Country Club Rates for 2011
 

Sitting here in MA on a rainy day counting the days until our migration south. I am renewing my priority membership for 2011, reading the new Country Club rates for winter 2011 and I noticed some changes. It has always been my assumption that greens fees for GV, CG, MH and Havana would be the same price, Lopez had a $1 up charge and Palmer had a $10 up charge.

This year my assumption fell apart. I found it interesting that some clubs went up and some stayed the same. As an example I notice Havana went up $2, Cane up $1, Palmer and Mallory stayed the same.

I am not complaining about the increase (in this thread at least :sigh:), but it made me wonder who sets the price and what criteria they used to raise Havana $2 and leave Mallory the same?

In a back handed way it makes Palmer more affordable as it is just $8 more than Havana.

I agree with you. I was quite suprised to see Havana go up so much - last winter I didn't think it was in all that great shape. Its still relatively new, and the fairways and greens tend to be pretty hard in the dry months. I heard, don't know if this is true, that Havana and Cane get a lot of play, and they're trying to disperse play to other courses, hence the rise in rates. Makes sense to me - the newer Villages are near Cane and Havana, a younger crowd more likely to be playing 18 hole golf.

Supply and demand !!!!!!

Country Club Administration sets the fees. Generally, it goes up about $1/yr. to cover increases in maintenance costs. I think the idea is that if a course is not being used as much as another, it makes sense to not raise the fee at that course, but make up the difference on another course. You can look at it as discouraging play at the more popular course, or encouraging more play at the one with less play. Either way, the clubs stay self-sufficient overall.

We tend to play the courses that are in the best shape, with the exception of Palmer, which I find a little too pricey for my budget. In previous years some of the older, more mature courses like Tierra and Orange Blossom were in great shape. Last year, not so much. OB in particular was just awful - I hear they had a problem with their overseeding. I'm hoping things will be better this year.

:agree: with all of that. I play Tierra almost every Sunday. I like the straight tee times with no wave.

OB sure was a struggle last year. To be honest a few of our CCs struggled last year. I am hopeful it was because of the terrible winter.

Who knows, this is our 4th winter upcoming and memory says winters went like this:

2007 - 2008: Pretty nice, December was really warm.
2008 - 2009: :cold: Folks that lived here for years said it was one of the worst winters they could remember in central FL.
2009 - 2010: :cold::cold::cold: Are you kidding me?

2010 - 2011: I think we are due :2excited:

After reading the article in the Sun today about this years overseeding it did not give me a good feelings about what we can expect on the golf courses this winter.

I do not like the sounds of that, for us that do not get the Sun until we get back is it easy to summarize what gives you concern?

I looked online but could not find an article regarding overseeding.

This morning's paper said that water restrictions were going to interfere with a full over seeding schedule. It's been a dry summer.

Thankyou. Will keep my hopes up.

As was already mentioned the issue is with watering restrictions due to low pond water levels. Therefore only greens and tee boxes will be overseeded and watered. Fairways will not be overseeded which could mean less grass on the fairways during the winter.

This may not be much of an issue on executive courses but I think this could be a problem on the championship courses if we continue to have a dry weather.

Unlike last winter during which El Nino was in effect (which gives cold, wet winters in this area) this year La Nina is in play. That should make for warmer than average winters (yeah!) but also much drier - not good for the courses.

Did Tierra, Hacienda and OB green fees stay the same? Anyone know? Thanks.

I know Tierra (now $30) and Hacianda (now $27) went up $1. Looks like OB stayed the same at $24.

Sorry, guys, but maybe you'll understand one of the many reasons why I don't chase a little white ball! :pepper2:

SWR
:beer3: