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are green fee's a joke

Keep them up and keep the pay and play crew away. My place is £35 a round at weekends. 4 pay and play courses within 30 mins of my place charge £20 at weekends, not bad courses, but not as nice as mine. I have seen some of the so called golfers at those places on a Saturday and I really would not want them at my place. Litter being thrown into bushes, absolutely no etiquette or respect for the course they are playing. As far I am concerned they can stay at the pay and play course and I will play at private clubs. I pay my annual green fees and would soon pack my bags and walk if they dropped the green fees and started filling the course with nomadic golfers, preventing me from playing.
 
A prime example of this is St Enodoc. They have a huge demand for people wanting to play there so green fees are £80 a round. This also massively affects membership fees which are £500 a year with a £700 joining fee. This is pretty cheap for a top 100 course with the addition of a cracking short course.
The only problem is they now have blocks or tee times for green fees and blocks for members on the church course but members can't take a green fees slot even it it's not booked 10 minutes before. I did toy with the idea of joining but the initial £1200 and the limited tee times put me off.
 
hovis said:
i have friends that are members of clubs such as beu desert, forest of arden and the warwickshire. as a guest i pay around £15/£20/£30 for these courses
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:eek: You are a guest at these courses, and you have to pay your own green fees? Some friends. If I invite friends then I would pay the fees, after all that is the meaning of "guest" isn't it? :confused:
 
My Club, Ilford GC, is £10 during the week and £15 at the weekends, and I would bet you wont find a better conditioned course in the South East for that money, our greens are fantastic!
 
Scotty_Tom said:
My Club, Ilford GC, is £10 during the week and £15 at the weekends, and I would bet you wont find a better conditioned course in the South East for that money, our greens are fantastic!
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That is incredible value, especially if the course is as good as you say. I will try it out when I'm next in the area.

My brother's club, Castle Royle, is private and fees for member's guests are £44 at weekends. Regardless of what the average membership/green fees are, it's down to each club to strike a balance between profitability and focusing on the membership. High green fees push people towards membership if they want to play the course and lower green fees will be used by some to make up for lack of revenue from members.
 
Different clubs have different philosophies and practices according to the amount of visitor traffic they want to attract, or need to attract from a financial point of view. Wentworth has always been very expensive, but a couple of years ago, their green fee doubled. Everyone said that it would reduce the number of visitors, which was obviously both true and part of the intention, but at the higher fee, they still took more money. So fewer visitors, more money - sounds like a perfect business model.

As a general rule, I think it is fair enough for clubs to restrict visitors at weekend when members have a reasonable expectation of getting a game.
 
It’s a case of supply and demand, why let lots on for less money, especially members clubs?

If you want to play a decent course you have to pay for the privilege IMO. What other sports give you 3 hours plus of play for this amount of cash?
 
Very interesting discussion. Looks as though some of you are playing some well supported clubs atm! Where I'm at, the yearly subs have been held at £600, but have still lost members. LOTS ! Green fees are £15 when booked on the 'net so the same as guest fees, so no difference. A new summer membership has been thrown in, begining of May until end of Sept £300. That's a proper bargin! Loads of societys are booked in this year. This has never happened before! It's a real shame as it's a friendly place and a tough test of golf.
 
patricks148 said:
It’s a case of supply and demand, why let lots on for less money, especially members clubs?

If you want to play a decent course you have to pay for the privilege IMO. What other sports give you 3 hours plus of play for this amount of cash?
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Going to say exactly the same thing!

I would guess that for a the courses like the ones in the OP the result wouldn't be favourable if they started an auction type system where the highest bidder gets the tee time!

The course management will know how many visitors they want on their course and pitch the price accordingly.
 
Crazyface said:
Very interesting discussion. Looks as though some of you are playing some well supported clubs atm! Where I'm at, the yearly subs have been held at £600, but have still lost members. LOTS ! Green fees are £15 when booked on the 'net so the same as guest fees, so no difference. A new summer membership has been thrown in, begining of May until end of Sept £300. That's a proper bargin! Loads of societys are booked in this year. This has never happened before! It's a real shame as it's a friendly place and a tough test of golf.
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What club is this? Is it a corporate club or members club? They have reduced the green fees and booked in lots of societies, also they have brought in a summer membership at half the annual rate. 3 things that is going to increase the amount of people on the course, meaning I will struggle to get a game when I would like to as a long term member. I would walk and find somewhere else too.
 
Mainly down to demand clearly, if a club can get away with charging £50+ and still get visitors then they will charge it. My club is quite cheap really if you are just a visitor and only £5-£10 cheaper with a member but there is a lot of competition in Manchester amongst Golf courses so any club trying to charge too much would have to be a step above as a course or lose out on revenue.
 
I love playing golf but am massively put off playing nice courses due to the expense of the green fee's some of them charge, that's not to say cheaper places aren't nice courses. I tend to look for deals, either with the green free vouchers or on websites like Travel Zoo where me and a few friends got a round of golf and lunch at Sweetwoods a few weeks back for £17.50 each. Bargain!

These courses that charge £50+ for a round of golf are taking the piss really. Especially as some of them aren't even that great! Heck I know of some courses that charge the best part of £30 a round and aren't even worth that (some would say my club is one of them, and I'd probably agree with them). What really get's my back up is the track's that charge £80, £90 or some well over £100 for the pleasure of 18 holes. You'll never catch me paying that much for a round of golf, call me tight but there is taking the piss and then there is that! I'd love to go and play courses in the top 100, but it's not going to happen, that's something I've had to come to terms with.
 
some courses are flexible with their pricing.

childwall for example. I called in and said I was intrested in a round? how much? the pro said £50 which I laughed at. he also had a giggle. he said, tell you what, how does £25 sound? I turned up the next day and the tee was busy ( you cant book except for comps).

the pro asked if I would mind playing with two members. I said no problem and he let me play for £16 guest of member rate.


in short- yes, green fees are joke!
 
swanny32 said:
Oh and members guest rates, do me a favour! Some places give good discounts, happy with that, other places, my own club included, what a joke! If any of you want to come and play my place at the height of summer before 9:30am and without me, it'll cost you £28, with me, it'll cost £26.....thanks Mr Proprietor.
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yep but that's at a proprietory club, for Profit.

A members club would be very different, mine for instance. We charge £105 visitor green fee, we are a top 100 course after all. Last year for me to sign someone on £10, but i think thats gone up to £16 and folk were taking the pee.
 
If you want to play top quality courses it is going to cost you a lot of money, simple as that. I think the cheapest Open rota course now is St Andrews at £155 a round. You simply have to decide if you are prepared to pay that much for a special occasion. Personally, I want to play as many of the top 100 as I can and I'm fortunate in that I don't have young kids etc so I can afford to treat myself once in a while. I'm not saying I'm over the moon about some of these green fees but that's just the way it is.

You pays your money and you takes your choice :confused:
 
patricks148 said:
yep but that's at a proprietory club, for Profit.

A members club would be very different, mine for instance. We charge £105 visitor green fee, we are a top 100 course after all. Last year for me to sign someone on £10, but i think thats gone up to £16 and folk were taking the pee.
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I'd be selling my signature on ebay with that reduction! Sell a 3ball at £50/man £102 in my pocket £48 to the club everyone's happy!
 
scratch said:
If you want to play top quality courses it is going to cost you a lot of money, simple as that. I think the cheapest Open rota course now is St Andrews at £155 a round. You simply have to decide if you are prepared to pay that much for a special occasion. Personally, I want to play as many of the top 100 as I can and I'm fortunate in that I don't have young kids etc so I can afford to treat myself once in a while. I'm not saying I'm over the moon about some of these green fees but that's just the way it is.

You pays your money and you takes your choice :confused:
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Playing St Andrews for £110 and Carnoustie for £120 in October this year. Good value as far as I am concerned.
 
hovis said:
you must have a better job than me buddy! £120 to me seems like an OBSCENE amount to pay for a game of golf.
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you are prob right, but to play somewhere like that is a once in a lifetime for a golfer. Its not the hardest course, but the feeling you get playing it is out of this world.
 
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