The cost of golf is going up! If we want to continue playing on Friday, which I do, we are going to have to embrace that golf is going to cost more on Friday vs Thursday at many courses. Members that play on Friday generally don’t want to switch to Thursday or start playing on another day. Even if it cost a few dollars more, Friday golfers prefer to play on Friday. If price dictates when you play then Thursday may be a better option for you. It’s a choice.
This trend is going to continue until the pandemic is over and people who are working from home, go back and work in the office; golf is at a high demand. People now can leave their home, go play for 4-6 hours a round, come back home and work at their schedule/pace. Golf courses know as I know that in several years, when things will be back, they probably will be screaming for our Friday morning business. They know it! We have discussed it and there are chat groups that I participate in that acknowledge this, but for the time being, golf courses will charge more when they can. BTW, if you think after this is done prices will come back down. No way! Once the price is increased it is never coming back down.
Courses will tell you they lost thousands of dollars last year. The first few months there was no play or limited play due to single carts only. Courses had to rent carts for many more golf carts were tearing up their courses because twice as many were out there at the same time. For the most part, they had no tournaments and lost a great deal of revenue on Food and Beverage from those events. Who is going to pay for these losses? We are…. for the foreseeable future.
Many members in Metro Seniors think that because we are bringing 100 or so golfers to a course on a given day, we should get a significant discount. That is no longer the case. We request, at the minimum, we get the senior rate for that day. Many courses who we have been with for many years give us an additional discount for supporting them, but many do not, especially the most popular courses. Demand is high at them, so we usually don’t receive an additional discount.
We will also see many courses deciding for us to play “Single Tee” starts only (everyone starting from hole # 1). Financially it makes sense for them, and now that we are using tee time for all Metro Senior starts, you will know in advance when you are playing and whom you are playing with. For new members, there are always threesomes, twosomes and singles looking for new people to play with and if you work with the Division VP, I’m sure he can find you members to play with at your level, at any time you wish to play. If you don’t understand how financially courses benefit from single tees vs. split or shotgun, let’s get together. I’ll gladly explain the differences.
There has been discussion for years about playing the same course, more than once each year. I guess everyone assumes that courses have availability for us on 2 Fridays and 3 Thursdays additionally. There is a reason they are popular among us. It’s the same reason public play on them is in high demand. Scheduling is not an easy task, especially during the pandemic demand. New courses that we looked at could not accommodate us because they have “Senior Scrambles” or leagues on the days we play, so if there is course that you don’t like, don’t play that course that week. For every member who hates a course another one loves it.
The pandemic has changed the landscape of golf as we know it. Right now, with no other sports to participate in or none we can go watch, golf is seeing numbers that they haven’t enjoyed in many years. Many young people are finding the game and when demand is high the price increases. I’m sorry that we, who have been supporting these courses for many years have to endure the significant increasing in price, but it’s a sign of the times.
Larry Roth
President Metro Seniors Golf
