Would you take this golf course promotional membership?

[azeangolf]

Context: I've recently gotten back to golf and want to play a bit more regularly. Currently only play 18 holes once every 2-3 months really, and maybe hit the range every two weeks. There are three local golf courses within a 20 minute drive vicinity: a 9-hole course that's pretty poorly maintained - charges $30 for 2 rounds of the 9-holes on the weekends; and two public 18-hole courses that charge $40 and $55 for 18-holes on the weekends. All without cart but walking is fine by me.

One of the 18-hole courses is currently offering a 1-year promotional membership for $560 (around $47 a month). With the membership, I'd only need to pay $10 for 18-holes and would get 60 free balls at the driving range every time I visit (instead of the usual $5/hr rate we have here). Looking at it purely from a cost-savings POV, it's obvious that the deal is worth it if I play at least 2 times a month and the savings become huge if I play 4 times a month (around $120/month in savings).

As much as the "obvious" decision is already right in my face, I'd wanna get your opinions and ask if you'd pay for the membership. Maybe for once it'd force me to actually play more often (I have a 30+++ handicap and would probably really benefit from more frequent rounds). 

[JonMA1]

I don’t know how much time you have for golf, but I think most folks would take advantage of savings by playing more often.

You might want to make sure paying additionally for a cart isn’t mandatory with the promotion or on the weekends.

Other than that, it sounds like you’ve done the math and that you’d like to play more often. 

[Foot Wedge]

3 hours ago, azeangolf said:

(I have a 30+++ handicap and would probably really benefit from more frequent rounds). 

If you want to get better, spend the money on lessons.  I did the same thing a couple years ago at a nearby course since I still qualified for the cheap "student" rate.  Thought I'd benefit more from frequent play than lessons and was flat out wrong.  Just ingrained bad habits and ended up taking the lessons anyways.  Made more progress in two months than in a year with that membership.  That's just my opinion though.

[azeangolf]

36 minutes ago, JonMA1 said:

I don’t know how much time you have for golf, but I think most folks would take advantage of savings by playing more often.

You might want to make sure paying additionally for a cart isn’t mandatory with the promotion or on the weekends.

Other than that, it sounds like you’ve done the math and that you’d like to play more often. 

Yes, they don’t require the cart. I’ll probably be playing solo golf most of the time anyway so walking is okay for me.

22 minutes ago, Foot Wedge said:

If you want to get better, spend the money on lessons.  I did the same thing a couple years ago at a nearby course since I still qualified for the cheap "student" rate.  Thought I'd benefit more from frequent play than lessons and was flat out wrong.  Just ingrained bad habits and ended up taking the lessons anyways.  Made more progress in two months than in a year with that membership.  That's just my opinion though.

That’s something I thought about too. If only I could afford to pay for both. Ugh. 

[lastings]

only drawback I see is that you have to spend all your golf time at one course.  But, from the sounds of it, that's not too big a deal for you..