TussinMan

Texas is under-rated. In my area alone (DFW) it seems like theres a golf course on every intersection. Weather wise it's suprisingly built for year round golf. If you do afternoon tee times from Oct-May and then morning tee times from June-Sept you'd essentially be playing in 56-80 degree weather 95% of the time.

Yeah it's gonna be near impossible in the USA to find. Especially with the whole "Florida is too hot but we still want it hot enough for year round golf" (I know Florida has humity but it's like 60 to 85 degrees for like 90% of the year). You can't get much cooler than that but still want year round golf. The upper half of the USA is going to be too cold. California is going to be too expensive. Pretty much all of the South is going to be extremely hot with dry air or decently hot but have good humity from the gulf/atlantic coast. Closest I can think of is one of the Carolina's but even then your going to have basically Florida type summers with less desirable winters + both Carolina's still have a good amount of humidity.

Agreed. It's possible but going to be very tough. Your basically asking for an ultra desirable year round place to live but at lowish cost of living (ultra desirable places almost always require deep pockets). Not only that quality golf isn't usually cheap. The better public coures in my area are anywhere from $100-200 a person per round. Membership to get access to all of the clubcorp tier 1 courses in my area (almost all of which are pretty nice) is about $850 a month.

Courses are all closed but most of the courses sent emails that basically said "we still have to do maintence in the mornings, if you want to play as a walker we don't care and truthfully can't really stop you". All the nearby courses I drive by have solo's on at least every other hole. I went for a walk today on an exclusive highend invite only club and I saw a walker that was playing and i'm 100% sure he wasn't a member. The world has shut down so bad that we now have hackers flooding exclusive clubs 😞

We already clarified that it was a regional difference and I even told him no problem for the misunderstanding. I don't even know why your even addressing this ?

Yeah no problem. I'm sure in more isolate area's that have lower competition/monopoly the prices are more aggressive DFW not only has a ton of competition but the land is expensive so courses have to do anything possible to get high volume traffic along with enticing young people/women to play (cheap range/player development memberships, free group lessons, heavily discounted tee times during weekday afternoons).

Yeah your kinda coming off as arrogant and I really don't appriciate it, especially this quote right here. I did NOT state that golf is cheap (please don't be a lawyer and try to spin or manipulate what I said to exagerrate your belief). I said compared to most adult sports it's actually not that expensive. In most cases it's either cheaper or higher price but better quality for the buck People are ignorant on adult sport prices so there creating this fake narrative that golf is ultra exclusive/expense when in reality there's tons of adult sports that cost more I literally worked 4 years doing invoices of adult leagues in the DFW chapter along with previously working at YMCA's/JCC community centers. I know the prices of literally every sports league in my area. Adult sports (especially the decent ones) are NOT cheap. No i'm not missing the mark, i'm actually just knowledgeable about the subject. For the price of my local YMCA membership I can join a players developement program through 3 different courses near my house and have unlimited range balls, 2 free group lessons a week, unlimited use of the 5 hole short course/short game area, and have 1 night a week of group 9 hole play at no extra charge. Where talking about a semi legitmate golf experience for the same price as joining a dated YMCA and doing some pick up games.......

I was referring to prices on actually geninuely playing adult sports, not "I want to kill some time because i'm bored on a saturday and my wifes driving me crazy" The Tennis club near my houses is $175 a month and really nothing special. The adult basketball league is $85 a month and gets you access to only the games, no practices or coaching included. Ice Hockey and MMA your looking at at least $200 a month. Even social beer leagues like co-ed kickball and co-ed flag football your looking at like $70-100 a month for a social league !!! Golf isn't free but at the same time it's not as bad as people make it out to be. There's not really any cheap adult sports in my area and in my experience it's actually one of the cheaper ones to be honest (especially for the quality and value you can get per dollar)

Innovation is probably bigget issue than star up cost. Most of my adult friends spend ungodly amounts of money to play adult league hockey and tennis. The last sport I competed in (MMA) gym fees for just my gym alone was $180 a month. The more casual hobbiest/weekend warriors would do $150 for just BJJ only and then pay anywhere form $80-130 a tournament which literally consistent of them doing 2x 8 minute rounds (talk about poor return for your money lol) I actually find Golf to be one of the more affordable adult sports to be honest. Innovation is key, most younger people view golf as just "a boring old person sport", "white person only" or view it as a "snobby private school sport"

Agreed. Just started 6 months ago and the teaching pro literally saved me. Having someone mentor you and show you the ropes if 100% a necessity for most. Golf is literally a game of millimeters (for example my lesson that I today he slightly corrected my grip on my driver and I went from shanking it 50 yards to the right to literally 100% straight down the fairway). Your chances of surviving and enjoying the game is exponentiall higher with a coach, it's like that for most sports (golfs really the only sport I know where the whole "i'm a man I can just figure it out on my own" ego gets thrown around a bunch)

I could see that frequency if you already have a base but since i'm new that seems to long. Seems like that would give me too long of a period to be practicing wrong or doing bad habits (EX: see the coach 4 weeks later and he goes "man you've been practing those 2 drills I gave you wrong for the entire month and now i have to spend this entire lessons fixing it") That's kinda why I'm leaning towards a more high-school type coach. Learning how to actually practice. I don't want to be one of those people that just goes to the range and plinks balls with not purpose or goal Also since I'm knew there's a good chance if I space the lessons out too far i'm gonna be practing wrong for a long period of time (seems like I would rather have someone check in on me frequently to make sure i'm doing it right or more importantly that I actually grasp what i'm doing) Agreed. Gonna find someone good. I'm still very young so the coach i'm currently eyeballing is one that works alot with juniors and highschool kids. He has great success building them from scratch with a fair amount of them getting D1 offers. That's kinda why i'm suprised lessons aren't more frequent. Theres plenty to go over (one week could be swing plane/grips/basic chipping, next week pitching and sand play, 3rd week could be course management and applying some basic drills/showing what to look for.....ect)

Took a hiatus but want to get back into golf. Was thinking about doing weekly lessons for the foreseeable future (I know golf is a complicated game and there's plenty to learn). Have heard mixed things about lessons. I know the whole "figuring it out on my own" narrative is huge in golf but most of the high level golfers in my area are people that had years of coaching whether it's been through highschool/college or through years of building/practicing through an actual structured coach. How much is too much ? I have had a ton of self taught people tell me "you'll develop a natural feel yourself as you practice" or "oh we just read books and watch youtube videos" yet most of these teenage kids at my local course that have 2 years or less of coaching are out-scoring 95% of these people...... (it's like there narrative isn't matching reality). I'm very green so that's why i'm leaning towards structure. I don't have a consistent plane, swing, grip, and don't really know much about golf besides a few group classes i've done. I know most people do lesson as needed but how does that work in my situation when I have no base skillset ? (I could see lessons monthly if your trying to polish your game but how do you do lessons when you literally do NOT have a game ?).

Yeah he pulled the old switcheroo. First it was he was a member. Then it was "his family is a member". Then finally it's "his family are members but downgraded to social only a year ago". Even if they where still full members he's in his mid 20s so there's no way they can claim him as a child (I think the cutoff is 22 unless your a full time student).

In my area it's not looked down on because the properties aren't nice. It's frowned upon do to the unlimited memberships they sell even though they don't have the capacity for it (there kinda like the massage envy of golf). With my area being the 4th biggest metroplex in the US + the economy being so good right now, capacity is becoming a huge concern (whats the point of claiming your a country club when you sell 2000 memberships and have to run tee times every 7 minutes). It cheapens the sport, cheapens the word "country club" and makes it look walmart'ish The tier 1 clubcorp courses I will admit doesn't have this issue due to monthly memberships being almost double and you actually have to pay an expensive joiners fee to enter We'll thats what was throwing me off. There is no check in so you don't have to really sneak in or check your shoulder (anyone can just walk up to a station and start hitting balls). I do understand though why they wouldn't have check ins. It's not realistic to expect a person who wasn't a member to dress nice, show up, and actually genuinely practice My county course straight up tells you that you can use the practice facility if you bring your own balls. I think it's probably the norm for the chipping area and putting area EDIT: Thank you to everyone for the replies. It's always interesting to get others perspectives (one of the main reasons why I like internet forums).

Interesting topic. There's alot of club-corp courses in my area and I had a weird situation a few months back. Was invited to use the practice range at one of the country club facilities and I went with a friend who was supposedly a member. After the 3rd time we went he said he hadn't been a member for over a year. Since ClubCorp is basically the Walmart of golf, there's no check in for any of the clubs for both the parking lot and driving range (driving range they just leave a huge basket of balls out for each station). Since they not only allow unlimited memberships but they allow the memberships to carry over to any course in the area they can't realistically check anyone in (that's the biggest compliant of clubcorp, it's basically the walmart of golf). What is the moral view of using the practice facility ? I know there's generally a very negative view of sneaking onto a 18 hole course (especially since you literally have to sneak in) but what is the consensus of literally just walking up to a driving range with no ill intentions and just hitting balls ?

This is extremely overlooked and a great post by you. I can't tell you how many people I see just plinking balls at the range with no idea on what to look for, what to practice, or specific drills (basically just killing time not improving). Not a big fan of the macho "ohh i'm a man I figure stuff out on my own". I'd rather get proper coaching for 2 years and actually be good then spend 10 years being a hacker. Alot of coaches run into these "oh i'm a man I can figure it out" and unfortunately it's harder to coach them at this point because they've essentially become good at being bad. One last point just because you get lessons doesn't mean there isn't tons of stuff you can't figure out or tinker during practice. Guitar lessons for example you have a coach teaching you basic cords, progressions, intro to reading music, how to strum but you still technically have to figure out how to blend it all together and how to incorporate other aspects into it as well. Same with golf lessons it's more guiding you into the right direction but at the end of the day you still have to figure some of it out/practice

I live in the DFW area. Green fees haven't changed a ton this decade, mostly because alot of the public courses haven't improved or changed much so they can't realistically ask for substantial green increase (to be honest most of the courses need significant work). Because of the public courses being meh at best the biggest money increase has been the tier 2 clubcorp memberships. Junior executive memberships where 260 a month at the start of 2016. There now 35% high in 2019 (350 a month) and it's looking like there about to increase again at the end of the year.

The arrogance and irony of this post (in relation to whose posting it) is literally off the charts.

I live in the DFW metroplex and you pretty much only have two choices for private courses. 1. Clubcorp owned course (majority of which tier 2) or 2. Private invite only club that you have little to no chance of ever stepping onto unless your a well known billionaire or former president (dallas surprisingly has a ton of these exclusive clubs due to the extreme upper tier business wealth). If your a casual golfer than DFW is perfect due to the vast selection of good Public courses scatter across the city. For a casual golfer public is the way to go For the more serious Clubcorp is actually cheaper. Most of the tier 2 memberships are $300-400 and get you unlimited access to over 10 facilities that are scattered across the city so your pretty much guaranteed to have a facility within 15 minutes of both your job and house. Advantage is price and condition of the course. I consider myself a step above casual and I could easily spend $20 twice a week on buckets of balls ($40 total) and then $50-100 for green fees on a public course if I didn't have a membership (I would be paying more money to play both an inferior practice facility and course).

I'm in North Texas (Richardson) and for most of April/Early May are course was unplayable and driving range was mat only. It has been getting better recently though

The problem is there's a difference between confidence and delusion. He is 100% delusional (would get smoked by 1000s of middleschool kids yet he doesn't need forum advice or coaches because he knows everything, where all wrong, and he's gonna leapfrog people who work 5x harder then him just because "uh i want it badly") Him being good at sales actually isn't a huge compliment to be honest. Most people I know doing sales are just like him, young impressionable kids/adults that think they there smooth and that they can fool anyone. Usual result is they eventually try there "smooth" pitch to someone who actually knows the field and they get called a clown to their face.....

Just reading the title I thought it was a cash grab but this definitely sounds like the owner/business could realistically be liability. You let your own employee stay after his shift and drink for 3 straight hours before he went home. There's no way you can't say the business wasn't at least somewhat liable, especially if they let him do it for free

Yeah I know once you have a baseline lessons are more as needed but as of two months ago I literally knew nothing about golf. I'm trying to find a balance between getting exposed to everything and being overrun with too much stuff thrown at me. Golf is a complicated game and a ton to learn. If I barely take lessons I won't be exposed to anything and won't really have anything to practice but if I take too many I won't really improve since I'm trying to practice/focus on too many things. I might just do the free weekly lessons offered and then once my irons get a little more sharp just throw in some 30 minute lessons to tweak my skills and then go play a few holes with the coach so he can teach me how to actually play rounds/holes That sounds good to me. I'm buying a house on a golf course in 2021 so I would like to be competent by then. One free lesson a week + two range practice sessions + a couple 5 packs of lessons = hopefully playing a decent 18 holes by then !!!!

Update: 5th lesson of the 5 pack was a disaster. Progress regressed and the golf coach spent alot of time saying "lets try this" (which basically means I don't have a plan lets just "guess") The golf course right by my house has free developmental group lessons every Tuesday so i'm going to give that coach a shot. Saw some of his material online and he seems pretty competent. The weekly lessons are free so I'm not really losing anything by giving him a shot and best case scenario the free lessons go well and I pair them up with bi-weekly privates.