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Is a Golf Club Membership Worth It?

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Is a golf club membership worth it?

Is a Golf Club Membership Worth It?

Since making the decision to move on from professional baseball, I’ve found a passion for golf.  My family lives in south Florida, and since I’ve been home, my dad and I have golfed at least three times per week.  I never knew how expensive it was!  Naturally I began to look for ways to budget our golf addiction.  One of the first questions that came to mind: is a golf club membership worth it?

I always knew that golf clubs and equipment were expensive, but I was pretty surprised at the prices to play a round of golf.  Most courses around us wanted $60 each to play a full round of golf. We usually decided to play at the courses that would allow us to play just 9 holes for cheap. Luckily we found one in a 55+ community that let us play 9 holes for $15 each. But we often found ourselves stuck in the tee box waiting for the groups ahead of us, and I finally began losing patience. Have you ever been stuck behind multiple groups that hit 10 shots on a par 4? It’s pretty damn frustrating!

Anyway, when I first got home from playing it was early fall and the prices weren’t too bad. But when “golf season” came around in November all the prices to play a round of golf nearly doubled! So, we started doing some research and thought about how to create a budget to allow us to play golf three times a week.  We wanted to learn what made more sense, paying each time to play golf or joining a Golf Club with a one-time membership fee.

My Usual Golf Expenses:

I always keep my golf clubs in my truck, so many times when I’m driving around, I’ll stop by the local range to hit golf balls at the range. 

A bucket of about 50 balls costs $6.50, which is apparently pretty cheap.  Usually I’ll hit a bucket or two depending on how things are going that day. 

Also, before each round of golf we play we’ll get loosened up at the range and split a bucket of balls.  I would say since I’ve been home, we’ve spent about $65 a week at the range. 

Golf courses differ in their prices, but we found a few cheaper courses that cost about $35 each to play a round of 18 holes.  We usually play twice a week, so we pay about $70 per week. 

The public courses we play at don’t quite look like the PGA National. I’d say they more closely resemble my backyard a few days after being mowed.  But as beginners they get the job done and have sparked my passion for golf!

With all this free time how much have we spent each month playing golf?

$500.

Once we realized the amount of money we spent on golf that first month we started to do some research into getting private golf membership.

Based on some quick research and a few phone calls, I learned the prices range between $1,500 to $3,000 to join as a member.  The membership includes unlimited rounds of golf, range balls, and use of the facilities. 

The Verdict…

Is a golf membership worth it? Yes.

After a quick discussion it seemed like a no brainer to join a private golf membership if we continued playing as much as we did throughout the year.  If we continued fueling our golf addiction at our current rate, we would pay $6,000 to play golf in 2020. 

That’s just ridiculous.

We probably won’t golf as much as we do now in the coming months, but it still makes sense to get the golf membership.  Even if we cut the amount of golf we currently play in half, the golf membership will still pay for itself! 

In short, we’re going to join a private golf club next week.  There’s no where better to live than sunny south Florida!

I’m lucky enough to live in a place where I’m surrounded by professional golfers! Tiger Woods lives just 15 mins away from me on the water. For all you golf addicts checkout this video that breaks down his perfect swing:

Also checkout this article by Golf Digest that examines Tiger’s swing sequence.

Do you have any memberships that save you money?  Any suggestions on ways to budget in 2020 using memberships for different activities?

I’m excited to share more fun topics like this that break down the amount of money we spend on hobbies and activities that we love.

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