As anyone, who has golfed much in their lives will attest, golf is not a cheap sport to play.
In addition to purchasing your golf clubs and golf bag, which is an expense ranging from a few hundred dollars to several hundred dollars or more, you also must purchase golf shoes, golf tees, golf gloves and golf balls. These latter four items are much cheaper than the golf clubs but still add up. This is especially true for golf balls, which one periodically tends to lose on the golf course.
How often you lose balls depends on a range of factors, such as the golfer’s skill level, the difficulty level of the course, whether you are playing well or poorly on a particular day and good old fashioned luck.
(While some people use a divining rod to find water, my golf balls used to do it naturally…LOL.)
New balls typically range from $15-$60 per dozen for new balls. You can get reconditioned or recycled balls cheaper. These are essentially old balls, which a cleaned up and resold. Back when I played, I never could tell that I hit a $4 golf ball any better than a 50 cent golf. (Losing a 50 cent ball sure hurt a lot less than losing a $4 ball though…LOL.)
The golf clubs, golf bag and golf shoes are a fixed expense as each one will last a while, particularly the clubs and bag.
After you get all this, you still must pay to play golf.
For those, who do not play golf, some courses require you to be a member to play there or to pay what are called “green fees,” which cover your cost to play the golf course.
In exchange for an annual membership fee, you get to play as much golf as you want at the golf course. At some golf courses, the membership fee takes care of just the green fees. Sometimes membership includes the “cart fee,” as well. Sometimes it does not. The cart fee is what you pay to rent your golf cart for the round. Other times, membership may include green fees, but you must pay for the cart fee separately.
At some courses, members purchase their own carts and then pay to have those carts stored at the golf course.
Those of us, who aren’t a member at a golf course, simply pay the green fee and cart fee every time we play.
When I was in my 20s, I can remember a couple of different programs, which benefited a lot of us not so rich golfers and helped some good causes at the same time.
Both the American Lung Association and the American Cancer Society each had golf tour books available for purchase. The golf tour books were fundraisers for the organizations.
You would pay something like $30-$40 per book, which contained discounts at probably 100 or more courses in Kentucky along with a few in surrounding states.
Some of the golf courses gave you a set amount off the cost of playing, such as a $10 discount, for instance.
Usually, the deal at most courses was the cost the books would cover the cost of the green fee, and you would just pay the cart rental fee. Most of the time, you could only use the golf tour books on weekdays.
There were several golf courses, where the discount was only good once per course per book.
Other courses let you play a couple of a times per book. I seem to recall a lot of the state park golf courses were like this. There were a few courses, which let you play once a month with the cards. I am thinking at least one of the Madison County courses fell into this category.
Ceder Rapids Country Club in Mt. Vernon was one of the participating courses, which never marked your golf tour book so you could play as many times as you wanted. This course was happy to have the business.
The golf tour cards benefitted the golf courses too by generating some extra business. I am sure the only reason some golfers played a particular course was it was in their golf tour book. My dad and I tried a few new courses this way.
My dad, who taught high school social studies for 28 years and then was a substitute teacher for 11 years, used to play at least once a week in the summer.
Back when he was still teaching, each of us along with a few friends, had the golf tour books, and would usually play at various courses using the golf tour books.
As dad played about twice as often as I did most years, he usually just kept my book in his golf bag and I let his friends, who didn’t have a book, use my book on courses I probably wasn’t going to play any way.
Sometimes, you got a discount if you purchased multiple books, so some years dad had a couple of his own books, which he used.
Before the books were discontinued, they were a great thing for many golfers, who did not have a membership at a particular course and did not mind doing a little traveling to get to a golf course.
Before I conclude this column, let me mention an upcoming golf scramble, which might be on interest to local golfers.
The Corbin Kiwanis Club is holding its annual golf tournament on Oct. 5 at The Oaks London. There is a $400 per team entry fee, which includes golf and cart. Registration is at 8 a.m. and there is a shotgun start at 9 a.m.
All proceeds benefit children in the community. If you have some local golf news you want to share, such as upcoming scrambles or recent accomplishments of local high school golfers, then e-mail me at mwhite@corbinnewsjournal.com. I may include the information in a future column.
