This is genius, in 40 years I've never considered an hourly entertainment rate.
How much is reasonable for a round
- Thread starter davidy233
- Start date
This is genius, in 40 years I've never considered an hourly entertainment rate.
SammmeBee
Journeyman Pro
Join a golf club and rounds are free.....
KenL
Tour Rookie
Depends on the course.
Despite how good they are, I would not pay over £300 for Kingsbarns or Turnberry.
Would happily pay full price at the Old Course at £195.
Paid £115 at Dumbarnie last summer but enjoyed my games at Crail (£50) and the Jubilee (£60) MUCH more in October.
Despite how good they are, I would not pay over £300 for Kingsbarns or Turnberry.
Would happily pay full price at the Old Course at £195.
Paid £115 at Dumbarnie last summer but enjoyed my games at Crail (£50) and the Jubilee (£60) MUCH more in October.
SwingsitlikeHogan
Major Champion
Three ball medal comp yesterday middle of large field at 1pm took just under 4:30. Two ball match this morning we were first off at 7:30 and we finished in just under 3hrs. And it was free...well if you put aside our subs (if only)
FELL75
Active member
Paying £90 for a twilight this week. It's a top 100 course so will be interested to see if it feels like value for money. My hunch is it will?
The Lion
Active member
Strange, it says £50 on here for that time:
https://woldinghamgc.co.uk/societies-and-visitors
Hope that’s helpful.
The Lion
Active member
Curious as to which course this is? Can’t quite place that twilight fee, and I pay far too much attention to green fees and other golf club data ?
Haha which course is this for? I don’t think any of them in these islands are that greedy - yet.
Oh wait, there’s a certain fascist ex-US president who despite inciting violence against his country’s govt, somehow STILL owns courses that charge way more than they’re worth.
One of those is over £360 a round rack rate. But maybe not for much longer, when the evil monster is booted out of these islands...
FELL75
Active member
Lion, it's in Surrey ?
The Lion
Active member
Curiosity piqued when you wouldn’t say which one, but I think we may have our tombola winner out the hat:
https://www.westhillgc.co.uk/green_fees
Greedy sods have seriously hiked green fees since last summer too: £75 vs £90 Twl and £125 vs £140 Rnd.
It’s shameful that higher ranked courses who already have expensive green fees are cashing in on a brutal pandemic which has devastated lives.
Rant over ?
Val
Ryder Cup Winner
I quite like threads like this as it creates debate and a lot on different interesting views.
For years I though £25 was acceptable for a round of golf, almost 20 years ago I could play a reasonable course for £20 and using a series of 2 for 1 or 4 for 2 vouchers I played the likes of Gleneagles for £50.
In todays terms what will £50 actually buy you? 2 return train fares from Glasgow to Edinburgh? A cheap theatre ticket? A steak dinner and a glass of wine?
What it wont buy you is a 6 nations rugby ticket, a decent golf windproof, entry for 1 visitor to the open championship and many other items people wouldn't think twice of paying.
For me a round of golf at a reasonable course could be up to £50, a good course up to £100 and top courses can name their price. Value is in the eye of the buyer. What I find funny is many people on here wouldn't think twice of adding the new model driver, fairway, putter from your favourite manufacturer but would baulk at paying over £100 to play a top 50 or top 100 golf course. I've payed £10 as a member guest at some cracking courses and loved it but few courses bring me the enjoyment I had playing the likes of Turnberry, Royal Birkdale or Muirfield and paying £100+ for the pleasure. I paid £125 a few weeks ago to play Dumbarnie with my boy and it was worth every penny to experience it.
It's worth remembering, few amateur footballers, rugby players or tennis players can play at Wembley, Murrayfield or Wimbledon whereas us golfers can pay to play and walk the fairways of The Old Course, Royal Birkdale or Turnberry.
For years I though £25 was acceptable for a round of golf, almost 20 years ago I could play a reasonable course for £20 and using a series of 2 for 1 or 4 for 2 vouchers I played the likes of Gleneagles for £50.
In todays terms what will £50 actually buy you? 2 return train fares from Glasgow to Edinburgh? A cheap theatre ticket? A steak dinner and a glass of wine?
What it wont buy you is a 6 nations rugby ticket, a decent golf windproof, entry for 1 visitor to the open championship and many other items people wouldn't think twice of paying.
For me a round of golf at a reasonable course could be up to £50, a good course up to £100 and top courses can name their price. Value is in the eye of the buyer. What I find funny is many people on here wouldn't think twice of adding the new model driver, fairway, putter from your favourite manufacturer but would baulk at paying over £100 to play a top 50 or top 100 golf course. I've payed £10 as a member guest at some cracking courses and loved it but few courses bring me the enjoyment I had playing the likes of Turnberry, Royal Birkdale or Muirfield and paying £100+ for the pleasure. I paid £125 a few weeks ago to play Dumbarnie with my boy and it was worth every penny to experience it.
It's worth remembering, few amateur footballers, rugby players or tennis players can play at Wembley, Murrayfield or Wimbledon whereas us golfers can pay to play and walk the fairways of The Old Course, Royal Birkdale or Turnberry.
bigslice
Tour Winner
What was ure opinion when the japanese owned Turnberry? Im pretty confident that many folk dont care who owns a course. Its the more about the money spent on the course and people they see day to day.
Smiffy
Grand Slam Winner
Thing is, a new model driver, fairway or putter is going to be in the bag a lot longer than the 4 hours or so it takes to get round a golf course.
Imurg
The Grinder Of Pars (Semi Crocked)
Not if you're ChrisD
I've always struggled to justify an outlay of more than £100 for a round of golf..anywhere.
Having paid copious amounts for unlimited golf as a member it's always seemed a bit extravagant spending 50, 60 quid or more to go and play somewhere else.
These days, being more financially comfortable, it takes less to justify these away days.
However, some of the prices demanded by most of the top courses are eye-watering.
What would make it worse would be to shell out 150-250 quid for a round and then either have the weather turn it into a slog or end up playing like an absolute bell-end...
That would depress me more because I wouldn't enjoy it and would consider it a waste.
I'd love to play Birkdale but at £250 - not even including soup and a sandwich - it just ain't happening.
£185 in the autumn isn't particularly attractive either..
And you have to add travel and accommodation into the equation - so you play another course, stay another night and before you know it you're spending close to £1k on 36 holes.
Golf at top courses is expensive
Smiffy
Grand Slam Winner
Not if you're ChrisD
I've always struggled to justify an outlay of more than £100 for a round of golf..anywhere.
Having paid copious amounts for unlimited golf as a member it's always seemed a bit extravagant spending 50, 60 quid or more to go and play somewhere else.
These days, being more financially comfortable, it takes less to justify these away days.
However, some of the prices demanded by most of the top courses are eye-watering.
What would make it worse would be to shell out 150-250 quid for a round and then either have the weather turn it into a slog or end up playing like an absolute bell-end...
That would depress me more because I wouldn't enjoy it and would consider it a waste.
I'd love to play Birkdale but at £250 - not even including soup and a sandwich - it just ain't happening.
£185 in the autumn isn't particularly attractive either..
And you have to add travel and accommodation into the equation - so you play another course, stay another night and before you know it you're spending close to £1k on 36 holes.
Golf at top courses is expensive
Same as that Geezer.
My "wince" point, price wise, is around £70.00 I guess.
I'll pay that if it's a course I've been wanting to play and it gets good reviews.
Above that and I'll think long and hard.
I'm playing Woking in July at £140.00 for the day, but having played it before I know it's worth that, especially with the food included as well.
The normal green fee for there is £130.00 per round, £200.00 for the day.
Would I have paid that??? Nope.
sunshine
Well-known member
Not really. It's just supply and demand, and these courses have plenty of members wanting to play so it makes sense to manage visitors by increasing the green fee.
I want an Aston Martin but I can't afford one. I'm not accusing them of cashing in or being greedy because it's more expensive then I wished.
Everyone has to cut their cloth accordingly. If you play golf you already have more disposable income then most of the population of the world. There's no point getting bitter about things you can't afford.
The Lion
Active member
Please don’t get me started on the many awful people in this world - like the Trumps. I can never stop! ?
On the previous owners, well they didn’t cause incalculable damage to innocent people, incite violence, divide an entire nation, constantly spout racist abuse at opponents, all after having spent a lifetime behaving like a truly shitty person, not to mention committing numerous crimes then hiding behind lawyers to save their skin. Plus there’s stiffing many hard working people, and corruptly evading taxes and bankrupting your businesses, yet never facing any consequences.
It’s beyond me a) how ANYONE can stomach playing at his courses and b) how our leaders continue to allow such a wholly unfit family to own such important, trophy assets.
I forgot they charge the highest rates of anyone, further compounding their losses, as there just aren’t enough idiots around to pay these inflated rates, especially after all this disgusting family have done. Indeed, most non-Americans play these courses at discounted rates.
The sooner they’re gone the better. It’s coming, but could be a while...
This prestige car/pricey watch analogy is getting old. It doesn’t compare to golf courses, which are living, breathing things, plus always were simply places for people to play a sport - not luxury items to charge insane prices for.
In most cases they were built for local people, yet since 2000 - accelerating this decade - prices of even half decent courses have been hiked drastically, well above inflation. It’s pushing the game out of reach of many, at a time when we need to be increasing participation (ignoring the somewhat artificial Covid-related spike), not alienating normal people who would be shocked at this return to elitism, after so many years of hard work to open up the sport.
GF increases at better clubs have even escalated after Covid. They don’t NEED to hike rates, but have chosen to be greedy, putting already pricey courses further out of reach of many, alienating even more people.
They don’t have to do this, and indeed many don’t. eg Silloth, East Devon, Seacroft, Beau Desert, Royal Porthcawl, West Sussex, Fortrose, Golspie, Moray, Fraserburgh, Royal Cromer plus many top Welsh courses all haven’t increased their fees aside from inflation since Covid, and there are many more. So it can be done.
D
Deleted member 15344
Guest
Remember it’s worth noting that a lot of golf clubs have lost a significant amount of money over the past 18 months due to lockdown
Many clubs will need to recover lost revenues to allow their course to hit the standard they want
sunshine
Well-known member
It's a bit more complicated than that:
1. Golf clubs have operating costs, a private club might budget to generate say 70% of its revenue from members' subscriptions, and 30% from green fees.
2. With the pandemic, people are working from home much more and therefore have more opportunity to play golf, so the members' demand for tee times is greater.
3. The response has to be to reduce the number of tee times for visitors / societies to free up availability for members. This leaves a hole in the budget, because reduced visitors / societies = reduced income.
4. So the options are to increase members subs, reduce spend on maintenance etc, or increase green fees. If visitors are willing to pay more it's the obvious answer. Nobody is forcing visitors to pay more it is a choice.
The clubs you named which haven't increased green fees probably don't have the same pressure on the tee sheet - the names I recognise are more remote courses and probably quieter.
Also, your theme about golf pricing out locals... the top courses have always been elitist (the ones that aren't are the rare exceptions). The Honourable Company of Edinburgh golfers weren't plumbers and brickies. Many traditional courses established artisan clubs to allow a few tradesmen in. Today these courses don't have any restrictions on allowing you in, they just know their value in the market.
Carpfather1
Head Pro
My home course southerndown is number 2 on the chart excellent value
bigslice
Tour Winner
are you sure? Cos i knew a few members at Turnberry that fought in Burma against the Japanese and they were more than happy with how the Japanese invested in the course. just because u dont like trump has nothing to do with the course the people who work there and the people u meet. If second world war veterans can put things into perspective about golf courses, surely we all can
