No, it's true. But that poster didn't consider his audience:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

We will own a home soon
 

We will own a home soon and can’t wait. I can tell you golf is my number one want. My wife likes the cleanliness and the feeling of being here.

Hubby and I do not golf so that aspect had zero influence on us wanting to move here. What did influence us is the infrastructure for golf carts is like no other in the entire world. I'm still in awe when I toodle around in the golf cart, traversing over bridges and driving through the tunnels. The absolutely gorgeous grounds and flowers through out is what sold us. Not to mention the manicured properties and common spaces. Although we do not golf, the open areas of rolling golf courses adds so much to my enjoyment of the beauty of this place. Everywhere we look as we drive along Morse Blvd, Buena Vista Blvd and Odell Circle (those are our "stomping grounds") there are those gorgeous open areas of golf courses.

We love it here.

I did not have a mind set when I posted the question. I was interested at what the response would be. From my personal experience, most of my neighbors (I estimate about 70%) do not play golf at all. About 20% are serious golfers playing several times a week and the remaining 10% play 3-4 times a month.

At this point, I calculate that 27 said that it had no influence on their decision; 15 people said that it had some influence; and 16 that said it had a strong influence on their decision to move here.

It is a good thing that a large number of people don't play golf because if everyone played, it would be impossible to get a tee time!

Golf was a significant factor for me but was zero factor for my wife. She loves the flowers and the landscaping. We both love the fact that the entire area is well maintained - no garbage on the streets and no graffiti anywhere. However, the primary factor for me was the weather, the taxes, and the affordability of the Villages. If the Villages had free golf at Championship courses for life but had cold weather and high taxes, I would not have moved here. Free golf was an added bonus.

If you walk, is golf free?
Isn’t walking good exercise?

Golf may not be totally free, but it's damn close! Just like our amenity fee, they're both a bargain.

I've golfed with more than a few people on the Executive courses that moved here from other retirement communities in Florida because they found the pricing for the Championship courses was extremely reasonable compared to places South Florida. Where it's over well over $100 a round at a decent course which adds up if you're playing 20 rounds/month.

The question I think of is yes golf is indirectly free but we all pay for thru our amenity fees specially does who do not golf and trail fees to use a golf cart Be curious how lower our amenity fees would be if they remove the golf portion of it

Have absolutely no interest in golf.

Reading many of the other responses has clarified a few things in my own mind that I hadn't thought of when I responded.
In a nutshell, I really like this place. I'm really happy to be here 8 months of the year. I am fortunate to be able to go north to a lake in the summer months, but if I didn't have a place on the lake, I could make a go of it here in the summer.
Today I played PB at the dawn's early light, came home and took a handful of naps, and then took a cart ride to a nearby golf course (5 minutes by cart) and chipped and putted for an hour or so. It was marvelous.

Where else could I have such a day? And the weather is not all that great right now, but it's good enough.

If you think the weather is not that great right now, check out the weather in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Kansas City this weekend!

I wonder how much less it would be if they removed the walking paths
or the pickleball courts
or the neighborhood pools
or 2/3 of the rec centers

Nobody can decide that the community as a whole should only pay for the amenities that THEY like

They have Free Golf here?? hhhmmmm

that's exactly what I was thinking about when I said "but it's good enough". I spent 40 winters in western NY. This is my 6th winter in Florida. I don't miss NY winters a bit.

More than once we celebrated Mother's Day with snow. Now I strongly resist any entreaties to return before Memorial Day.

Only spent 31 winters in Western NY (Finger Lakes), and now 10 here. But speaking of Mother's Day:

If you're curious enough, you can find the answer.

Districtgov.org -> Departments -> Budget -> SLCDD -> FY23-24 Adopted Budget -> SLAD -> Expenditures:

311 Golf..: $3.2M
TOTAL: $94M

Golf expenditures are approx 1/30 of the amenities budget.

A Dec 18 letter from the Developer, presented at the Jan 8 meeting of the PWAC, sets the Contractual Amenity Fee for new sales at $195.

1/30 of $195 is $6.50. This simple, back-of-the-envelope calculation would say that removing golf would reduce Amenity Fee payments by less than $80/year.

Agree.
The wide disparity of available amenities guarantees there will be more activities available than anyone can have time and energy to enjoy, but it also is what makes TV what it is. I don't play mahjong (probably don't even know how to spell it), but I enjoy walking through a rec center and seeing a room full of people happily clacking tiles around the table. Or doing crafts, or shooting pool.

I like to chip and putt and when I take my cart to a local facility I often pass groups playing bocce, or shuffleboard, or horseshoes. When I play pickleball at Sea Breeze, more often than not there is a group of people playing beach tennis or beach volleyball.

All of this activity around, even though I don't participate in most of them, energizes me and makes me happy and proud to be part of this place.

I love it when my kids and grandkids show up and see all of these "old" folks out and about and doing these things. I like having them see what they might look forward to as opposed to what my grandparents did at my age, which was, as far as I can remember, sitting around the house watching TV.

Absolutely! It's basically a quid pro quo. I'll pay for your pickleball if you pay for my golf. Unfortunately, since I don't play the execs very often, it's more like I'll pay for your pickleball and I'll pay for my golf. But that's OK---like you said:
"All of this activity around, even though I don't participate in most of them, energizes me and makes me happy and proud to be part of this place."

free golf
 

Golf was definitely was factor. If there wasn't golf, I would have probably bought in a different part of florida.

Along this vein, I saw a lot this year of people saying: "my amenities fees are too high, let's get rid of the flowers". I also noticed quite a few responses to this thread were: I like the flowers or my wife likes the flowers.
Unfortunately, it's the complainers who frequently voice their negativity.
Hopefully, it is well known that many more love the flowers & the landscaping & the golf course views.

Well stated.

Well said!

No resident here uses ALL the amenities. So looking at it from that standpoint we're all paying in some manner for amenities that others use, but not us.

Golf was way down my list of desired amenities when I chose to move to The Villages. I know that is true of many “newer” retirees. Honestly, if golf was completely non-existent, I would still have chosen to retire in The Villages.

The free golf was important but the fact I could drive my golf cart to all our many courses and use same was great. I wouldn't have to throw clubs in the car, drive the car to any of courses, rent their carts, transfer every thing to cart and back in car and drive back. Can you imagine the nightmare that would be?

That's interesting. 3.2M for 44 exec courses = about 72K/year/course for maintenance. According to the USGA, the average cost of maintaining and full 18 hole course is 800K/year. Our execs are about 1/4 as long but have 1/2 the greens of an 18 hole course, so one would expect it to cost slightly north of 200K/year for each exec. Is there another source that contributes to the maintenance of these courses, such as the CDD they are within, or is this 1/3 of the expected expenditure the reason for the condition of most execs?

I am still confused by all of the districts and subdistricts and committees and subcommittees but I think this is limited to the Sumter Landing Amenities Division Fund. I don't think that encompasses the entire Villages and all 42 courses but I could be mistaken. There is also a Village Center CDD; a Brownwood CDD; and an Eastport CDD.

I believe that the Executive Golf Trail courses are owned and operated by the Village Center Community Development District and the Sumter Landing Community Development District.

Does anyone here know the answer? How much much does the Villages pay for Executive Golf maintenance for all of the courses during the year?

https://www.districtgov.org/PDFView/...20230925sl0101

My guess is there is not another source. However, there are many, many lines in the budget but only two include the word "golf" and perhaps some of the costs are covered by those other lines.

Still, there is no indication that the exec courses cost more than your calculation which is about three times the number I had. In that case, about $20/month ($240/yr, 10%) of the amenity fee would be spent on golf. Still not a significant amount.

I find it frustrating that the information is not readily available. The numbers are buried in a 22 page budget report. You would have to be a CPA to find out the real answer.

Darn it, you're right! The courses are maintained by the Amenity Division but that includes RAD under VCCDD as well as SLAD under SLCDD.

The two lines for "Golf" in the SLAD budget add to $3.2M of a $95M budget while in the RAD budget they are $2M out of a $77M budget. So a total of $5.2M out of $172M. Still close to 1/30.

If you remove the free golf and had a reasonable charge and kept all the other amenities, then there still would be nothing to compare to the TV.