Green Fees - how high would you go

I recently had the pleasure of playing Royal County Down (see HERE ) twice for free as part of an inter-club competition.  One of the members was telling me it's £180 to play as a visitor and they have a lot of American visitors who also hire a caddy (at £50 per round plus tip), meaning a round costs £230.  

So two questions how rich are the board members - how many of you would pay that for a round of golf, and what does your club (if you're a member of one) charge visitors?

(He also told me that in one day earlier this month, the club had taken in £25k in green fees, and that it's not that unusual an occurrence).

If you can get a round at a decent course for £45, would playing at Royal County Down be 4 times as good? I don't think I would pay that sort of money for a round of golf on a course you have never played before and to get the best out of it you are going to have to play it at least another time.

£180 is insanely expensive, although I suppose the club would say there are plenty of people prepared to pay it, so they are justified in charging it.

I don't think the issue is how rich (or poor) people are. It's really about whether you think that it represents value for money. I'm afraid I just wouldn't consider paying that much because I don't regard it as value for money. I'd rather, as Lorus says, pay £45 to play four other courses.

I played at North Berwick West and East links last week. The West links is fantastic, possibly my favourite course, but the green fee was exactly twice as much as the East links, and I have to say it wasn't worth the extra.

I was in St Andrews with work a few weeks back. We played the hotel course, the Torrance course at the Fairmont, for £55. It was a bit wet that evening so we had the course pretty much to ourselves. The next day we knew we'd be finishing the job around midday, so rang around to try to get a game (TOC wasn't available). Pretty much everywhere was fully booked, except Gleneagles (£160) and Kingsbarns (£195). As we had to drive back to southern England that afternoon/evening, we didn't want to divert to Gleneagles as well, and they only had a couple of times around 2pm. We therefore popped the couple of miles down the road to Kingsbarns, who'd told us they had lots of free slots that afternoon. We explained that although we'd love to play the course, the green fee was too high to justify for a casual game of golf before such a long drive and was there anything they could do for us? They had no compunction in telling us that they have one green fee and there's nothing they can do to adjust that, so we went home and they went without the £250-£300 we'd have probably paid. Strange logic but I guess if they are happy losing out on some income in order to maintain a high (highest in the town as far as I can tell) standard fee then so be it.

Smithers, if you had a free afternoon in that area with your golf clubs, why didn't you choose one of the many other courses there? You went home without a game at all?

smithers

Crail, elie, new, jubilee, lundin etc?


george

North berwick west links is easily twice as good as the glen.


I have been dumb enough to pay some prettty high green fees, but these days I am a lot less interested in playing the big name courses. I much prefer a lesser known but very solid course with a value for money green fee.

I played Nort Berwick West last year (in lovely conditions - no wind) and have to say it was absolutely superb. However I would like to back up what was said earlier about playing it 'blind'. I felt it was just too much money - especially as you have no clue where you're playing to. Some of the blind shots were really penal and although I broke 90, felt that you would need to play it a fair few times to really get your moneys worth. Having said all that it was really rather splendid (hangover not withstanding...)

How high have I gone? $495 for Pebble Beach. I promised myself it would be a one off as no course is worth that....4 years later I've now played it 5 times.

There are other courses I'd like to play but just downright wouldn't pay what in my opinion is unjustifiable...Wentworth West being the prime example. Kingsbarns I forked out £195 for and much as I loved it I wouldn't pay that again.

Whilst I want to play the big courses, I do try and get as much value as possible...which generally means Opens or rolling the weather dice taking a winter green fee.

Best value deals to me are the Tassie -6 (yes six) rounds at Carnoustie for £200 or the weekend at Dornoch where they have a team comp on the Sat and an individual open on the Sunday at £24 on the Sat and £33 on the Sun that is up there with the best value in golf anywhere in the world.

Re North Berwick West, we played it as part of my 50th birthday celebrations in March, think the winter green fee was £56. Eclipsed Muirfield as the highlight of the trip. I wouldn't mind playing it it summer and forking out over £100 for the privilege. It is just superb, shooting a 74 for 40 points clearly helped the feel good factor but even the guys who scraped low 20s loved it as well.

I increasingly think about joining the waiting list for North Berwick membership.

Do they even have a waiting list for under 30's?

Possibly my favorite course.

There are three clubs that play on the West Links - North Berwick GC, Tantallon GC and Bass Rock GC. I'm sure one of them would welcome your application.

McLaren wrote:I increasingly think about joining the waiting list for  North Berwick membership.

Do they even have a waiting list for under 30's?

Possibly my favorite course.

Does the bus run out there Mac?

McLaren wrote:smithers

Crail, elie, new, jubilee, lundin etc?

All the Links Trust courses were full. My colleague wanted to play a top rated course, having missed out on TOC which we were anticipating our customer getting us onto (I've played TOC before but it's high on his bucket list) so KB was the only one of those with times available. With an 8-9 hour drive to follow and showers in the air we decided not to bother going elsewhere, having played the night before.

paid £89 for kingsbarns, but probably wouldn't go much higher. stupid boy turned down muirfield next month for £65... hopefully next year...

Dunno. Would really love to play RCD but that's quite steep. TBH, anything in excess of £75 I'd find too steep these days.

Since when were elie and crail not top rated courses?

Substitute famous for top rated.

Good question -- more than most I assume.

But, I did the math: for every day I'm alive I'm dead three. I really enjoy golf trips and also enjoy playing some of the older and finer courses. (Which usually comes with a steep price tag.)

So, no specific figure, but I passed on the Wynn course in Vegas ($500 GF!).

Played Royal Troon, and didnt pay anything..think that was just being covered by a friends dad who is a member..best value round i have ever had. Dont think i have paid over £45 for a round though. And would have to be pretty special (to get the wife to give me a pass)

Would pay a fair bit to play Wentworth, Loch Lomond etc, but agree with Mac in that there are a lot of great courses around in remote spots that are cheap and very interesting.
Gairloch 9 holer is cracking fun.

Interesting - thanks for the feedback.

RCD was fantastic, scenic and challenging etc.. this is the 4th time I've played it, but if I had to pay for it myself, I think I'd baulk at the cost. There are indeed other great course nearby for a lot less money, and I don't think the the enjoyment of a round is pro rata with the cost.

Depends doesn't it?
If i was single with no resposibilities other than myself i would definitely pay £180 to play any of the really top courses. Like JAS i probably could convince myself to part with $500 to play Pebble Beach. But that's because golf would be high on my list of priorities.

With a family in tow, it's a bit lower in the priorities and so i would probably limit it to £100 max because you have to think of the more useful things it could be spent on.

It's not about how rich, just about what you like/need to spend your money on

£180 disappears pretty quickly on nappies etc. doesn't mpb.

i guess the other thing is, would i rather spend the money on equipment?

£80 just to get into muirfield last week to watch a bunch of hackers miss greens, putt into bunkers, hack about in the thick stuff...there were a few good shots too, lloyd saltmans tee shot on 16 was pretty spectacular from behind the tee. bit surprised at the cost to get in, i'd naively assumed it would be around 40-50 for a ticket.

Barra - I went to the Open at St Andrews in 2000 and I think it was £35 on the Sunday. At RSG a couple of years ago I think it was £50. £80 is starting to get a little steep... I know in terms of VFM you are getting to see golf from dawn til dusk, but that is a lot.

Most I've ever paid? About £100 for Kapalua (it was something ridiculous like $250 in the morning and then "only" $150 after 1pm) and in the UK £90 for the Grove although that did include lunch.

I used to have a job where I was the recipient of corporate hospitality so managed to play a good number of courses for free. £60 is probably my standard cap but would go up to £200 once a year for something special eg Muirfield.

I recall I just paid £110 for Royal Dornoch, but had two rounds there that day.

Topic for another thread I know, but the absolute top US courses are not ridiculously expensive. The harder part is securing an invite!

I've only paid silly money once - to play Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. If I am ever within 200 miles of it again I'll be paying again! From memory it was about 400nzd (£200) at the time. On the same trip I got to play Kingston Heath (Melbourne) for free. It's the best course I've ever played, so overall I'd take the two as a bargain!

For about a couple of years I was a member of a club that had quite a pricey annual subscription. (And that was after the debenture and joining fee). The course was good, but not that good. However, my job changed from shift work with days off in the week to Mon-Fri 9-5 and as I was a 5 day member, the times I could get out were limited. I worked out that it was costing me £150 a round to play my own course at one point. As soon as I changed my work pattern I had to leave. Luckily I was able to sell my debenture when I left.

Faster than quickly Barra!

Was it £80 to get in this year? For one day? I went to Hoylake and it was £50, Turnberry was £55 and Sandwich was £60 in 2011. Those were all bought on the day, £5 cheaper if bought it advance. £80 is quite a jump

£75 on the gate, £15 shared between 3 to park. Glad I brought a packed lunch, though I picked up a few souvenirs including an open cap for the scamp - cost about 90 nappies. Ice cream and a coke for 3 was about 100 nappies  still, it was a great day

I paid £55 in advance for a Sunday ticket to Lytham last year, so even if it was £70 in advance this year that's something like a 27% hike year on year.

Bara - I like the nappy exchange rate, not that I would wish to exchange one! Economists used to produce an inflation rate linked to mars bars, then Mars changed the size and totally undermined years of economic research!

I too like the nappy exchange rate ha!

I had told myself i was definitely going to Hoylake next year as it's a bit nearer to home but possibly not if it takes another 27% hike to £95!

MPB - using the nappy rate you could always make a deposit! I'll be on my way now!!

I don't quite know what to say.............

This is something that I often wonder. I am pretty fortunate to have friends who are members of clubs so play on their places at guest rates and have realised that I am pretty skewed about what is realistic. (£20 to play the Bracken course at Hodgkin Spa for instance.)

Generally when a round is more than £45 I start to think that it needs to be pretty special. But maybe I am being unrealistic. £45 to play Gullane 2 while at the Open last week I thought was great value.

I particularly think that the cost of golf in southern Europe is poor value. They seem to start at about £75 and that's for some pretty average tracks that are in average condition.

As for what that costs in nappies, I have no clue. Pints of beer, bottles of wine, meals out on the other hand....

As a slight side to this thread, I was at Muirfield at the weekend paying my £75 and read that the numbers were down this year and the R&A were trying to say it wasn't down to ticket prices but £10 extra in two years is a lot. Interestingly they had something like 30,000 through the gates on Wednesday practice at £45 then 7,000 less on Thursday at £75 which would suggest that price is an issue as you are taking time off work on either and arguably you will see more players on Thursday than on Wednesday.

I think that the I remember paying was about £100 for Vilamoura Victoria where they play the Portuguese Masters but the condition of the course was exceptional.