Price of golf in The Villages?
 

It's so cold in TV, I left to go South.

Played in Sarasota on Friday ... $140 for University Park.

Played a private club in Naples, Saturday. Guest Fee was $200.

Played another private club in Naples, yesterday. Guest Fee was $175.

Hit balls this morning, at a semi-private club. $21 for 60 balls.

The Villages is a DEAL!

What did your hosts at the clubs in Naples have to pay for initiation fees and annual dues so you could pay $200 to pay?
I’ll guess initiation fees around $125,000 with a 6 year wait list.

American Legion driving range Rolling Acres $6 for 60 balls. 71% discount and golf cart accessible. That's a better deal while supporting a good cause.

Pass!! Only hit from matts, Took a lesson recently and teacher told me to never practice on matts. Can neve hit a fat shot from a mat

I can assure you that there are several 18 hole golf courses with tee off times in the $50-60 range during snowbird season between Naples and Sarasota. These would all be within the same level of quality (or better) as the Villages championship courses.

OP is like saying all restaurants charge $150 for a steak dinner but only comparing the highest end options.

That may have been true 10 years ago, but not anymore.

If you go on GolfNow right now and try to book a Tee Time in Naples, before 1 pm this coming Saturday, the lowest 18 hole rate available for a Par 72 Golf course, is Quail Village & Quail Run at $125. I don't think either are comparable to TV Championship Courses.

The Villages is NOT a deal. You are comparing a completely different geographic location to here. I can play at over a dozen courses within 45 minutes of my location outside The Villages for anywhere from $30-$45 and that includes a cart. The Villages is currently over $60 at every course unless you're a priority member. If you have a guest, that difference becomes even larger - a guest is the nearly the same price off the reservation, but is over $90 here.

The price of golf in TVs is not of concern. I love having all the different courses available to play. I love riding in my golf cart on beautiful paths, no rush, little traffic and all the happy, friendly people. Hard to beat The Villages golf.

No rush? 1 out of 1000 golfers on MMP…. :thumbup:

Bingo.

Most of the good clubs in Naples are $100,000+ to join and I don't know of a single one, that doesn't have a waiting list.

The club I played yesterday, is $100,000 with a waiting list. Dues for a Husband & Wife were $18,000/year up until this year, when a new owner took over. If you join the club now, Husband & Wife would be $24,000/year.

As far as designs ago, in spite of being designed by a top "Brand Name" Architect, I would say the design was comparable to Palmer or TDS. Condition-wise, if Palmer is a 7.5, this course was about 8 or so.

Thanks Brian -
Those 100,000 initiation fees are then put back into capital assets or replacement assets at the club.
And to get on that wait list, you probably have to pay the initiation fee or a large portion of it up front. You may get to play a few rounds at the club, if you pay greens fees.

People can’t complain about course conditions in the Villages, and complain about greens fees. Someone needs to pay for course maintenance, and the owner is not going to lose money on the golf courses.

One of the courses I played, in under going a $13,000,000 renovation of all the facilities, except the golf course. The course is in spectacular condition.

Most of the clubs require at least a $10,000 deposit to get on the waiting list, which is non-refundable. Typically courses will allow 1-2 rounds a month while on the waiting list, during non-prime time and with payment of the usual Guest Fee.

Some of the clubs have a "step-up program". When you're within a year or two of getting in, you pay about 50% of your Initiation Fee and you get to play 4-6 times a month, prior to becoming a full-member.

Best deal around. However, their current inventory of balls are all worn out and terrible. Practically smooth with no dimple depth. Ball flies out 100-150 yards and then drops down like a Hoyt Wilhelm knuckleball. Will wait till they get some new balls in.

Management loves the fact that you are willing to pay the price and provide your own cart. More profit dropping to the bottom line.

I'll take your word for it. I have not been there recently. However as a counter comparison I never liked hitting range balls in TV that use the floating balls (Lopez and Sarasota). They feel like hitting a rock. Isn't there some rule of thumb the carry of those floaters are 20+ yards less than a regulation ball?

All "range" balls go a shorter distance than performance balls. "Floaters" are another whole story, but *most* will fly longer with the wind, shorter against the wind.

I don't go to Sarasota or Lopez. Both Glenview & Palmer have new balls this year, by a different manufacturer.

First of all, if you're only checking Naples, then yes of course. Naples is extremely expensive for everything. I've met more than a handful of people in TV that moved here from that area. I remember one telling me he spends $1000/month less a month playing golf here and he now golfs more than he did in Naples.

Most $60 courses don't tend to use GolfNow. It wouldn't be worth it for them.

It's like how decent family run Italian restaurants usually aren't available on UberEats.

Anyways, one example Deep Creek CC in Punta Gorda. The 1pm rate is just over $60.

Most $60 golf courses who don't use GolfNow, will be out of business soon.

Most GolfNow agreements don't charge "commission", they use a "Barter System" and in return, the golf course gets "free" Tee Time management software and national exposure.

Did you figure in the cost of your time and the cost for your vehicle to go back and forth in that $30-$45? Probably not….

Driving for 1.5 hours to save $15 is not worth it to me.

I do get passed frequently, but I always give a friendly wave.

It takes me 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to the farthest course from me. Most courses are a 30-45 golf cart ride. The time to go by cart to a Villages course or to a course outside The Villages is a wash for me. The cost? Really? If the course is 30 miles away, I'm looking at a bit over $5 in gas... when I go with a 4 some it's less than $1.50. That doesn't make much of a dent in the $30-$40 I'm saving EACH time I golf.

The Villages is simply over charging because they can. They have a captive audience that really like driving their own carts and are willing to pay for that convenience.

How far do you drive in your cart? Most courses are at least a 30 minute cart ride for me... so that's already an hour in the cart. All of the south courses are an hour minimum for me. And I said within 45 minutes away... many are within 30 miles.

The savings are much more than $15. If you're not a priority member ($850 upfront fee), the cheapest course is $69, the most expensive $80. So you could be saving anywhere from $39 to $50. It's significant if you play multiple times per week.

To be clear - I do play a lot here. I'm just pointing out it's not the "deal" mentioned in the original post.

But this is exactly why I just added priority membership in late Decemeber. It will more than pay for itself just between now and June, much less the additional continued (albeit lower) savings from June through December.

Adding up proximity/convenience, cost and quality of courses. It IS a bargain in my book. Before moving here in September, the three nice public courses near me in PA were all over $100 and were a minumum of 25 minute drive. The only reasonbly close course open to the public in the $50-ish range was in horrible shape.

It's all relative and your mileage may vary, but I could not be happier with the variety and cost of the courses I have available to me here. I'm sure I will branch out to other Florida courses eventually, but I expect I'll remain happy about TV golf for a long time.

Paying $80 for a round of golf just sucks the enjoyment right out of the day.
I'm a low handicapper that's played for 30+ years
I've pretty much given the game up and I don't miss it.
You could make the best hamburger in the world, If you charged $40 for it,
It would ruin it somehow for me.
I can totally afford it but it just doesn't seem right.
Is that a character flaw?

Possibly. When I started playing golf, I was lucky enough to have one of Golf Digest's "Top 100 Public Course" in my neighborhood and they had 36 holes. One course was $11, the other was $10. Times change. How much did you get paid at your job, in 1977?

I'd prefer to have an option to also belong to Private Club, but the only one close is CC of Ocala, and it's a hike.

Barring the construction of a Private Course in the area, TV Golf is one of the best deals in Florida. Better deal for the occasional, public course golfer, but still a decent deal for someone who plays 4-5 times a week.

When you find a better deal, that's as convenient, please let us know. I'm sure most of us will jump on it.

[QUOTE=BrianL99;2401998]Possibly. When I started playing golf, I was lucky enough to have one of Golf Digest's "Top 100 Public Course" in my neighborhood and they had 36 holes. One course was $11, the other was $10. Times change. How much did you get paid at your job, in 1977?

Probably not your course(s), but a funny story;

The Missing Links - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com

I am surprised the Villages hasn’t done a private club model for one of its courses. Probably just golf and Food/Beverage.
They would need less than 1% of villagers to be members.

Palmer is the perfect setup for that, in my opinion. I too am a little surprised it hasn't been done. At $6000-$7000, I think they'd sell out in an hour (350 members is the rule of thumb for 18 holes, so about 525 for 27). At $8000-$10,000, it might take a month to sell out.

I just ran some rough numbers. I think it would be revenue neutral for them, at about $10,000/year and 550 members.

I think F&B income would go up for the Operator, which would allow the Owner/Developer to increase restaurant rent.

Shhhh, don’t give anyone that idea. Us regular folks don’t want to lose the ability to play the course. Keep them all public.

Golf TV
 

What is convenience worth?

They don't listen to me.

I'd like to see them do some sort of "unlimited golf package", but as the Developer/owner never has to worry about cash-flow like a typical golf course or country club, it's unlikely to happen.

(& I'm just regular folk, but I don't drink and refuse to dine out, if I have to pay ridiculous prices for marginal food in TV. The money I save, supports the golf habit!)

You think the owners (Developer) hasn’t run the numbers on a totally private club? If it would be profitable would they do it? It seems to go against what The villages is all about. Just my opinion.

Yet The Villages has a Private Restaurant.

I walk the executive courses and it just costs me $1 to use their pull carts. There are 11 such courses between a 10 minute to 20 minute golf cart ride. It’s great exercise. Ocassionally I’ll do 9 holes on a champion course riding my cart. Less exercise the walking an executive.

If that opportunity were offered to me, I would sign up in a minute even if the price were high. Its a superior experience when you are in a club with just a few hundred members.

I haven't played "public golf" for 35+ years. It's a different world.