[l2ridehd]

By most measures golf in TV is cheap. Priority membership is great deal if you play in the winter months. If you play from April to December in TV and January to March outside TV, not such a good deal. The main benefit of the membership is available tee times during the busy season. The discount helps pay for that for avid golfers.

I realize I live in a fairly expensive area in Northern Virginia. So not a country wide comparison by any means. I belong to a private club with an excellent golf course. Initiation fee is normally 20K and yes they do run deals that drop that to around 10K every once in a while. Dues and food minimum and cart fees and mandatory guest fees run me an average of $1200 a month to play about 80-90 times a year. And then there is this thing called special assessments. When ever they want to or have to do something not in the budget, the membership gets assessed. I have been a member here for 15 years and have seen assessments from $500 to $5000. Total over 15 years has been about $10000. I do get to play any private club in the area as an exchange member in the PCN (private club network). Also when traveling you can play private clubs through PCN.

So my point with all this is when I move to TV next year my annual golf bill will drop significantly. The above cost is fairly typical of private clubs in this area as I researched many before joining this one. And someone will challenge these costs and say "but I play for $XX by" and they play public courses and specials and other ways. And I agree I pay a premium for my golf, but I can get a tee time anytime, I play a great course, have access to most private clubs, and a practice facility second to none. But any way I try to compare it to TV, golf in TV is cheap.