When Does A Round Become Expensive?

I was away over the weekend playing in Cambridgeshire and was surprised to learn that Ely GC had put up prices by 10% since March. So now it's £50 per round for vistors.

My own place charge £35 at weekends and membership is £700 the same as Ely and imagine that the average membership fee will be around the £600/700 mark. There are private members clubs that charge quite a lot, but what do people think the line is between a fair price and an expensive price. I'm not saying Ely isn't worth £50 but it does come close to being over the top as its an OK course but not special, or especially well maintained. The greens were excellent, but the rough was punishing/penal especially when trees are big hazard anyway.

I've splashed out to play a few 'must play' tracks and expect a high price for these, but for a run of the mill course?

We usually have an away day in August.
We usually pay approx £80-90 for bus, 2 rounds, lunch, high tea.

This year we decided to play only one round, bus, high tea. & the price was not much less £70.

We are playing at Rowallan Castle on 25th. With only one round to play, we don't have to get up as early as we would do with 36 holes to play. And we can return to our home course at a reasonable hour to participate in some sherbets before the bar shuts.

When you go out on the lash afterwards, meal in a decent restaurant, couple of hours in the casino, pick up a tart, ensuing divorce when the Mrs finds out...now that's when a round becomes expensive!

When you hit a few pipes and throw the offending clubs in a lake.

Depends how much I paid for the dozen balls I will invariably lose....

I wouldn't pay £80 to play St.Andrews Fairmont, but I would pay £120 for the local rate to play the spectacular Trump course up here in Aberdeenshire.

I'd probably pay the green fee for Wentworth too as a one off.

When you have a hole in one on the same afternoon as the golf club AGM.

Was your name a late entry to the list of apologies for that meeting Grumps?

SR Thats the thing though, I too would shell out a few quid to play that course, and no doubt some others. But what is a fair price to play a normal course that doesn't have bells and whistles. 3 rounds at the weekend costing £150 seems a bit much to me

Grumps is you stuffed an ace in I reckon you'd not bother if the clubhouse was full

Is the normal rate to play Trumps course around £200 Super?...would you say that it is still worth paying that sort of money to play it?

What you trying to say guys? That I squeak when I walk?

No ace for me ever and luckily we don't have an AGM. But I think I would go the route of buying an aristotle of a ping pong tiddly in the bar to share with everyone.

I know and have played Ely Golf course on a number of occasions and you are right Doc £50 a round is too much for a so-so course. Especially when a few miles down the road, cheaper (£40 a head on a Sunday) and a much better course is Thetford Forest!

I am however, well known for being more than a little stingy when it comes to green fees.

i actually played my own course the other day. The greens are running at around 12-13 on the stimp. The course looks stunning and green but is playing very firm and fast. Plus with the new tees now in play there are some really great holes out there. The 3rd is now up to around 220 to a green that is an upturned saucer with deep grassy mounds back and left, water short and right and bunkers short and left.

They have cut one bunker down by about 15 feet to make it a bit easier though!

Oh... and the point I was going to make but completely lost the plot over.... It's only 17 quid a round after 2 on a weekday!

Wow. 12-13 on the stimp is seriously difficult to achieve good surfaces on. Your Greenstaff must be doing some really impressive stuff. Even Augusta only run around 12-14, though the sloped surfaces there will make it seem like 20 i guess !

I still think for me £30 is around the mark when I start to question what does it have or offer that makes me want she'll out more. There's normally always a deal to be had somewhere that means you don't pay top dollar green fees.

Dunno what they are doing scarpa. I've hardly played this year. But i had a putt on the 18th across part of a tier. I literally tapped it and it ran a good 25ft down to the hole. And when I hit it i thought that was never getting there!

That said they had the same sort of speed last year. I had a four footer across what is a fairly minor slope (gave it about 4 inches on a 4 footer) missed it dead weight low. It stopped.... took a roll then went a good six or seven feet down the hill.

they are very impressive right now.

I think if you're playing a 'prestige' course you're prepared to pay bigger money but for your average place i'd say in excess of £40 is quite steep.

I played Sunningdale Old for nothing a couple of weeks back and that's meant to be £195 so i'm in 'credit' from that and am trying to decide where's next!

BlueCoverman wrote:Is the normal rate to play Trumps course around £200 Super?...would you say that it is still worth paying that sort of money to play it?

I think that's the normal rate Blue, I get it cheaper as a resident, haven't played it yet, but from what I hear it is outstanding, i'd be tempted to wait a couple of years for it to "bed in" though

I saw an advert in a local paper last night advertising coffee and bacon roll, 18 holes of golf and a bar meal (fish and chips, ham egg chips etc) all for £27 at a course near me!

It's not the greatest of courses - certainly not the sort of place I'd want to go regularly, but for a one-off visit that seemed a hell of a deal!

The club does seem rather desperate though - about 12 months ago they suddenly decided to go completely pay-and-play and all the members were told they were no longer required and the "club" disbanded. A lot of the members came to my place and the old club realized about 6 months ago they'd made a mistake and invited them all back. They were almost unanimously told to "poke it"

Thanks SR, would be interested to hear your thoughts if you do get the chance to play it

I agree with Matelot - I think £30 is tops for me, as there are always 2 of us which doubles the cost. At the moment, we are playing a local 9-hole course (muni but in great nick) and if we play during the week (if I can get a sneaky day off) it's £7.50 for us over 60s, and only £11 at weekends. I'm always happy to play later in the day so "twilight" and "off peak" greenfees are never a problem, if they are available. I've bought 5 2for1 vouchers for the trip to Scotland and the Lake District which should save us a few bob too.

Much as I would love to play Wentworth, Sunningdale, St Andrews Old, Gleneagles or even the new Trump course, I just cannot justify the cost.

Guess that couple from Suffolk who won £148m in the EuroMillions draw at the weekend won't have any such worries LP!

BlueCoverman wrote:Guess that couple from Suffolk who won £148m in the EuroMillions draw at the weekend won't have any such worries LP!

Nope. But they will have greenpeace, save the otter other such begging organisations hammering at their door. I think we should be allowed to have shotguns loaded with rock salt to deal with the charity doorknockers and plastic envelope mob.

oldshanker wrote:I know and have played Ely Golf course on a number of occasions and you are right Doc £50 a round is too much for a so-so course. Especially when a few miles down the road, cheaper (£40 a head on a Sunday) and a much better course is Thetford Forest!

I am however, well known for being more than a little stingy when it comes to green fees.

Shanks, agreed but I can understand why he wanted to play at his own track as he has free golf. We were signed in as guests on bits and pieces, with the 3rd guest paying full price etc. We obviously divied all the costs up between the 4 of us etc, but still found it hard to accept £50 per round on that course

50 quid for guests does sound a lot for a "normal" course

My own place has visitor rates (at the weekend) for around £48 but guests are under £30 I think

I dont play that often so dont mind paying ab it more for a "name" course if I have the chance to play one.
What bugs me is when you play as a visitor at a normal track, end up paying £40 and the attitude you get is that they are doing you a favour letting you on the course. Hello, if you open up your course to customers treat them like customers with some respect. Unfortunately that seems to be the exception rather than the rule in my experience.

Depending on the course, would probably pay up to £40 for a round.

Would go way above that for certain courses - Turnberry being top of the list (staying at the hotel, of course)

I voted £40. This is when a round becomes "expensive" in my mind.

However, I am happy to play expensive courses if they are worth it... no issues treating myself to a big name course once in a while. What I don't understand is average courses who charge premium prices

raycastleunited wrote:I voted £40. This is when a round becomes "expensive" in my mind.

However, I am happy to play expensive courses if they are worth it... no issues treating myself to a big name course once in a while. What I don't understand is average courses who charge premium prices

Ray, my view exactly, and although I had a great weekend and a few laughs, great company and plenty of sherberts, it still wrankles slightly that we had to pay that much. Plus the catering is all outscourced and only available at certain times. Bar staff were also in short supply, even though the clubhouse was full and watching the Olympics etc.

It does however show that the average price for visting a decent track is around the £30-£40 mark. I can accept that, and also don't mind paying a lot more for that blue chip course, but those are few and far between, and a special occasion etc.

I voted for £40 as I think there are plenty of good courses around for under £40, my own course is only £30 per round weekdays.

I have played the Forest of Arden, The Warwickshire , and the Belfry to name just a few, with a society, I think the most we paid was £50 per head, but that was with a 2 course meal afterwards.

Our society has a fixed fee of £45 wherever we go. Any where that charges more than that (bearing in mind it's a society rate for 27 holes, lunch and probably bacon rolls & coffee in the morning) is out of the picture, unless another venue comes in at significantly less. We normally expect to be able to make a charitable contribution out of the £45 as well.

I voted for £50 on that basis, but £40 is probably nearer the mark for somewhere run-of-the-mill. If it was a case of paying a straight, 18-hole green fee, I'd normally be looking at using 2fore1 vouchers anyway.

not really possible to select an answer. 150 quid for a day at woburn is worthwhile... but 30 quid for theydon bois is way too expensive. It's not a straight cost based question.

LondonJonnyO wrote:not really possible to select an answer. 150 quid for a day at woburn is worthwhile... but 30 quid for theydon bois is way too expensive. It's not a straight cost based question.

Exactly. But Woburn is expensive. It may be worth it, but it is still expensive.

raycastleunited wrote:

LondonJonnyO wrote:not really possible to select an answer. 150 quid for a day at woburn is worthwhile... but 30 quid for theydon bois is way too expensive. It's not a straight cost based question.

Exactly. But Woburn is expensive. It may be worth it, but it is still expensive.

For the whole day? With breakfast and lunch included? And two round of golf. If you lose the breakfast (say £10 at a top course) and lunch (£15-£20 at a top place) you are going to be left with 120ish. That equates to 60 quid a round. Which when you consider the place you are playing really isn't that bad.

I would pay £100 for a day's golf but not much more and, obviously, it would have to be for the right course.

I will never pay £365 for a round at Wentworth and I've been told it's not that special in the clubhouse.