Is Golf Getting Too Expensive for Weekend Golfers?

Golf has changed… and not just on the course.

Prices are up. Tee times are packed. And for weekend golfers, it’s starting to feel like you’re paying more — without always getting more in return.

In this episode of The Weekend Golfer, we’re breaking down the current state of golf prices and asking the real question:

👉 Is it still worth it?

We talk about:

•  Rising green fees and weekend pricing 
•  Course conditions vs. cost 
•  Pace of play and overall experience 
•  Why this hits weekend golfers the hardest 
•  How to still find value and enjoy the game 

Whether you play once a week or once a month, this is a conversation every golfer is having right now.

🎙️ The Weekend Golfer — where everyday golfers get a voice.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What is going on, my weekend golfers? Welcome back to another episode of the podcast The Weeknd Golfers. The podcast for everyday golfers just like you. That's weird. I point to myself and say you everyday golfers just like you and me. Uh, we get our voice back, and today we're gonna be talking about something that I feel might be a little controversial. Maybe, maybe not. I may be overlooking this, I don't know. Um, but the thing that we're trying to hit on today is something I want to feel back and know the things that we've kind of been talking about so far, and really just wanted to dive into the fact that golf has just gotten like I'm not just like not just expensive, but like sometimes it feels like we're paying more and not always getting an ROI, we're not getting more of that every time. So, today we're gonna be breaking down the current state of golf as it is when it comes to the price of golf, different avenues that we're gonna dive into that. If you guys are excited, take it. As always, hope you guys enjoyed the intro, nonetheless. Um, before we dive into our topic of discussion today, there's a couple of things that I wanted to hit on first. So, first and foremost, number one, I'm gonna talk about the exciting news first, and the other thing we'll kind of talk and it may segue into what we're trying to get on. But first, uh if you've been on my YouTube channel, if you guys have been watching my the content I'm trying to do, uh you've noticed that I at least have already just upgraded my driver. Um, so I just had I recently had a Taylor-made um it was the M1, I think the 2017 version of the M1. Um, had that for a long time. It was kind of time to get a new one. Um, of course, the con the little hot sauce thing that was when I said that my driver was broken on TikTok. No, it was officially not, it was just a little housel piece of what we call a feral, um, was the piece that was snapped off. But nonetheless, I was like, it's still time because I've had this club set for about 10 years, and it's time to kind of upgrade a little bit. So we upgraded to the Taylor-made QI10. Um, I have currently been working on trying to finish out the rest of the bag, so you guys stay tuned on the updates that I'm trying to get done for that to hopefully get my irons changed out, my new wedges, uh, maybe a new fairway wood, putter. I'm keeping that, I love my putter. Um, but have switched to a new golf ball that I'm gonna try out, but Bridgestone is still kind of the one I like. Um, but we're gonna try Vice out as a golf ball or have currently the Vice Tours sitting right here. Uh so we'll be trying these out when I go play, uh, not too long from now. Actually, I think I'm playing Thursday. Um at this current recording, it is uh Saturday, so I'm playing the following Thursday coming up before my daughter's birthday. So, but exciting news. So we're gonna have a what's in the bag uh for 2026 coming out very, very soon. You guys stay tuned for that. Um, on the other news, uh obviously we just are coming off of the Masters, and at this current point in time, RBC Heritage uh tournament has started. We're on day three at the time of this recording. It is Saturday, so this is you know moving day for RBC Heritage. I've been watching a fit little bit of it, but that's not what we're trying to talk about right now. One of the things that I want to highlight, we all get frustrated, we all get very upset. But if you have not seen the clip, I will add it in here and keep it up while I'm talking about it so you guys can watch it. But very interesting is that like the Masters has kind of turned into this different, this new thing, where like so much is happening. Like, I and I I I've seen some stuff about um you know people getting upset about like all the things that were happening on the par three contest with like the celebrities that were out there for it. I think I mean Kevin Hart was there, um uh Jason Kelsey was out there as a caddy, um, all this other stuff. Like, I've seen a few people have been like, you know, where's the nostalgia that the masters has had? I've and I've I've seen that, but I'm like, at the same time, you're getting more people to learn more about the masters who don't normally probably get into that area of field, and like Kevin Hart as a comedian, as a um as a world-renowned, um, well-known uh actor, all that other stuff that he's done, like he's branching out, like him being at the masters creates a whole new target group of people to just be like, hey, what's going on in golf? Same thing with Jason Kelsey. A lot of guys that are just strictly football, they don't pay attention to golf, but they love something like a Jason Kelsey or Travis Kelsey or everything that's going on with them. That's bringing a new market, like it's intentionality, but it is also in its own way marketing to get the masters out there to more people to grow the game and to make the game better, which is all what we want to do. So, in my personal opinion, I'm not mad about you know what happened and who was out there for the part three contest, and it's not gonna get any better because it's gonna get well, it's not gonna get any worse, it's gonna get better because imagine what next year is gonna look like when you got all these other different guys out here coming out for the part three contest, which makes it fun. Um, but the thing that I also wanted to hit on was a couple players that had not so great moments. Um, I forget, I think it was the guy's name was McIntyre. If I'm not I'm I'm gonna double check that and put it up if I messed it up, but I think his guy's name was McIntyre, and he was caught, you know, flipping two birds or maybe a bird to somebody. I don't know who, don't know what was going on, but it was caught on camera, and you know, like again, don't know the context of what necessarily happened with that, but I get that you know, people probably said some things, something led to him wanting to do that, and it might have been he might have just been frustrated with his game, and he might have just had a moment and just that's what it came out. Um, as a professional, I do think you do need to hold yourself to a better standard, um, especially playing because you have people that look to you as a role model um of that. That's my personal opinion on this. This is not me judging anybody because again, I don't know the full context of what led him to do what he did. But I will say that just as a professional and as a tour professional for sure, um just holding yourself a little bit to a better standard of maybe you know calling somebody or saying, hey, rules official, we need to get this person out of here because I'm he he getting them on earth, like something like that would have been fine. But again, I had to figure out the full context. I'm not judging the man, I'm just saying what I would have probably done in that situation if you know somebody was pro like like poking at him to get a reaction out of him, which I feel like might have been the case. Um, but on the other hand, Sergio Garcia, Sergio is a great golfer, great golfer, and the thing there's two things that I wanted to share about what happened with Sergio. So I'll I'll have the video playing somewhere so you guys can see it just in case you haven't, but if you're watching this on YouTube, but the first thing that I'm stuck on is his shot was not that bad. Like, his shot was honestly not that bad. Like, I would take that shot any day of the week on the golf course to where I hit a driver, yeah, it rolled into the bunker. But I mean, okay, hey, I can get we can hit out the bunker, save it up. But I don't think the shot was that bad, and I don't think that it necessarily warranted the response that he did as far as you know beating into the the the turf on the t-box, which I mean that's a little upsetting because it's like dang you want the course, especially a nice course like Augusta, you want that thing to look pristine. And then um, but beating into the beating into the turf on the on the T-Box and then smashing his driver because it just wasn't working. Like I get it. We all get frustrated. I get that. I got frustrated not too long ago, like two days ago on the driving range, just because stuff just was not working. But I'm not breaking a club that I just now granted, what I'm about to say is different than what his situation is, but I'm not breaking a club that I just paid $300 for. And I'm why I say that because I know he probably gets his stuff for free. And he broke that driver and got a new one, probably already made before he finished that hole, and they were just gonna give it to him at the end of the round. I get it, but at the same time, there's I don't feel like there's anything in the game of golf that should piss you off or make you that mad to the point that you're like tearing stuff up on the ground because it just it just you don't there's nothing that important, like the game should not be that important to my to my guy. I I love the game of golf, I love competing, I love being able to you know go out there and play good rounds, but we also have bad rounds, we have bad shots. But I'm not about to break a driver and then have to go spend an additional a hundred and some odd dollars to go fix it. We can't do that as weekend golfers. Now, Sergio, he can do what he wants to do. Granted, he still got um the president of uh Augusta or one of the executives at Augusta coming down there and telling him, hey, you got a code of conduct warning. But I do think you know he should have probably responded a little bit better because it was not a bad shot. But I get emotions are high, it's a heavy competition. I will never I to the to I I hope one day I could probably play Augusta, but I know that I will never be like the chances of me actually playing Augusta on a Saturday in the tournament of the Masters is very, very slim. So I know I will never probably be in that position that he was in to be competing at that level, but I will say that there probably was not that much of a need to go trash a driver and act like that. I mean, people say he had like a little kid, whatever, like I get it. We all get mad on the golf course, but I don't think that type of response was warranted for that type of shot. That's all I'm saying. To that, y'all can say what you want, we'll keep going from there. So, getting into what we were going to talk about today, I did want to just share those two highlights, but let's get into what we want to talk about today. So, as we mentioned at the very beginning of this podcast, uh the reality of golf is that the prices are getting up there. Um, like if you've been playing golf for a few years, you probably have noticed it, you have seen it. Um, I'm not gonna name drop any golf courses that because somebody may be working at this golf course and watch my content, I don't know, but I'm not name-dropping any golf courses, but just the average of what I am seeing, at least in my area of the greater Charlotte, you know, area, whatever it may case may be Charlotte Concord, this area, uh, North Carolina. Um, rounds for golf on the weekend used to be like 40, 50, maybe tapping 65 dollars, and like now it's you know the lowest you might find is 70. Umy dollars sometimes. Now, I mean, I'm most of them have gotten to a point, specifically in the Charlotte area. A lot of the golf courses now have gotten up to like $100 on the weekend, and to me, I get it. Like, inflation already by itself is up, like gas prices are four dollars, um, groceries are expensive, like things have gone up. I get that. But a hundred dollars to go play some golf, that that that's a lot, that's a lot of money. Like, that's a tank of gas for most people. I drive a Chevy Silverado, 2025 Chevy Silverado. Um a hundred dollars is more than what I put in my gas tank, even with it being at $4. Granted, it's close. I will say, it is very close with gas being $4. But $100 just to play some weekend golf, like the weekend rate, and then there's a this is the thing too. You get the weekend rates versus the weekday. There's one golf course, again, I'm not naming any drop, I'm not name dropping golf courses, but there's a golf course that if you go during the week, it is like $45 for a senior, $64 or somewhere around there for a regular person during the week, and if you go on a Friday, Saturday, or a Sunday, it is 99 to 110, depending upon what time you go out and tea. To me, that is crazy, and I get it though. Like, I get the fact that they probably gotta pay for the gas that gotta go on them carts, and that's why the prices are so high. I get inflation happens, all that stuff happens, I get that. But the issue that I feel that is happening though is that you know, golf, it's like it is a popular game, golf has starting to get more popular, like a lot more people. I feel like now from the time that I started to the time that it is now, I feel like a lot more people are playing golf. However, I don't think that that warrants a shoot-up of a price from going from it used to being like $50 to go play golf to now it's a hundred and a hundred and ten plus to go play a golf course that I have played, and I and quite honestly, I know it is not worth a hundred dollars to play this golf course. And I I then that's kind of the next thing that I wanted to hit on, but like it's not like what are we paying for really? Like, I I know that there's some things that are going that are going down, like gas prices are high. We've talked about that. I get that there's employees that need to be paid, I get that there are uh things that need to be done to the the grounds, and you gotta take care of things. However, if I'm paying this much money and I come out here and this golf course looks the same as it did when it was forty dollars, there's an issue. Like I I see the issue, you're making more money. Why are we not taking care of the course? Like, it's to me, like it's somebody's conversation that me and my dad have quite often. Is that the real question about the price of golf isn't just the price, it's the value. And you know, when we come out and the course is still the same, but the fairway and the rough have no difference in level of height of grass, like there's no difference, and like if I get in the rough, I'm not penalized. Like I can still hit out of the rough just as much as the fairway. Or the fairway at times is like playing off of concrete. Like, I've played some courses where the fairway is so tough that my club, my irons will just bounce right off of it because there's no giving to the ground. Like it's not almost kind of get excited when I can go play golf after it just rained because I know the ground might be a little bit softer. Like, that is terrible. Um, uh a big hot topic that I can probably talk all day long about, and I'm gonna try my best not to, is pace of play. Um the the constant battle of those guys that are playing slow or the guys that are playing really fast and they're hitting up on your T on you guys when you're in the fairway. Like, I didn't pay, I'm not paying $100 for to have to fight with somebody on the golf course. I'm not doing that. I'm I'm not doing that. I can tell you that now. Because, and I get it, I've done it in my time too. Um, I've done it when we I played golf in uh Florida or in Myrtle Beach or whatever the case may be, like in some places, um, you know, you're not realizing how far I'm actually hitting it and then having to apologize one time, cool, two times, all right. I probably need to chill out and let y'all go further ahead. But like if the course is trash, like, and this is kind of what leads to like I can see a Sergio moment based off of this. If the course is terrible, is the course is in a beat-up shape, the fairways are hard, the roughs are not even existent, the rough is just essentially the fairway with maybe an extra layer of like another centimeter of grass. Um, pace of play is either very slow, like I have a good, I got a good mojo going, and I get to the next hole, and now I gotta sit there and I'm waiting. Um I get you know tired or whatever, like, or if it's like I'm always feel like somebody's pushing on me because I'm trying to pay, because at the end, like it's it's a lot that can go on in that. And then the another thing, even with the pace of play, is the tea time spacing. Let's let's dive into this for a minute. I told you we're gonna be hitting on some little controversial stuff today, but the tea time spacing, if you notice, like when you go watch the guys on tour, like they got three guys playing on Monday, on Friday, Thursday, and Friday, and then they eventually cut down to two, but their T times are blocked off because one is two. But on weekend golfers, weekend golf, we know we got foursums out there. You may have a one person, and you may have a group of three that eventually adds the one person and becomes a foursome. So much happens out there on the golf course. But if I book a nine, like I'll say this specifically with what I got. So the the time that I'm playing on Thursday is 9:30 in the morning, but there was a nine, a nine ten, a nine twenty, a nine thirty, a nine fifteen. If we got break moments where it's almost five to ten minutes apart, that's not enough time for these weekend golfers. Like, and I say that because I mean if I'm a professional, if I'm a scratch player, I'm in the fairway and I'm on the green, probably in regulation. Like, I'm out the way in a matter of about three to four minutes. Like, to play a hole should probably take you an at like a scratch golfer to play a hole, probably takes them anywhere between five to eight minutes to play a hole. For a weekend golfer, it is nearly double, if not triple, that because if I'm hitting to the right and I gotta go find my ball, I hit to the left, I gotta go find my ball, then I hit it, but then I duff it, and I gotta hit another shot. I'm hitting four and I'm not even on the green. So much happens to where the T times need to be spaced out more properly, to where it's not so much that okay, I get on a par three and I'm like, Alright, cool, I can just hit on I got time, but there's guys are already back on my back and they're waiting, trying to go, and then we hit a par five after that. I hit off the T. I'm in the fairway. These guys are right back on my behind, and as soon as I hit my second shot, their ball is running up to where I am. Like there, the T time spacing is, I think, a big thing, but I get at the same time the golf course has to make money, and they're trying to get everybody out there, make as much money as possible, which I get as a business owner. I would be thinking the same way, but I also want the quality of what I'm paying for to be worth it. I want the course to be in a good condition to where I'm not break worried about breaking fingers or breaking uh popping my wrist in pain because I hit the ball and the ground didn't respond as well as I thought it would, and all I did was duff into some concrete. Um, I also want to be able to feel like I can relax enough to play at my pace of game, which is fairly decent. Like I'm not gonna take 20-25 minutes to play a hole, but I want to be sure that I'm not feeling like I'm rushed or I feel like I have to do something quick to just be playing ready golf all the time just to keep going because golf is meant to be enjoyed, not meant to be something that you do in two hours. Golf has never been a sport that you do it in two hours, you can play nine holes in two hours, but I ain't playing 18 in two hours. I'm done with all that, but there's a lot of other things that come into play. I don't I I work at a golf driving range, um, I know some logistics of that, but I don't know the full maintenance of it. Again, I don't know all I all I'm saying to kind of wrap this whole thing up here, is just that there's a lot that comes into what's happening in the game or what's happening on the course, and it's just like if I'm paying a hundred dollars or a hundred dollars, like somewhere up on these numbers of like these high numbers of golf prices for one, like I don't want to just be worried about like the greens or what's going on there. Like, and then and then here's a here's a thought, like, or here's something I dealt with. So when me and my dad last played golf, and I get things happen. Like, I'm again, I'm not a maintenance guy, I don't know what it takes to maintain the green and the Charlotte type of weather. Like, I don't get I don't understand, I don't I don't do any of that. But I will say, um, if you're if you know you got some greens that have been beat up and you gotta resol them, redo them, they got full of sand, like it's like four layers of different grass carpet on there right now. Why am I still paying 80 bucks for this? Like, if your greens and then you tell me that, like you tell me, oh, we still got it at the spring price because we got some greens that are still beat up, but the spring price is 72 and the regular price is 85. That's not a that's not a discount enough for that. Because that means that there's four or five holes that I already have to pretty much consider either par or bogey, if not a birdie, because I can't even put on them. Like they're full of sand, like, and this is just a course that I played. Again, I'm not naming any courses, but a course that I played. Ground is I mean, the green is like six or seven little cut chop pieces of different layers that they're trying to regrow in. And hopefully, you know, when I go back out there, by the time, like, you know, that it's been treated and it's all set, they cut it again, they clean it up, whatever, like it'll be nice. And then I'm like, okay, cool. I ain't mad about paying if the greens are rolling nice. But if I know I got three holes on the back nine that are terrible, that were like the greens are just like terrible. I can put better on my carpet right now than I can on those greens, versus and then one on the front. Like, I give me this for $50. Because there's some courses out here I can go play that greens are better, and they're like $23 a pop for 18 holes. If you're in the Charlotte area, there's one in Salisbury. I'm not gonna name it, but you know exactly which one I'm talking about that you can go out there and pay less than $35, play that whole 18, and greens is probably better. Just saying. But like this is the thought that I have as a weekend golfer because we do want a good experience. Like, when you take somebody out to play golf, you want them to have a good experience, you want them to enjoy it. And if you've been playing anywhere near as long as I have been. Of 13 years or further longer than that, like you have an expectation of golf courses now, especially if you have traveled playing golf, like if you've gone like them Myrtle Beach golf courses are crazy, Florida golf courses, crazy. I played in Georgia, that one wasn't too bad. Um, that one was a little bit interesting when I have to talk about that one at some point. But like if you played in these other courses and you've been treated to like the grounds where there's like real fairway, there's real rough, there's real bunkers, like there. I get it, there's a lot of stuff that goes into that, but like when you have that experience, it is tough to go back to paying $80 when you just paid $85 for an Augusta-style golf course, and you go back to where you play normally and you pay $84 for a golf course that looked like it needed to be worth $15. Like, that I don't mind paying more if the experience matches what I'm paying for. That's my thought. That's my thing. I'm gonna leave it at that. We're done with this segment. Sorry. I just had to get that out. I've been waiting on that one for a minute. Um, this uh video is not officially well, this uh podcast is not officially sponsored by um The Gathering Coffee, but I am gonna borrow some of my gathering coffee here. Um if you want to learn more about that, search the gathering coffee, or I'll put a link below. You can look them up. Um, they make good coffee. Yeah, that's it. And it's got oat milk in it too. I like that. And also they give you a little Bible verse on the back. I like that. So for everybody that loves golfing, the gospel. There you go. Gathering coffee. Not officially sponsored, but hopefully so. Um but yeah, like this is just a thought that I've had over like, you know, what we deal with as weekend golfers, and then it's like um, you know, when and it's it's the thing that I wanted to kind of talk about now with the fact that like prices and the way the golf has been, like, it's gotten expensive, this is what's going on. But as weekend golfers, I feel like it hits us the hardest because the whole concept of a weekend golfer is that you're playing golf on the weekend, meaning that you have things that you're doing, like you're hustling, working a nine to five, eight to four, seven to four, eight to whatever, like you working your daily job Monday through Friday, and you know, maybe sometimes you get a day off on the middle of the week where you can go sneak out and play golf, or like me, take a day off just to kind of get a mental break from everything that's happening and go play some golf and just enjoy the time. But the only reason, half the reason why I'm doing that is because I know the weekend price is ridiculous, and I don't want to pay that amount of money when, for one, like my wife's got me on a golf budget, which I understand, but like at the same time, I got myself on an own budget, like I don't want to be spending way too much money to go play a golf course that I know that should look nice that I've been playing for years, but I'm paying $90 to go out there and play on the weekend, like it affects the weekend golfers so much more because typically we're playing on the weekend, we don't have a lot of time to play. Like I said, we're working pretty much all through the week. We may sometimes get some time where we can sneak out and and and do some stuff like that, maybe, maybe not, don't know. Um, usually we're having to get like that peak price in time of like you know, we play when the season kind of kicks off. A lot of people really kind of really get into golf now after the masters. Um, those true ride or dies are the ones that are playing golf in like January when it's still kind of cold, but not cold, um, or outside of the snow when we had to. But like we're at a point now where people are trying to find deals on golf right now. And there excuse me, there's some guys that are doing it, and I get all the credits. Like, you know, you go to golf now or these little other websites that allow you to book a tea time and you know save some money. Like, I get it, but like we can't always chase a deal though, like we don't have that type of time to sit there unless you know we have a slow day at work. Maybe we can, you know, look on golf now and try to find a deal or whatever the case may be. But at the end of the day, as a weekend golfer, I just want a good experience, not just around. Like, I want a good experience, especially if it's some place that I haven't played in a long time. Um, there's a few courses that me and my dad go to, like on a routine. Um, well, at least when we can get out there, uh, he's retired, so he plays a lot more than I do. I think he plays once a week. Um, I'm more like maybe once or twice a month still, but I'm playing at the range way more often than anything. So uh virtual rounds, all that type of stuff, like I'm doing that. So I definitely have played way more this year than I have in any other year combined, and it's only April. But the thing that I'm trying to like really understand, like I feel like is our problem, or the thing that I want to bring across is that as weekend golfers, we're paying a premium price for limited like opportunities to go out and play, and so like now we're having to find or drive a few places. I actually um one of the guys I work with he told me about a golf course that is in his like hometown area. I didn't get a chance to go yet, but I told my dad about it, and they went up there and they went to go play. It was like an hour and ten minutes away from where we currently are in this area now, in the Charlotte Concord-ish area. Um, an hour and 10 minutes away. It was, I think he paid $50 or so to play 18 holes. Uh, fairways looked like they were in good condition. Rough was actually roughing. Um, and you know, the bunk the greens were a little bit fast, he did say that. But I mean they were good, like the course looked great. And it's like you gotta at this point now, at least specifically, I'm speaking at least to like our Charlotte Concord region areas. Like everybody that lives in the Charlotte area, Concord, as golfers, you know the courses that we have out here. Um, like there's one mainly in Concord. We got like a whole bunch of them in that little area between um the uh 485 side of Charlotte on the I forget what side, but there's um I'm trying not to name golf course. Well, I'll name this because I'm not talking about directly about these golf courses at this moment, but you got like Charles T. Myers, you got the divide, you got um uh uh the uh Emerald Lake, you got um what's another one out there on that side? That's all on that one side of the road, but then like you're kind of going around, but there's a whole bunch of golf courses out here in Charlotte, and it's just like I'm just not seeing the same type of result that I would see at other places, like outside of the Charlotte area. But I'm paying what like what I'm what I'm paying to play a really nice course outside of Charlotte is half the price that I would pay for uh maybe a not so decent or rough course in Charlotte. That's the issue that I see, and we see it across the board. It's not just a Charlotte area. There's some rough courses in Georgia. I've played a couple. There's probably some rough courses in Charlotte and Florida. I haven't played uh too many in Florida. Um, Myrtle Beach, there was one or two, but that was dependent upon the situation of the time of the year that we went to go play. But I went back out there and it looked great. So Myrtle Beach is doing what they do because it's a tourist town and they know they want to have good golfers. But again, we're paying for the experience that we want to have to bring people back out, not necessarily paying to have everything fixed. Speaking of that, okay, hold on. This is one thing I will say. I I don't know again, I don't know the process. If you work at one of these golf ranges and you know these these uh golf courses in the area and you know what goes into this, definitely let me know so I can have a better understanding. But I'm paying this price, and y'all's cart paths still are beat up. Like my back hurts not because of my swing or because of the golf that I play. My back is broke down because of them doggone broken down golf cart, uh cart paths. I was trying not to use choice words there, but it's it's kind of ridiculous that like I'm driving, like I'm sitting there doing all of this and flipping around and all the stuff just to get to the T-Box. Come on now, and then if it's and then don't don't get me started on the cart path only holes when all the hole does is ask for you to really play everything to the right, and the cart path is on the furthest left side, so now I gotta walk from one side all the way to the other, hopefully debating which club I got in my hand. I gotta carry maybe two, possibly three clubs, just to go hit the ball out there, and then if I'm having a bad round, that's not a good day. I will say that. We've been there, don't understand it. Just saying. I'm liking this. I'm liking me getting this off. Like, I feel like I've been having a lot of these thoughts on my chest, and I'm I like getting them off. Because the thing I want to see better is the quality over all these golf courses because can it like grow? Because let's be honest, some of these courses ain't worth it. Like, we'll sit, I'll sit with my dad, we'll talk about it sometimes. Like, hey, you want to go play uh so and so? And he's like, uh no, that ain't that that's terrible. That that they they like he may know something I don't know. Like, greens is bad, fairways are brick, like, nah, that's bad. And then we're like, oh yeah, how about so and so? No, no, no, they just did their greens, they just redid their stuff. That's good. See, like, that's an excitement that makes that builds a confidence in somebody when it's just like, hey, they just redid something, or they just redid their greens, they just redid their fairways, um, all this stuff. Like, when you hear that, like, okay, cool, great. They've been putting in some work. I need to go out here and put some work in. Like, that is what like we can golfers, that's what we get excited about. When the quality matches the quality, when our quality of golf matches the quality of the course, it's gonna be a good day, regardless if we 25 over or 200. Like, courses that deliver is awesome. Courses that don't usually don't get repeat customers, and that's just that's the reality of what it is. Because that like as getting as golf has gotten expensive, we also still want to make sure that we're at the place, like we're playing where it is quality golf. Like we're playing quality, we feel like we're playing good. Like, I've even noticed, like, if it's a good fairway, if the grass is good, I'm striking the ball pretty much a lot better because it's responding the same way that a turf mat would. It's responding, like if you go to one of those simulators, or if you go to like uh like track man or whatever the case, like like whatever those like one of those simulator spots, and they have the different tiers of grass, like you have the flat level, like almost putting green style mat, but then you have the little fluffy grass one, like the green one that most people think is the rough, that is more closely related to what you're hitting in the grass. When the grass like that, it's great. Um, and then the but the other issues, like there's always an up and down with golf, and then like if we see like some overcrowding, like the the one thing that I know most I've seen videos on this about on TikTok or on YouTube and different things like that. If you are a foursome, try to stick to your foursome. I know I've done it in the past too, where it's six guys that want to come out to play, and one of y'all, y'all split it up three and three. Like, cool, keep it three and three. Don't at some point get to the back nine and put all six of y'all on the same hole. Because then now you holding up a group of three that is just three, and who's trying to get through this game of golf and then not be six hours. Like, I'm all for golf being anywhere between three and a half to four, maybe four and a half hours. But if I'm now hitting over four and a half, five hours, I'm tired. I'm tired of being out here because I've been either, even if I had a good round, like I shouldn't be out here more than that long. But don't overcrowd a whole and again this goes back to the T the uh T time spacing, where the T times are not spaced out, I feel properly enough to where you can avoid that. Or making sure that hey, if you know that there's a guy calling in saying he's got six players, he's gonna do a three and a three, cool, let's keep them together, make sure they understand, and then whoever is the cart person, the ranger, is riding out there, make sure he's doing his trips to make sure that they're not tying up together as six as six people at a time, because then now somebody got to call the pro shop and say, Hey, these guys that are playing in front of us, it's six of them playing right now, and then it's like, okay, now they you snitching on them. Like, you shouldn't have to do that, unless you're just having that kind of day and you being a little bit of a Karen, go ahead. But not name dropping any Karen's that I know because I don't really know many, but um you like it just keep it simple, like keep the game simple because everybody wants to be out here and enjoy it. Um, and then the one thing that I would hate that I the one like that I see that I hate is maintenance, what I'll call maintenance gaps. Um, and what I mean by that is if you see like you play the first hole and it looks great. Any I'm sorry, I had a thought. You ever notice that when you're driving into the golf course, and if the course is set up to where like maybe one of the holes is in the driving path, that hole is always the best looking hole. Like they putting their money into whatever hole that is, and then you get on the first, second, or whatever hole that's not that one, and it looked deep, it looked beat up. That's the maintenance gap that I'm talking about. Like, I want all the holes to look very similar, if not have the same quality that they all each hole has. I don't want to drive in past number 10 or past number seven, and that hole looks amazing, and I'm like, oh, this is gonna be great. And I get there on the first hole, and the T box I can barely put my T in the ground because the ground is so hard. Like, that that's a maintenance gap. Don't like make everything as as consistent as possible because that's what's gonna keep the like we want that quality to be up there, and that's what's gonna make it good. Like, this isn't about you know, I'm not calling, I'm not trying to call out courses. I said it multiple times in this in this podcast today. I'm not calling out any golf courses whatsoever because I don't know the details of what's going on. I am simply just giving my opinion on the things that I have seen in the last few years of golf. But this isn't about calling out golf courses, it is about the experience that every weekend golfer and every golfer in general wants to have when they go out and play a game of golf. Like prices go up everywhere, I understand because inflation, like everything is going up. But if the quality doesn't follow that, that's the issue. That's the issue that I have. So again, like it's just we want the quality of the golf course to match the quality that we expect it to be, and the quality of how we want to like we want to have a good quality round because the course is giving us a good quality feedback. And it's the term that I'm thinking of where you don't play against other people, you're playing the course, you're playing against the course. It is hard to beat a course that's broken down and beat up because all it's trying to do is beat you up and break you down. Like, that is a difficult thing to do. But if the quality and the maintenance and the things that are happening that should be happening on the golf course, when the season is right for whatever y'all gotta do on these golf courses to make them look good, to make them feel good. Like that course I played for that tournament, probably the best one I've played so far this year. Granted, I've played maybe five times this year, and that was the one course that was not in North Carolina, it was technically in South Carolina, um, but not in the Charlotte area, but it was in South Carolina. Great course. So, but that quality matched it, and I mean, we shot 600 as a group that day, so that's all I gotta say. Alright, so we've talked about all these things, like the things that have happened, or what's been happening with the golf courses. So, like now, you know, how do we, you know, how do we navigate this per se? Um, for one, I think pick your spots as a Goekan golfer. How do we navigate it? Pick your spots. Um, make sure you do your research, give the cut, like most people that probably don't do this as much as I feel like. Um, a lot of people just book online and then they just go out there. I'm a big advocate for I'm not I'm gonna call you first. Like I'm gonna call, make my tea time the old-fashioned way. Um, but pay more for better uh for better experience, like occasionally. Like make sure, like if you play, I'd say anywhere between two to three times like a month, like if you're that kind of consistent type of weekend golfer, um, or if you just like every once in a while, like every quarter that you're playing, make sure you actually pay attention or you go pay a really quality price for a really quality course. And I'm pretty sure that was probably bad grammar, but a really quality, I don't know. Um, but you know what I mean. Every now and then or every on occasion, make sure that you like pick your spot and say, hey, no, I'm gonna go out here to this golf course. I know it's gonna be 45 minutes, an hour drive, whatever the case may be, but I'm gonna go out here and I'm gonna play this course because I know I'm gonna get a better experience. And just treat yourself to that. Um, you know, uh play on those off-peak times when it's possible, like you know, the early tea times or the late tea times. You can avoid that overcrowding or like that that bunch up moment that happens. Like, I'm a big advocate for like morning golf rounds. Like, I'm I thought we're playing at 9.30. I really wanted the nine o'clock. I was even going earlier than that, but I didn't think that my dad wanted to be up that early. The last time we played, I think our tea time was like 8.10. However, it was very cold that day, but for some reason the wind was blowing at like 20 miles an hour and the temperature degree was only getting up to like 40. So, one random day out of the year that it decided to be really cold in like March made no sense to me. But those early or those late tea times, like my dad often will go out at like 3, 3:30, and they'll just go play like as many holes as they can before they get kicked off the course, especially now with daylight savings time. You can probably, if it's just two players and y'all playing at three, you can probably get 18 at holes out of that. You might best case scenario, depending upon what time the course closes, you can knock out I don't know, maybe 15 holes. At that point, it's kind of worth it. You paid a little cheaper price because it's off time, it's not that prime time where it's like 10 to 2, where all those people are trying to get out there and play that golf, play, play golf on that time period. So play play for those off times. Um, and then find like a home course, something that you know that's reliable, it gives you consistent value. Like that's the one that you kind of go to more often than not. Um, for me and my dad for a good bit when I was living actually in the city of Charlotte, um, was Charles T. Myers. That was our you know, reliable, consistent golf course because we knew what we were getting when we went out there. Um, was it the absolute greatest golf course? No, but we knew what we were getting out there, and we knew what the price was going to be when we went out there. So finding your home course, that's that's what's gonna help you out a little bit as well. Um, and then the last thing, well not the last thing, but one of the last things that I had was um not every round needs to be premium. Like, you know, lower your expectations strategically. Um, not every round needs to feel like it has that premium thing, but I do like I'm a big advocate for pushing. Like, I'm trying to talk to my fellows now, my friends, about you know, hey, once a year, let's plan out a nice golf trip. Like, let's go play somewhere that we haven't been before, like we go play, like you know, plan a trip and like we actually go play a premium golf course. Play the like, you know, do go through the whole nine, like not be like not pun intended with the nine yards, nine holes, but like go through the whole thing. Like, let's go be intentional about playing something really premium because we know every day or the every other day that we are playing, it's not gonna be a premium round. And then um, you know, using technology, I'm like I said, I'm not a big advocate for calling, but I'd use I will still look at the tea time first before I call and actually book it. Because when I call, I don't necessarily have to drop any money down just in case something happens, like rain, I can't make it, whatever the case may be. So I'm not losing out on any money or any deposit money um that you would on possibly booking online. But use technology, you know, check in on the tea time apps, download apps like golf now or uh I don't know all these other apps because I haven't used them to book tea times, but there's plenty of apps I'm sure that allow you to find deals and hot deals on um booking around. Use that, find as many deals as possible. And if you're one of those golfers that's diving into memberships, become a member of something. Um, I know when you get into that upper echelon of like, you know, course like uh country clubs and golf clubs and those types of places, yeah. That's I mean that's a different type of tax bracket um from a lot of us, but you know, that is something that could possibly be the case to where it's like, hey, I know I'm a member here, I can go out there, I can hit free range balls anytime I want, I get priority checking in for a tea time, I can book a tea time early and it's at a discounted rate. You're just paying, you know, your annual fee and then your monthly fee. Like, if you're doing that, that is your course. Like, that's kind of my mindset with that. Like, that is your golf course. If you want to like play other courses and venture out and all that stuff, that's fine. Maybe not want to be a member of like a top quality golf club, but a membership is not bad either. Um, if you want to um just kind of know what you're getting yourself into, um, and so we don't we don't need to play the most expensive golf courses all the time. Um, we just need to find the best value. And again, knowing what you're getting into, asking questions, like sometimes they'll put it on the website if they just aerated greens, aerated fairways. Sometimes you'll see that a lot of times they don't. And you can even ask, like I've asked a few times, like, hey, when was the last time you know we're coming out? We're gonna book this tea time. When was the last time the aeration has happened? Just so you know, like, hey, are the greens good? How the greens rolling, like, ask questions. Sometimes they don't know. I mean, you may get the person that really doesn't know anything about what's happening there, and that's fine. But do your due diligence and you'll find a good round to to do or to play. All right, ladies and gentlemen, so we have conquered what needed to be said. Um, and just again, kind of recapping everything. If you're a weekend golfer, be intentional with where you like first and foremost, you know the value of the value experience over the height. Um, ask questions if you know what the top community like the top uh the weekend golf costs on Facebook or NetGroup if you want to be a part of that. Um ask questions about something called the top courses. Um value of the experience over the height. Uh remember if it's all data data. Know it is expensive, but it should still be worth it at the end of the day. So enjoy the game of golf as much as possible. And uh lastly, you know, guys, I just want to hear from y'all. Like, have you noticed you know golf getting more expensive? How do you feel about it? Is it really worth it? Have you played golf courses that before were you know at a decent price and now they've shotten up, and you're like, I don't even want to go pay that price. Is it still worth it? You ain't got a name necessarily to golf course, but if you want to, I understand. Um, but yeah, drop that in the comments. Um, go to the weekend golf, go to Facebook, join the weekend golfer clubhouse. Um, that is a group community that has been started for all of us uh golfers that just want to be able to communicate and talk through um anything that's happening in the golf community, like just talking about the Sergio thing or talking about what happened at Augusta, um, talk about Scottie Scheffler, whatever you want to do, like that's what this group is for. Is the whole idea of the clubhouse is when you get done with the around and you're sitting with your buddies and you got your brewski and you're hanging out, like you talk shop, you know, like you talk what's going on, you just talk basic things. That's what the clubhouse is for. So if you're on Facebook, go to Facebook, look up the Weekend Golfer Clubhouse, it is the Facebook group. Go ahead and join that group and you'll be ready to go for that. Uh, make sure you're following me on everything TikTok, Instagram, YouTube here. Um, because again, this is the weekend golfer where everyday golfers get our voice back, and I want to keep bringing this stuff to you and having real conversations as well about the things that we deal with as weekend golfers. So, y'all make sure y'all follow, subscribe, comment, do all that great stuff. Let me know about the golf courses that you've seen that have gotten expensive or may have not. And uh let's find some new golf courses to play that are going to be quality. Y'all enjoy it.