Good evening, everybody!
Something I've wondered about over the last few months ...
How have the economic conditions altered any of your golf travel plans for this year?
There are usually a lot of those mancations, locally and regionally and I'm wondering how those are doing this year?

Hi Mike,

It hasn't. I still operate under the premise that nothing is as good, or as bad, as it appears.

Mike, I'm looking at your avatar and it beg's a question.

Are you a broadcastor or telecastor in Pittsburgh?

I noticed from your first post, you seem to like the game of golf and it looks like you might go on golf outings from time to time. Do you play often?

Anyway, welcome to this forum. Looking forward to you joining in.

Hasn't really stopped mine either..the weather has gotten in the way, but I still plan to travel and golf this year numerous times.

Bill,

You are indeed a keen investigator.
Actually, I am something of a broadcaster in Pittsburgh.
I host a weekly radio show during golf season.
Certainly no Bob Costas, but we have a lot of fun. And I have fun doing it.
I do enjoy golf quite a bit and have, through the years, going on golf outings from time to time. I don't play as often as I'd like, but hope to correct that this year!

Mike,
We have an outing each year called the GGR, where a few (hopefully a growing few) of the members, on this forum, get together, play some golf and get to know each other. Hope you can make it this year.

Speaking for myself...with taking a salary reduction and my husband on unemployment...I couldn't take a vacation in good conscience. We are still playing at our local courses as much as we can (at least once a week) once it warms up, that's a relative bargain that we won't give up.

Not sure if any golf related travel will be on the calendar this year or not. Will mostly be playing the city owned courses near me as the price is right. Not likely to be buying any new clubs either, and certainly not a new driver or box of $45 golf balls any time soon.

Mike, cool! Can we listen to your show via internet?

I don't have plans to do anything differently, but I don't travel much. I spend my golf monies on lessons, range balls, and playing my favorite muni.

I plan on sticking with my par 3 for practice and some of the local muni course/clubs when I can. I am planning at least one or more trip to Baltimore to play with my son sometime this spring and summer and we will play the week of the US Open here in CT, have not picked the course yet. No new clubs planned, just working out keeping either the 3I hybird or 7W, until I decide which I just keep the 60 deg in the car. Got a couple of NIKE and Ashworth shirts during the off season so at least I will be my usual well-dressed self.

Well, I've found the answers that I've gotten to my questions very interesting. I've done some research on the subject, up and down the East Coast basically, and have found a divergence of opinions. And that's pretty much what has been reflected in what you folks have typed. I think we're in for a very unpredictable golf season this year. I've talked to some courses here and their plans for the summer are just as varied. One place is cutting its green fees almost in half. Others have increased their prices $5 or so.

Laney, yes you can and I'll get the address for you as we get closer to the start of the show. Thanks

Mike, you may want to ask the station if we can link to it from here, or perhaps you could include a signature line in your forums profile with a link for those who are interested. Just a thought!

I don't know what the courses I play are planning, but I have notices it's a little easier to get a tee time the past few weeks. Weather has been good, so that's not a factor I wouldn't think. That pretty much leaves money being an issue.

This may be a good year for me based on that. I love going out on a course that's not too busy, especially on like.. a Sunday afternoon.. and walking 9 or 18 by myself... it's like therapy..

Try it on a week day, it's even more open usually.

This is one area that makes my country club membership a bargain. We have full access to the pools, the gym, the tennis and squash courts and the golf course as part of our annual fee. It is particularly a good deal for me this year as the membership was my father's gift to our family for Christmas.

Actually the economy has made our county courses much more crowded. Much harder to get tee times now, all the "country clubbers" who dropped out, the guys who usually play pricier semi-private courses have decided to "slum it".
Plus side, I'm getting emails with discount promo's pretty much every day from the semi-private courses!

The semi-private course near me that I like is in bankruptcy. I guess we'll see what happens but all those big fancy houses around it will go down in price quickly if they shutdown.

Things here in Kentucky are not to bad prices vary from couse to course but being a mostly rural area and having about 14 courses within an hour drive plan to play most all of them sometime this year. Prices also pretty reasonable in this area range from about$15 per person with cart for 18 holes to about $42 dolars a person for 18 holes per person

Hi Tom! Some things are very nice about small towns, and prices are one of them. I'm a small town person transplanted to the city for adulthood. Do you have a garden? Do you play much golf?

I have also noticed a big drop at some of the upscale cources that is when I drive by. A lot of the cources around me have either reduced the price or are offering specials. Personally I had to opt out of a yearly trip. It has not stopped me from playing just made me more sellective.

I have noticed in our area (Memphis TN) that a lot of the charity/fundraiser tournaments have moved to some of the bigger & better courses in the area. Most of us figure it is that those courses have come down significantly on their prices/demands which makes it easier for the chairities to move their tournaments there w/o compromising their fundraising efforts.

A lot of the "bigger" courses in our area have also started offering discounts or freezing membership rates rather than increasing, or in some cases doing away with initiation costs, etc.

Just got an email from a guy I subscribe to and he was saying that there is a way to get on at Bethpage Black with a deal he has for 65.00 and that there was an article in one of the big golf magazines that said the price was 850.00 what a big difference. I have not seen the article but I cant imagine a state park costing that much. I don't know any course worth that. It got me to thinking this would be a great venue for people to share information about discounts ways to get a good deal. I am going on a trip to the DC area next month it would be nice to have info for courses in theat area. Is there a forum for that yet?

Lost, sometimes the golf magazines give travel package ideas and maybe thats what he saw...that for $850, a trip to that area, here are the courses you should play...and it wasn't just one round at Bethpage, but several rounds and accommodations, etc. Maybe?

There's no way BP is $850.

Lost, I read that article last night. The $850 deal is a company that takes you in a luxury van from the city to the course and gets the tee time. It costs around $100 to play Bethpage on the weekend if you are not a resident.

I read that article too, in the comments there was also a guy who called at the right time, got his tee and paid the normal fee without any hassle.

Wow I was reading and could not believe it so I looked online and it was like someone said 100 dollars for a non resident on weekends. That is still high for a public course, to me anyway. I play as a guest at a private country club and my fee is 65 dollars. T he economy has not made a difference for me but a number of the people I know are having difficulty. I am really enjoying golfing. If I had to give up something it would not be golf.

I have heard several people tell me that golf is too expensive a sport and a waste of money. But, I just don't agree with them. If you love what you are doing, then how can it be a waste of time and money. Golf is a very detailed oriented sport and takes lots of skill and patience. I believe that if you enjoy playing, then go for it. Give up a coke or a smoke instead.

My pastime used to be distance running. Buying a pair of new running shoes and paying $25 or so for a dozen races a year was pretty cheap compared to golf!

On the other hand, by the time I get home after a round, I am as renewed and refreshed from the pressure of my urban lifestyle as I'd be if I'd spent the weekend traipsing around in the alpine wilderness (something I truly love also). I am amazed at how renewing golf is for me. Besides being a wonderful challenge.

We have courses which are run by our county. So if you live in the county, you pay $30 for an anuual golf membership. That allows us to play for $26 on the weekend. It's almost double that if you live outside the county. So there is a benefit to our high real estate taxes.
Golf does not have to be expensive if you do some research. Many semi-private courses have rates that go down at certain times of the day, so you can save a few bucks if you play in the afternoon usually. And I've found that if you sign up for emails from golf courses, you'll get all kinds of promo's and coupons that can oftentimes cut $10 off the greens fee, or maybe free power cart for a round.

I know people that love tennis, and talk about how much cheaper it is. And I don't disagree, but you like what you like. So as Aimee says, you can play golf reasonably cheaply being smart, if you care to do that. Me, money's not the biggest factor for me. If I'm going to spend 4-6 hours that often plus practice time, which adds up to a lot of involvement hours over a year, I want to really enjoy it, so I cut back other places so I can afford to do what I want with golf. But if I were in a different economic situation, i might do differently.

Now that I'm 62, I get a senoir discount at my local city owned golf courses. I can play 18 holes now for as little as $18 for a pretty nice course, or $20 for a round on a course that used to be a private country club before the city purchased it a few years ago. Can't reommend getting old, but it does have one or two perks at least.

We have a course that just re-opened 2 weeks ago. Was a military course before the Air Force base closed down, then became a public course. Played my first 3 rounds of golf there, and paid $20 for 18 holes, with a cart. That was 6 years ago. Now the same course with the re-modeling job, is open, They claim they set to green fees so the course would be affordable to all golfers. Turns out their idea of affordable is now $50 not includeing a cart. That's supposed to be what they figure it costs to cover the overhead, and nothing more. Will be interesting to see how much busy they are in a few months with prices that are more than double what they were before the re-model.

These are some really great alternatives to paying a fortune. Now, if I hear anybody complaining how expensive it is to play; I will have some information to give back to them.

Aimee
I agree there are some great deals I have joined a club and have played with them twice. As with anything networking is the key to great deals. We played a course called gleneagles it is a public course and is beautiful and only 24 dollars for 18 holes. I also bought a book of 2 for 1's.

So like Amiee said I does not have to be expensive.

I still have not seen the article yet but did read someones post that it is real hard to get on the course if you are not a resident. People actually go the night before and sleep in the car to get on that course? I did look at the site for rates and it is a reasonalble price for such a nice course.

The economy and my three kids have all taken a toll on my golf game. I find that I can't get to the driving range as much anymore, so I don't play anywhere near as well as I did when I was younger and could go hit a bucket or teo a couple of times a week. My friends and I still get out, but we look for cheap deals.

I, for one, refuse to participate in this recession. I have altered my lifestyle very little. I just run my business with higher standards. I have been fortunate enough to retain my profit margin this way, allowing me the money and time to enjoy golf.

Welcome Jax. Glad you've been able to sustain the status quo. I have too, just cut back on some other things like electricity, gas for the car, those types of things that are second to golf!

Unfortunately, the economy has impacted my plans and just about everything else that my family is involved in, be it hobbies or just survival. I can't wait for things to improve so we can get back to normal.

Oh, we've cut back on some things, but it's more of the same things we cut back on when we had a child. On the other hand, I think that it's important to continue to do things we enjoy - maybe just a little less or at cheaper places.

Golf keeps us sane. For $27 a round, I'll figure out how to work it in to the budget.

I agree with you Aimee I don't make much money but I am not going to give up golf. I pay 110 a month and play as much as I want during the week on a muni course. Most of the time it is just enough time fro nine holes by the time I get off work but at 110 a month I can't think of anything I would enjoy more.
From looking around on the web there are a lot of courses that offer the same kind of deal. I enjoy weekday more anyway less people and more serious golfers.

$110 a month for unlimited golf-even if you can't get in 18 holes-is a good deal. You have to weigh out what you enjoy and what it's worth to you.
I play golf every weekend, sometimes more, that's $26-27 per round. So I'm spending over $100/month anyhow.

That's about what my clubs runs though it's all up front, $1200. If you want the range that's another $200, but I will gladly pay a net $100/month for unlimited golf.

My dad still pays for me to golf whenever I go with him usually, and he has a coupon book where basically on every course in the county (which is actually a lot...like 20, well some are just across the line, but still.) he gets 2 for the price of one. The book cost him like $100, but that's not a bad deal. Some guy came into his autoparts store and offered it to him.

Those coupon books can be great deals if you have a lot of courses nearby. They always pay for themselves if you play a couple of times.