I have been a golf club member for most of my life, but I've been playing public courses more frequently in recent years since my friends fully took up the game during the Covid-19 pandemic... and it has been quite eye-opening.
I'm used to arriving at my private club with my tee time booked and high expectations of a great day, where me and my regular golfing partners will enjoy our beautifully manicured course with no worries of pace of play issues, people bothering us and a relaxed atmosphere where we know most of our fellow members and the friendly staff.
It always delivers, and my forays into the public golf scene over the last couple of years have made me appreciate it even more.
Sure, the membership fees cost a lot of money, and they keep going up every year. It has even reached a point where I have been debating whether to become a full-time nomadic, pay-and-play golfer, but every time I go and play public courses I am reminded why my membership is so valuable to me.
I live in the south-east of England, where golf is extremely expensive, in my opinion at least. Rounds costing £20-£25 are few and far between these days, with even what I would describe as average courses costing upwards of £35 and pushing to £50 and beyond for premium weekend times.
It certainly is not cheap to play public golf these days, especially if you're looking to get a round in every weekend.
While looking into whether full-time pay-and-play golf would work for me, I have scoured the internet to note down the green fees of all my local courses and where some bargains can be found... there really aren't that many.
The sport boomed during the pandemic and the bubble still has not burst, and combined with rising costs for supplies, staff and taxes, it means clubs like my private one are even more expensive and have long waiting lists.
This also means that visitor green fees at private courses have shot up or almost completely disappeared. Want to play a nice member's course on a weekend? Expect to pay in excess of £100.
This has allowed public courses to rightly make hay while the sun shines.
I'll happily pay £50-£70 for a round if it's a nice course in good condition, but I do not feel like the public golf I have been experiencing is worth the money.
I often book these pay-and-play courses with a friend and it's quite rare that we actually get to play together in a two-ball, with courses booking out every slot to try and milk as much money out of the tee sheet as possible.
It's understandable, and even the best courses do it, but it's quite stressful not knowing who you may be paired with as an anxious person like me.
They're often higher handicappers and sometimes even complete beginners, but thankfully they have always turned out to be nice people in my experience.
I guess you could call this a positive?
Pace of play is also usually so glacial that having some playing partners at least stops you from waiting five minutes on every single shot.
Course conditions are likely never going to be up to the same standard as private clubs, but I do regularly find it disappointing how some of the busy public facilities are presented.
I guess as a golf club member, my expectations are too high and perhaps I hadn't appreciated enough just how good I have it.
The greens at pay-and-play venues are usually slow and bumpy compared to my club and they appear to be lacking one or two extra greenkeepers. Surely if they're making so much money from booking out every single tee sheet they can afford to hire more staff?
On the other hand, we need to be thankful for our public facilities, as many continue to close, so the key metric has to be their financial security. But it does feel like there is no incentive to make the course great or as good as it possibly can be, as they know golfers will turn up no matter what.
That's different to a private club where members, rightly or wrongly, come with very high expectations and scrutinise everything from the greens to the bunkers and even finer details like the paths. Golfers love a moan, after all.
Private clubs carry extremely expensive joining fees these days, with many in my area having waiting lists of at least 18-24 months. Pay-and-play golfers therefore have no alternative, and in this current economic climate they're understandably looking for a round of golf as cheap as possible.
This means they'll happily pay £25 or £30 for a round and come in with low expectations, just wanting to be able to experience the sport. That's what is so valuable about public facilities, and it is great that there is still a real demand for golf.
Public pay-and-play venues are the grassroots level of the game and the job they do in growing the sport is fantastic.
As a single-figure player and a life-long golfer, I want a manicured course and a premium experience, but you really have to pay for it now. I'll happily pay upwards of £50 for a round of golf but I don't think the majority of courses near me are worth it as the value isn't there. I am not the target market, I guess.
The Grove is one of the best public courses in the country, and its green fee costs £299 on weekend mornings, dropping to £179 for twilight rounds.
It really is an exceptional course that is always in stunning condition so you could argue that £179 is a very good deal on that twilight rate. But I still don't have that kind of money for a single round as that is the cost of my entire monthly membership.
You can't play somewhere premium or special for less than £50 it seems, so that's why I'll be remaining as a golf club member for the foreseeable future.
My membership does cost me a lot of money, but I hardly have any complaints. I can play unlimited rounds at my course, which is always presented in great shape and takes less than four hours to get round.
I get very good value from it, I know most of the members and all of the staff, I can play in competitions and I am ultimately very proud to call it home.
If you're thinking about joining a club, I'd recommend enquiring with some of your local courses and get your name down on the waiting list as soon as possible.
Two years might sound like a long time and the best time to get on it was yesterday, but the next best time is today. Those two years will come round faster than you think.
I would be interested to hear your views on the price and value of public golf in the comments section, and let me know of any hidden gems worth trying out in the south-east...
