New Pricing plan on Championship
 

There is a new schedule for the cost of Champion courses. The new rates go from May 1 to December 31. The offset for priority drops. I haven't worked out the details, but I may be dropping out after 17 years

New Golf Rates in the Villages are exorbitant.
 

If you haven't seen the new golf rates in the Villages, you need to look at them. They have eliminated summer rates and basically put in fall rates from May 1 thru December. Instead of getting a $12 discount off of greens fees of those rates for priority members, you'll only get $8. If they follow this pattern for the new January thru April 2020 rates, this situation will be much worse.

This is what we get from the greedy children of the Morses when they took over the golf courses. I will be playing less in the Villages in the future and more outside where rates will be $15 to $20 less and come with freebies as well. It's just now worth playing golf in the Villages during the the hot weather here anymore.

The position of a greedy Villager :)

The fact is if you play average courses away from the villages you know what they charge here at the villages isn’t worth it.its embarrassing for what they charge for the championship courses and the condition of the championship courses .I played Arnold Palmer for $64 a few wks ago wasn’t worth $40 bucks that’s a fact the only good thing about playing there, was $5 bucks goes to the Arnold Palmer hospital.p.s I love the villages but courses ———-.

The developer has always owned the championship courses. What he took over in January was the administration of the courses which had been done previously by GMS. Pricing was always under his control. Several years ago he determined the championship courses must be self-sustaining and there was a commensurate rise in the fees.

Below is the link to the new rate chart.

https://golfthevillages.com/images/May_Dec%202019.pdf

Just saw the rates. Kind of a bummer, no more summer rates (May through September) and higher rates for what is now being called the evening wave. It seems like all essential expenses (food, health care, insurance, golf, etc...) go up way more than the published CPI index.

It's simply the "captured audience" situation.

'Da Family' knows that there is a strong draw on being able to drive your own golf cart to all of the courses, thus not needing to deal with driving your vehicle and messing with bag drops, even if the courses are often in average-to-poor condition...so push the limits on greens fees. :ohdear:

Myth
 

I asked John W. Bozard
Senior Vice President, Orlando Health; President, Orlando Health Foundation this includes the Children's Hospital about that money we always hear goes to the hospital he told me they receive NO MONEY from the playing there.

Look at the rates after 3. I'm good with that
Steve

I have been playing off site since I moved here 8 years ago. In most cases, better conditions, attractive pricing and happy to have you.

championship
 

maybe a organized one day boycott of villages courses would send a message to the Morse's

Supply & Demand.


If prices go up, usage will go down.


Since there are threads complaining about usage, Seems like price increases will make some of the whiners happy.


I'm okay with the pricing.


:popcorn:

golf
 

My husband is a priority member and plays 18 3 days a week. He likes the convenience of driving to the course in a golf cart. He rarely plays off site because it is too time consuming. He feels the green fees are fair. Much cheaper than belonging to the club up north.

I don’t mind paying the increase if the conditions of the courses were good. They are not! Played Bonifay Saturday and it was horrible. The greens have some kind of disease and the fairways are dirt. I was told it may be closed. Havana is not much better and found Palmer in poor condition. If you want to charge these prices at least maintain the courses!

Worst I’ve seen in 8 years.

I play after 3:00 quite a bit in the summer. The problem with it is that a lot of non-golfers who decide that they want to "try golf" come out at that time as well as a lot of beginners. If you aren't first to tee off at 3:00 you're likely to get behind people that take way too long to play and it's likely that you won't get 18 holes in. You're often paying the 18 hole rate to play 15-16 holes.

From what I've observed in the summer time, if I were running these courses, I'd have that after 3:00 rate all day long June through September. It's better to have 150 players pay a lower rate and keep your golf course full than to have an almost empty golf course from 7:00am until 3:00pm.

Championship courses
 

Golf course operations are terribly expensive. Few (if any) are self-sustained from their green fees or membership fees. Our courses are amenities. They are supposed to be subsidized, and amenity fees are increasing all the time. Far be it for the developer to explain his/her logic for this golf fee increase when there are so many other ways to tweak revenues. For example, as some OPs have suggested, stop giving guests a free ride at pools and elsewhere. Smart people supposedly run the development company. They should consider other alternatives that aren't as regressive for us FROGs whom, I believe, count for most of the priority memberships as well as the off-season play. Now that the developer has taken back administration of championship golf, I wonder which one of the Morse family members has the training and qualifications to run this complicated business.

You may be conflating the executive and championship courses. The amenities fees do not subsidize the championship courses so trying to generate additional amenities revenue by charging guests will not impact the championship courses.

So obviously some of you have recently played all of the country clubs. I have family coming soon and would like to know from those who know, Are any of the country clubs decent, good, or even exceptional right now?
Thanks in advance.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is the bottom line. Subsidized or not, if the developer needs more revenue to offset increasing expenses (and we wonder how the overall higher costs are impacted by continuing land development), then there are many places it could come from without biting the hand.

Such as?

Since I play championship golf in the mornings, I ran some numbers as follows. Priority fee for all clubs is $740.00 which includes the trail fee for executive courses for the priority holder. Wife does not play golf. There is no trail fee for just one person. Annual trail fee is $141.00. If I play one executive course per week at the $4.00 trail fee rate, I spend $208.00 per year without the annual trail fee. So Priority Fee for me at $740 priority fee less $141 for annual trail fee is $599 for championship golf. One third of the year is the 4 months of January thru April where I currently save $17 per round of championship golf as a priority member. Two thirds of the year is the months of May thru December where I save $8.00 per round as a priority player; note that I generally play in the morning. I only have to average a little more than one round per week spread evenly over the 12 months to make the priority fee pay for itself. Fifty-six rounds of golf split between 18 rounds in the winter and 38 rounds in May thru December does the trick.

If I play 18 rounds during the winter months, I save 18 rounds times $17, or $306.00 by being priority. If I play 38 rounds during the summer fall season, I save 38 rounds times $8, or $304. $306 plus $304 equals $610 which is more savings than the $599.00 portion of the Priority Membership Fee directed to championship golf. Anything more than that is a savings for me for the Priority Membership.

Plus for ease of getting requested tee times, my group requires priority membership.

Does this mean my grandson, when he visits, will have to pay to use the pool with his guest ID

Played Tierra del Sol today. Course was in great shape. Greens were very nice.
I think the rates are fair. I’ve played courses outside the bubble from time to time and I really don’t think many are much better.

Fees
 

No. But would it break you to pay a buck or two for the guest pass processing? I have no idea how many guest passes are issued in a year, but every little bit could help keep operating costs down.

That is called "nickel & diming". Would the folks that don't play golf have to pay the buck or two?
How about putting a box at each gate and you toss in a quarter every time you pass thru? Makes sense right?

had same playing experience and conclusions on Monday @TDS

:rolleyes: No! Please tell me that's not true! Do you guys have any idea how many people are going to be upset to hear this? :faint:

No, the championship courses are not amenities. They belong to the developer and are separate from the amenities we pay for with our monthly fee. The developer was subsidizing the course expense for many years, but decided they need to be self-sustaining and the fees went up. Note that they are public courses and anyone, resident or not, can sign up to play. The non-resident fee is high enough that it discourages outside play.

I believe when the developer took over administration for the courses, they simply took over GMS, so the same people who ran the courses before are still in place.

:MOJE_whot: Hey.... it sure is great when someone that knows how things work writes a post. Thank you! I would have been deleted.

Some posters don't have a clue. They need to stop typing and go to a class on how things operate where they live. What does the District charging a fee for a visitor pass have to do with a Golf Course that is a private business? Some people make me sooooo :confused:

What is that smell? Is it the color 9? :rolleyes:

Play championship 3 plus times a week. Priority will still a deal for us.

And no reason to build more Champ courses if everyone decides off site is a better deal and head outside :)

off site
 

I seriously doubt that many people will go offsite. The convenience and choice of many courses I think will keep people on site.

:agree::agree::agree::agree:

Bottom line is if you don't like the prices don't play, go elsewhere

I've only been coming here since 2011. We are residents. I'm talking championship courses since my wife and I mostly play them. They u overseeded fairways. 3 or 4 yrs. ago they said they wouldn't overseed due to rain issues. They haven't overseeded fairways since. Even with all the rain and ponds full. We are Priority. Prices are high here considering no overseeding, greens not mowed properly. SLOW. Traps not raked on a regular basis. Pins placed by someone that obviously doesn't play golf. Basically lack of good maintenance . I don't see a financial statement but with all the play and HIGH cost to play these courses , we are not getting our moneys worth.

During high season, the last couple years, you could get tee times on championship courses with no problems. Even playing with couple of foursomes at last minute is not a challenge.

In years past it was a struggle to find a time. Not sure if as population ages, they have stopped playing as many rounds as they used to on championships, instead playing exec.

Yeah. I think that idea truly sucks.

Hope so, get all the old people off the courses!!!


:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Play both exec & championship several 3-5 times a week and very rarely get turned away. Just need to be flexible. Would like to know where the nay sayers are going off site to play that is so much better than what is available in The Villages. Please be specific would like to go to these. Every place I have been close is definitely not better than what is available within The Villages and sure is no cheaper plus the drive is a pain. Looking for real info not just opinions!!

Ummm, when boiled down...it's ALL "opinions." :oops:


https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ide-tv-288703/