Florida golf...sucks?

garyt1957

So I've played a decent amount of Florida golf and it kinda sucks. No offense to any Floridians. I've played in S. and N. Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, just to name some other southern states and nobody charges more for substandard courses than Florida. I get they charge tourists higher prices than locals but so do the other states. It just seems like anything less than $125 is a badly maintained course. Played an $85 course today that was a nice Arthur Hills design but conditions were spotty. $85 in Mississippi and S. Carolina get you pretty pristine conditions. What's up with Florida golf?

fatshot

garyt1957 I've run into the same thing. When we started coming down here 9 years ago $50-65 bucks could get you on a pretty nice course. Now it's over $100. I've just been hitting balls and chipping and putting at the range.....

sdandrea1

garyt1957 What's up with Florida golf?

People are out of their minds. Our fees just keep going up and the conditions don't improve. We're done snowbirding via ownership and once we sell here we'll snowbird via short term rentals (2 or 3 months) and start visiting other states/countries.

Sneakylong

garyt1957

We buy the Paradise Card which is a discount card. Winter rates have gone up. For example with the card Timber Greens is $50 from after Christmas to March 31st.

Last year the summer rate was $35. Two other courses we play are $41 and $43 winter rate. Golf is too expensive. I may just get the summer card going forward because we like to go out early and it’s too cold much of the time in the winter.

ode

Is what it is after the rona. $35 decent munis are now an easy $50. Everyone keeps saying it will stop but I see no signs of it. Higher prices and more people (many of whom are twats).....a bad combo for the avid golfer on some sort of a budget! It's not fun extrapolating that out.....the $50.course is now $75+.....and the sweetheart deals are pretty much gone! 👈being said it has awakened my creative side to search far and wide😉

Par4QC

ode They may have gone up a dollar or two around here, but for the most part, $30-36 is still good. And that is with cart! JDC has jacked themselves out of sight though. And, it costs more for locals than out-of-towners....if that makes any sense.

ode

Par4QC seems there is still some regional aspect to it as I forget who but another buzzer from Ohio reported similar ....IMO it's the exception not the rule.....and i have not heard of charging locals more🤔.....but have often wondered why the out of county/city/area rate was more as they have spent more money and time just to get there.

garyt1957

When I'm on vacation in a resort area I know I'm going to get soaked a bit. But you can still.get decent deals in Myrtle Beach for instance. At least for $85 I'm going to get outstanding conditions.
We're in Fort Myers now but we've played in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, etc and it's kinda been the same.
We played a course last year charged us $75 and it was in worse shape than a course at home that charges $18 on Tuesdays and $30 anytime.

sdandrea1

garyt1957 When I'm on vacation in a resort area I know I'm going to get soaked

We've had some luck staying in resort areas (in the States) and driving to nearby munis for recreational play. SWMBO and I will usually splurge on a round or two in the resorts

Eguller

It’s the old joke - they do it because they can.

garyt1957

Eguller no kidding, I'm having a hard time finding tee times before 1pm. But I assume that's mostly local members

Typhoon

Vacation destinations will just rape ya. Thing is, enough people are willing to pay the price. As I’ve said before, golf is not the #1 priority… people go to

Eat, drink and smoke
Ride around in a golf cart
Play golf

sdandrea1

Typhoon people are willing to pay the price

Big part of the problem. Want to stop inflation? Stop buying shit. I'm as guilty as the next guy.

garyt1957

sdandrea1 That's what we're trying to do. These are Munis charging near $100. We paid $84 yesterday for a city course with so so conditions. I'm sure locals likely pay half that.
I'll pay up occasionally for a really good experience. This was not that.

Eguller

sdandrea1 I'm way more guilty as the next Ho.

Alternate fact..... 🤣

Bravopilot

sdandrea1 A mediator would say🤣

sdandrea1

Eguller

I don't recall typing it that way.......

KCee

Everything has gone up. We have done the Tampa trip almost every winter for a while now, but this year we got a bit of a better deal for Orlando. Still the trip has at least doubled in price from what it was with airfare, lodging and golf. I feel lucky my home course membership only went up 10% this year, but still it's double the sweetheart deal I had 7 years ago.....and my pay hasn't budged so everything going up 20-100% is painful.

Sneakylong

garyt1957

What you may want to consider is coming to Florida in either April / May or October / November for cheaper rates. The two best months in Florida imo are May and November. Don’t tell anyone. lol

injim

If you want real expensive, try Phoenix in January. Wife and I just stayed there for 8 days and it makes Florida look cheap. And Florida ain't cheap!