How much should a round at a golf course cost?
This was a question I was pondering as I was playing Silvies Ranch earlier this summer. I got the chance to play the reversible courses three times for $225 and I have been unable to shake my visceral negative reaction to the golf experience. This despite the really friendly staff, the well designed greens with nice undulations, and the really tasty lemonade and the fancy bathrooms that are nicer than the facilities in my house.
The rack rate greens fees for the courses was $185 if you don't stay at the resort, so $225 for three rounds should be good value. But I'm not sure I got a good value. It's not like the golf courses were bad as I have the Craddock course at a solid 5 on the Doak ranking (I liked it better than the Hankins course which I also rated a 5 because I couldn't see ranking it a 4). The resort is really scenic, but the prices, which includes $18 for a hot dog, $22 for a steak salad that had very little steak, and $180 per person for a 1.5 to 2 hour tour of the goat herds, just ruined the entire experience. The yardage book was $20, which sort of makes sense since you're getting two courses in one book.
For me, I'd play the golf course again for $80 per round. Maybe $100, but I wouldn't think it's a good value at that point. I'd probably skip the cart at $25 despite the hilly 7+ mile walk.
And that's not considering the cost to get to the course. Silvies is hours from any sort of city, and you'd only find it if you're looking for it.
So if you're a traveling* golfer, what would you pay to play a Doak 10? An 8, or a 5 as I've rated Silvies Ranch?
My 10s are The Old Course, Royal Dornoch, and Pacific Dunes. The greens fees I paid were roughly $150 to $200 (rack rates now are much higher and I avoid Bandon in the summer). I do not feel cheated when I look back at the prices I paid to play those courses. But I've also paid a lot more to play golf, so the $200 isn't really a baseline for the best of the best.
Courses rated 8 include Old Macdonald, the Streamsong courses, TPC Sawgrass, and Bethpage Black for the US. Cape Kidnappers, Carnoustie, and North Berwick overseas. Cape Kidnappers was about $300 US at the time and TPC Sawgrass was that price after the forecaddie tip. The Scottish courses were about $150 to $200 and Streamsong was part of a package, but probably in the $150 ballpark when I played.
Cape Kidnappers was spectacular and I would probably replay it at that price, mostly for the scenery and isolation (there were maybe two other groups on the course when I played), but TPC Sawgrass is not another go around at $300. So let's say the top end is $300 for a Doak 8. Bottom end, I'd expect to pay maybe $150 and feel good about it so a reasonable range in my estimation would be $150 to $225. TPC at $225 I could do, but it's what, $350 now?
For Doak 7s, Kingsbarns is now, what, 265 pounds or over $400? Sheesh. Hard pass. I thought it was over priced at 165 pounds.
Other courses at 7s include Chambers Bay, Gamble Sands, Bandon Dunes/Trails, Spyglass, and Macrihanish. Roughly, I think I paid in the $125 to $175 range for those courses and I was fine with it. That also works out ok in relation to the 8s. There are a couple of private courses I rated 7s and I'm ok with an access fee surcharge of maybe $50.
For 6s, my feeling is $100 to $150 is reasonable based on the courses I have rated there. It seems like you're likely to find a few more bargains in this rating.
So that gets me to the 5s. I have some courses in the $50 range rated as 5s, but those are closer to the bargains. A bottom end range of $60 is probably in the ballpark and based on the courses I would maybe pay $80? Pumpkin Ridge is over $100 but I wouldn't want to pay that. But this doesn't work with my Doak 6 range so let's drop that a bit on the bottom end to $90 and increase the top end on 5s to $100.
4s and below are probably not worth traveling for although I did end up paying $250+ (via an expensive bottle of wine) to play Rich Harvest Farms. The car collection is worth a few bucks.
Conveniently, this works out with my spitballing of the Silvies Ranch courses. $80 to $100 would be reasonable.
To close, I don't think I came up with a range for 9s and 10s. In some cases, it may be almost 4 figures (e.g. Cypress or Pine Valley) but for public, eh, probably $200 on the low end and maybe I'd go up to $400. I guess I'm not playing Pebble.
*If you're a local golfer, my cost equation goes way down. There should be a few bargains that you can play and you'll probably do so unless you're a member somewhere or just wealthy.
