hour rounds and to play the balls/equipment I choose to play.

I've seen the lines at public courses when the price drops - to me it is not worth saving a few bucks and not know how many holes I am going to get in.

Private clubs have their benefit - but you will never see it in your wallet.

In my personal experience, unless I'm the first off the tee on Saturday morning, it's going to be the slowest round I play all week.

I play a wide range of golf courses, depending on where I'm at, who I'm playing with, etc.

I take clients and colleagues out several times per year, and we usually hit top 100 courses.  Not really any way to save on these other than playing in the shoulder seasons.

Other times, when I'm looking to just log a round in, I'll employ a few strategies.  One is to use the online booking sites, where I usually just pick the best bang for my buck.  Sometimes I can get really lucky, like last week when I found a tee time for a single for Sunday morning listed at $0.00.  Paid the 2 dollar trans fee, thought I might have trouble getting the course to honor it, but no problems.  $50 round for $2.00!

I'll also try to find some go to twilight courses to hit after work.  If the course is wide open I can usually get in 27 holes if I'm by myself.

Also I've found there's almost always 2 for 1 coupons to be had, which keeps rounds around 25 bucks each for 2.

There's also a few courses that offer free greens fees for your birthday, and if your birthday falls in the offseason (like mine) you just have to use it by July, which gives me about 5-6 free rounds a year.

I've done the punch card thing that gives you rounds at 8 courses for cheap, but I've found that I don't save that much because I don't end up traveling to the more distant courses that are dog tracks, because I'd spend more in gas than it's worth for the free round.

I've also tried to find memberships, but they're so overpriced in my area, especially for the quality of courses.  Also given that I travel a lot, I'd have a hard time getting my money's worth.  There is a couple courses that offer twilight memberships for $500 for unlimited golf after 3.  Not bad, but I wouldn't do much better than break even on that, and I'd rather be able to switch it up now and then.

Also I like GroupGolfer.com, they get some pretty solid deals on there, especially for some of the resorts up north in my state.

Kind of a long winded answer, but there are lots of places to find cheap golf.  There are so few marginal costs for a golf course that they'll cut deals all the time.  Just have to look out for them.

[sebsmash]

I am certainly subscribing to this!

For me it is definitely playing at super twilight which is 14$.

Although, this summer I can just barely qualify for the youth program (I turn 17 in the middle of it and 17 is the age limit) ans this gets me 8$ green fees and free tournament play.

Plus I get two 120$ range cards for 30 bucks each!

My little bro is signing up as well so we are gonna be set!

480$ worth of range balls for the cost of one!

[stevejason]

I purchased a membership ($750) that allows unlimited play on both the municipal courses in my town. I'll probably play over a hundred rounds this year. I also use a push cart, so there are no rental costs.

[LRMgolf]

I am from central Ohio, and what I found to be really go is a thing called the players club pass. The pass entitles you to unlimited range balls, free USGA handicap tracking, free clinics to attend and free green fees after 1pm M-T and after 5pm F-S. They only charge you a cart fee to play, and its $9 to play 9 and $17 to play 18 (they make you pay the cart fee regardless you use a cart or not). Talking with workers from the course they will be raising the green fees to $70 for 18. The players club costs $35 a month and you get everything I mentioned above. I really good deal to play at a really nice course.

[shamus]

Originally Posted by eich41

I've done the punch card thing that gives you rounds at 8 courses for cheap, but I've found that I don't save that much because I don't end up traveling to the more distant courses that are dog tracks, because I'd spend more in gas than it's worth for the free round.

I've heard a couple people say this about the courses on that card, but so far I don't see it. All of them are challenging and in great shape for this time of year, but we'll see as the summer progresses. My favorite so far has been the Links at Northfork, with my least favorite being Sawmill (I can see why some would call that one a dog track). I swear you people must play out at Hazeltine on a weekly basis to call these courses dog tracks. I also figured out the cost of gas to drive to and from the courses for the summer and it still works out to be a great deal, much cheaper than a membership to any one course within 10 miles of me.