Friday green fee same as the weekend rate ?

Release

What's your thought on this ?

Several local golf courses started about a decade ago up the Friday green fee same as the weekend rate with no discount to senior, junior golfer, veterans .....And soon copy cats prevail, many of the local golf courses all started charging the weekend rate to Friday golfers.

It's no joke that a few Municipal owned golf courses starting the same practice. why..... are we all on a 4 day work week ? Especially the Municipal golf courses should not squeeze every dome out of the citizens for green fees. I also question the shifting of profit made from the golf courses to other department of the city's instead of reinvesting back into the golf courses.

So I was looking at the forecast last week... pretty bad except for the Friday still showing 70° F. and dry. So I packed my golf gears and rushed to a local daily fee public golf course hoping to get an 18 before the raining week start. I thought they just aerified the green that Friday because the parking lot was half full for a normally busy golf course.

Changed shoes, took out the golf push cart and the golf bag, to the club house.... no line in front of both the cash registers. Walked up and ready to pay the green fee, just so happen asked about the green fee that day. Reply was $50 for walking the lower priced 18 ( they have 36 holes and one is slightly higher in green fees than the other ). I said no thanks, packed up the gears and went home.
This is the same golf course which I could get on for $24.50 during the weekdays ( their definition of Monday through Thursday ).

I was not upset because I did not get to play golf , but kind of chuckled over no one was on the tee box and a few golfers on the practice green. Many holes on the tee sheet I'd bet not even half the tee times were filled up.

Why , was the question ! Tee time is a commodity which expired with each passing hour. In the local sense of tee time, it's every 8 minutes the empty tee time will be gone - FOREVER. Why wouldn't anyone want to fill the tee sheets to be at least 80% of the capacity is beyond me.
This is not Pebble Beach which has a reputation to uphold, and even they'll give discount under certain circumstances.

I hat weekend green fee on FRIDAYS.

Dufferman

I don't understand green fee price differences either. I have never felt good about paying weekend non twilight rates ever. Especially at the not so great courses available in my area. I guess they make more profit per green fee this way, but like you noticed, if it scares golfers away wouldn't a full course at a lower rate be better then an empty course?

I've always thought courses valued themselves way above their actual value. Casual golfers can't get hooked if they can't afford to play.

Release

Dufferman Casual golfers can't get hooked if they can't afford to play.

You're damn right on this. Obviously they can't give it away, but there got to be a way for the average guy to enjoy 4 hours on the golf course without thinking the green fees could buy the whole family a steak dinner.

ptjn1201

Our county courses never went to this practice but some of the daily fees around here have -- I agree that it probably makes for some empty courses. I've seen some insist on carts only on Friday mornings, which has the same effect -- chasing the walkers away. Every time the first tee is open for more than ten minutes -- the course is losing money. I agree with you -- can't understand why a course would willingly chase away customers. I mean, most golfers will at least buy a soft drink and maybe a hot dog at the turn -- better to have them on the course where they might drop a few bucks.

Release

ptjn1201

Where do you live ?
I'd be sure not to retire there to avoid the Friday weekend rate. LOL.

raggmann54

My "normal" foursome only plays on Monday thru Thursday. All the courses around here except one have the weekend rate for Friday, also. We solved the problem - play when is less crowded and costs less.

Release

raggmann54 My "normal" foursome only plays on Monday thru Thursday. All the courses around here except one have the weekend rate for Friday, also. We solved the problem - play when is less crowded and costs less.

The problem with your solution in our area is, because everyone does the Monday through Thursday golf, the golf courses in these "weekdays" are packed from dawn to maybe 3 P.M. right before the free golf for the high school golf teams.
I know there is a local Muni course which has regular Ladies day on Tuesdays and a "special ladies day " on Thursdays for the Summer months. The Thursdays in the Summer month will be 5-6 hour rounds because, the Thursday ladies group are mostly fairly new golfers. This slow play had chased away all the other golfers whom do not want to spend 5-6 hours on the golf course waiting after each shot.
I talked to the pro-shop and the City, guess what ? Since this "special ladies day " group pays for 18 but only compete in 9 holes ( their usual tee times starts from 8 A.M. to 10 A.M. ), even most of these ladies packed it up after 9 holes competition ( some played on to finish 18 ) the schedule for the whole day will be bugged up. Because most of them pay 18 and play 9, the management would not even sent out a Marshall to herd them along.
Greed ? Ignoring the right of the other golfers ? I don't understand why couldn't the "special ladies" tee time be in the afternoon like after 1 P.M. ? They could have the whole golf course until it's dark if they wish.
Don't understand it. Giving the prime tee time to some golfers whom could not even advance the golf ball to 100 yards ( even with the tee shots ) and they will play every shot since they are "competing in a tournament ".

This and the Friday green fee for this local golf course made up my mind not to give them my pennies.
I will not return to that golf course until things improved.

sdandrea1

Most courses in my area do that. I am guessing it's to the gouge the folks taking Friday off to play. Since I retired, I play most of my golf Mon-Thurs for that reason. Here's a tip for ya. Your point about the expiring commodity with every passing tee time is spot on. That is how GolfNow.com (and others) can help you and the course. True story - more than once, I have arrived at a course on a last minute plan to play and got the Friday sticker shock. I pulled out my phone right there at the pro shop and got a GolfNow time within the hour AT THAT COURSE for half the rack rate. I have found that GolfNow is best used the same day you want to play as long as you are willing to risk either not playing or overpaying.

Release

sdandrea1

Thanks for the advice.

Believe me, I had been using the GolfNow for years but not recently. The selection around here is not good and tee times often towards the last few hours of the day lights.
Plus, I don;t know about the other areas, here , they started to charge TAX & CONVENIENCE FEE, which range from $5.00 and up. By the time adding up the fees and the desired tee time, it's not worth the try. It must be the Cities or the Counties caught up with all the tax they could impose on a business. Here we have the regular 9.5%-9.8% sales tax ( been proposed to go up soon thanks to the influx of residents from out of State ), plus the City business tax, then the Luxury tax....... golf industry is being treated like a gold mine for those wouldn't tighten their spending.

So do the other couple discount tee time sites I used. It's double hard to reserve a tee time for a single golfers. most available here starts with a 2-some.
I guess the green fees will reflect the state of the economy. N.C. golf courses and resort had come down with green fees comparing to a decade ago except for a few iconic representations. I guess around our area would at least slow down on the annual 10-18% jump for green fees.

I was just thinking this Friday weekend rate deal is similar to other industry gouging the consumer whenever they could. The book keepers ( better named CFO / CEO) must graduated from the same school and studied with the same text book.

I just thought it was stupid to get a few dollars more from a minority of golfers then lose the opportunity to fill the tee sheet. Don't know where these guys learned their math.

sdandrea1

Release I just thought it was stupid to get a few dollars more from a minority of golfers then lose the opportunity to fill the tee sheet. Don't know where these guys learned their math.

Agree completely.

SWMBO and I are weekday members at our home course and we get unlimited play, with cart and range balls Mon-Fri. We almost never play on weekends, but when we were investigating the weekday membership, our fear was that it would be Mon - Thurs. Glad to find out we were wrong! The proprietor here does the opposite on several Fridays per month. He puts out an ad (email, Facebook, newspaper) for "friendly Friday". A Twosome can play for $31 each, but it has to be a twosome. That is $25 OFF his weekend rack rate. The parking lot is full on those Fridays. Brilliant!

PA-PLAYA

I don't get it. Friday isn't a weekend unless it's a holiday, so I'd be flipping them the bird and telling them to pound sand.

Although I understand why some areas (like Myrtle Beach, Arizona, etc) increase rates for non-residents, it nevertheless creates heartburn for me. We don't charge non-resident rates in the Northeast for those traveling north to play during the summer months... it seems like a convenient excuse to bilk vacationers out of a few more dollars.

sdandrea1

PA-PLAYA Friday isn't a weekend unless it's a holiday, or you're at a Golf Course.

Fixed it................ 😉

Spartan

My question would be "Was the course packed on Fridays before they started charging the weekend rates?"

If it was, then it would seem reasonable to raise the Friday rate. Supply and demand and all that. If raising the rates has lowered the demand to the point that they're generating less total revenue than before, then they raised it too high and need to go down some. Not necessarily to the weekday rate, but something less than the weekend rate. Supply and demand and all that.

Release

Spartan My question would be "Was the course packed on Fridays before they started charging the weekend rates?"

From the late 80's to the late 90's

Release

Like many of my friends, I have a budget for the non-essentials in life. Although golf related activity is hard to be called "non-essential" , it is what it is.
So by raising the green fees to triple or all the way to 10 times more to the National inflation index will only do one thing. Reduce the rounds played from this golfer. Soon I'll be drifting away from the golfing activity because I don't do it frequent enough.
If the average golfer whether working or retired, could not keep up with the increasing of the green fees, it'll only do one thing. Killing the goose which lay the golden egg.
When I was a single, besides working, paying for shelter and food, I spend almost all my energy and resources playing golf. That got me hooked. Back then it's simple, eat better or save more to buy a new set of iron by eating sandwiches for weeks and months. Lose a job, no big deal, anyone could find a job withing a month or two if one was really looking. In fact, I had taken a couple of weeks off between jobs just to play golf everyday.
Played so much golf until I got sick of it ( not for long , just enough time to go back to job hunting ).

The Friday's weekend rate will be another excuse for those golfers on the line to quit the game for good. Personally, I know a few golfers had abandoned the game. They told me it's not that difficult when they face to sacrifice their quality of life ( economically ) vs. keep the passion of playing this game.

Time was different in the 80's and the 90's when there were not enough golf courses for all the new golfers rushed in to the game ( call it Tiger Mania or not ). The jacked up green fee and the new ways to charge more green fees ( new tax, Friday rate ..... )
We'll see how long before this reverse itself.

Typhoon

We had a course in NH, Green Meadows I think that was doing that a while back on Fridays. I stopped going there...Plenty if other courses to play.

Release

Typhoon

Good for you.
I'd do the same. Once time an employee of a local golf group accused me of hitting range ball with my kid's "junior bucket" when I was trying to teach my kid golf swing. I protested to the management and not even an apology from anyone. I took my pennies to other golf establishment since then ( the closest golf course owned by the group is just 3 miles away from my house ).
That was more than 11 years ago.

letthebigdogshunt

We have seen this over the past few years. Fridays are busy at all the courses in our area and now the courses are raising the Friday rate to be the same as the weekend. Typical thing to do. They follow one another. It is not like the courses are empty during the week because they get a good amount of play just not as much as Friday gets. I don't begrudge them the extra few bucks as times are tough for most golf enterprises. We have had one course close a few years ago and two golf establishments go out of business and yet we have Dicks coming here in a few months. Go figure.

Release

letthebigdogshunt We have had one course close a few years ago and two golf establishments go out of business and yet we have Dicks coming here in a few months. Go figure.

Maybe Dick's Sporting Goods knows something we don't ?

I surely would not mind if the weekend rate for green fees is a few bucks more than the weekday rate. Some courses around here are 50% more ( municipal ) most are almost 100% more than the weekday rate.
That's a little drastic. Maybe the course management thinks we all work for Microsoft or Amazon, or Google.
Fact is, these high tech workers in general won't play golf every weekend, perhaps once in awhile on company outing. A few minority percentage from these high tech high income employees would take the time for golf to enjoy the game.