You forgot to add the cost of your Home, Taxes, Insurance, etc. The free golf is a lot cheaper after deduct all these expenses on your income tax.

Move

Free golf if you walk. As for the amenities fee, golf is just one part of that, so many don’t play golf so you can’t put a price on a round of golf. You have to pay that to live here not to golf here.

Nothing really free…everything has price..

[QUOTE=ThirdOfFive;2096414]I have a push cart for sale!

Some people just can't add or subtract.

But, given that you are attributing 100% of your amenity fee to golf, then your water volleyball and other use of the rec centers, town squares, and such are 100% free, so you're making a choice on what you use for free and where you're applying your costs.

And, the simple solution to lower your per-round fee is simply to play more golf. :-)

The amenity fee is relatively cheap compared to comparable retirement communities. I rarely use any of the rec facilities and never golf.

Despite that I think of it as a great deal since it is great for property values and is a major reason why The Villages is considered the number one retirement community in the country.

You have 2 options
Don’t play golf or Move

You paid $300-500k for a house and you complain about a few bucks? Stop playing so much .

How about the third option that most Villagers take: Pay the amenity and trail fees and enjoy your golf.

Now for some remedial math:

Cost of maintaining a golf course, according to the CSGA, varies from $80,000 to close to $ 2 million/year depending on location and the course. The average is $500,000/year for a full 18 hole championship course in very good condition, or $250,000 for a 9 hole course. Our 9 hole exec courses are less than 1/2 of the length of nine holes on those courses, but the most expensive parts of a course to maintain are bunkers and greens, so let's go high and say it costs $200,000/ year to maintain each of our execs. So, 44 execs x $200,000/year = $8.8 million/year.

On the income side-----approx. 65,000 homes in TV paying about $170/MONTH amenity fees: 65,000 x 170 x 12 = $ 132.6 million/year. 8.8/132.6 = 6.6% of the amenity fee going to golf (far from 100%). We can debate these numbers a little, but they are certainly well in the ballpark, so I doubt more than 10% of the amenity fee goes for exec golf.

So.....$170/month x 6.6% = $11.22/month or $134.64/year, then add $144 trail fee (if using cart) for $278.86/year divided by 104 rounds = $2.68/round , or only $1.29/round if walking and playing twice a week-----this is the real cost of "free" golf, far from $24/round. Play 4x/ week and those costs go to $1.34 and $0.65 respectively.

(mike drop):1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

I walk many of the exec courses with a pull cart monthly. Easy walk in the parks. Your concerns MAYBE valid if someone decides to carry their bag in mid afternoon heat but those folks probably shouldn't be out in the heat anyway.
I think the OPs math is a bit off. Based on his calcs, his amenity fee is in excess of $200 per month. Mine are still quite a bit south of that number monthly.

and don't forget about salaries to be paid to the workers of the rec centers, starter shacks, and district offices

Don't quote me on this but I believe I recall that about 40% of the amenity fee goes to paying off the amenities bought from The Developer. I have seen the budget but I don't recall exactly where.

By your logic, those of us who never pick up a club are saving the $144 a year, but paying $175 a month to look at all the grass and flags. Oh, wait, there are pools, flowers, trash pickup, rec centers, community watch........