Budget Beater: Does Your Local Course Offer Yearly Memberships?

 The single biggest expense that you will encounter during your golfing adventures will be greens fees. From the cheapest twilight local round to the most expensive resort course, just playing two times a month could easily cost you $1000 a year or more. Of course, if  the place you play the most often offers a membership, it might just be the way to play all year long, without spending more than the cost of a few months of playing. For example, a local nine hold layout on the outskirts of town offers a yearly pass for just $750. This includes unlimited golf on both weekdays and weekends. Currently 18 holes (two trips around the 9 hole layout) will cost you $25. That means that the payoff on this membership would be 30 rounds of golf, or getting out about once every other week.

While it may seem a bit crazy to think you would want to play 30 rounds a year, once the bug sets in and the summer months come around, you may find yourself wanting to play a few 9 hole rounds after work, or before the sun comes up on Saturday. Keeping yourself local opens up a world of options for sneaking in a few extra holes just about any time. I guess the best way I can sum up how valuable a membership like this can be is to look at my plan for returning to golf this year. I had planned on playing about $500 worth of golf and playing it over 12 months. Currently, I’ve played 10 rounds already and eclipsed my spending total by $150 already. Golf gets crazy expensive, so why not get something that you pay for once and never have to worry about again?

Now, there is more than one way to get a great deal on golf, but if you truly want to get out and play, whether it would be for the health benefits, the competition, or just because you are stubborn and want to be the best at anything you do, a course pass or membership is one of the best ways to save and plan for your yearly budget. If you live somewhere with cold winters and and wet springs, you might want to check out options for monthly passes or even see if they offer a peak season pass only. I mean for $750 a year, even getting three months of use out of a pass isn’t that bad, but if they happened to sell one for $500 that only covered the peak playing season (usually the end of May through the end of September) it could create an even bigger value.

Check with your local course and see what options they have for discounted tee times or memberships. You might be shocked how much you can save.