Private Golf Clubs vs. Public Courses: Which Is Actually Worth It? | The Weekend Golfer Ep. 10

Are private golf clubs really worth the money, or is public golf still the best value for weekend golfers?

In Episode 10 of The Weekend Golfer, we're breaking down one of the biggest debates in golf: private clubs vs. public courses. We compare the benefits of both, discuss who each experience is best for, and answer the question every weekend golfer asks—what gives you the most value for your money?

We also introduce a brand-new recurring segment, Weekend Golfer Course Reviews, where I rate courses from the perspective of the everyday golfer.

This week's review features Legends Oak Golf Course in Myrtle Beach, SC, where I share my honest thoughts on:

•  ⛳ Course Conditions 
•  ⏱️ Pace of Play 
•  💰 Value for the Money 
•  😄 Fun Factor 
•  ⭐ Overall Weekend Golfer Rating 

Plus, we wrap things up with another Weekend Golfer Value Check and a question for you:

If someone gave you a FREE one-year membership to any private golf club... would you take it, or would you rather have unlimited public golf?

👇 Let me know your answer in the comments!

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's up, weekend golfers? Welcome back to the weekend golfer podcast, the podcast where everyday golfers like you and me, I did that wrong. You and me. Me and you. You and me. Every weekend, everyday weekend golfers, we get our voice back. And I'm your host, Calvin. In today's episode, I've actually been looking forward to. Um, it's something that kind of spurred in the uh in a trip that I was at recently, and it was something that I wanted to be like, you know what? Let's talk about it. Let's hop on the podcast, let's talk about it. Um, obviously, you guys can comment, leave likes, and subscribe, do all those good things that you're supposed to do so we can talk about this thing. But what I wanted to get into today is basically really a simple question. If I give you a free membership to any private golf club that you want, would you take it? Or would you rather play a different public golf course every single weekend for free? I don't know how a time frame on it, so don't speculate into that. But that's the two questions that we're asking. Free membership to a private golf club, or you can play public courses for a certain amount of time for free. That's what we're gonna be talking about today. Really, what we're doing is we're gonna be comparing private clubs versus public golf. Not necessarily to decide, you know, which one's right or who's wrong, but basically just to answer the really main question that I wanted to get to is that what experience is giving us as weekend golfers the best value? So we're gonna get into that, but we gotta cue that intro first. So before we get into the meat and potatoes of today's discussion, I want to kind of shift and go back a little bit and let you guys know um what to expect as a weekend golfer when it comes to certain golf courses. Um actually, what I was thinking, let's make it a whole new segment that you kind of see on the podcast. And what we're gonna call this is the weekend golfer course review. Basically, what this means is that every time I play a course, in a way, in a shape or form, you play this course. Um, I'm going to review it through the eyes of a weekend golfer. I'm not a tour pro, I'm not a golf architect, so I don't I don't, but I have been playing for one long enough to understand what things make sense and when things don't. So uh, but basically, what I'm hoping to help you guys see, whether if it's not on a actual recorded video of me actually playing the course, like the one recent one I just did at Sunset Hills, if you want to check that out, right there. Um, but the main thing I want you guys to see is is this course really worth your weekend? That's the whole driving point that I'm trying to help you guys with. And so, with that being the case, I'll introduce our very first one that we have. So, um recently have been joined in on an annual kind of beach trip with my wife and her best friend and hit and her soon-to-be fiance, they're getting ready to, you know, get engaged as somewhere down the line. Not part of the story. Um, but we take this trip now. We've been doing it for the last two years where we tag on with them to go down to Seabrook Island, uh South Carolina. Well, just right off the coast of right off the area of Charleston. Um, with that being the case, though, uh Seabrook has two golf courses on its island that they're in the property of, but it's obviously a private course. Um, they treat everything a little bit more different. Uh, so basically, it is open for guests of members because obviously we're not members of the area, um, but it's open for guests after one. So you could play golf after one, you could hit the range after one, but anytime before that, you cannot do anything related to golf on the actual island. So, with that being the case, we have to go off the island because we probably got to save up to play the private course because it's like still maybe $180 a person to go play. So, neither here nor there. What we went to and ended up doing, we went to a golf course called Legends Oak Golf Course. This golf course is, I believe, in Somerville, South Carolina. Um, I will let you guys know. We recently like when we played it. Uh, first and foremost, I'll get the big number out the way $77 on a Friday for you guys to play this course. So $77 was the green fee for us. Um, we you know obviously paid that. And I was I expected a quality round, and overall, you know, like the golf courses that I've been seeing in the South Carolina area, especially near the beaches, tend to be very more upkept golf courses, so to speak. So, with all these course reviews, we're gonna be rating all these golf courses on a few things. First and foremost, we're gonna be rating them on course conditions. How well is the course? Was it good? Was it terrible? Could I play on it? Those things like that. Secondly, we're gonna be hitting on pace of play. This is a big thing for weekend golfers because we done worked all week long to do the things that we needed to do to fund ourselves to play on this weekend, and we want to have a good time and not be out here for 16 hours. So, pace of play is number two. Number three is the value, basically saying is what I paid worth me being out here, and then lastly, fun factor because we all know as weekend golfers, again, we've been working all week long, all we want to do is golf all weekend, and we want to have a good time, we want to have a few brewski's and be able to enjoy ourselves. So, we're rating it on these four systems. So, with that being said, the first one being uh course conditions. Um, course conditions, the fairways for me were in really good shape. I will say that the fairways were in really good shape. I really like that the rough actually penalized you a little bit. It was a little bit thicker grass, it was higher cut, it was a it was a higher grass of cut, cut of grass, I don't know how you say that, but it was higher than what you would normally see in the fairway. Um, so your accuracy obviously mattered. You wanted to try to be in the fairway as much as you could be. Um, I will say one of the biggest drawbacks was the fact that the greens were most of the greens were under under repair. Um, I think the very first green was under repair, and I think each one after, like I would say maybe 75 or higher of the percent of greens were under repair in some way, form, or fashion. So, like sand spots in it. Some of them were actually, I did appreciate this, some of them were actually um uh spray painted out, like a like a spray paint just around the area that they're trying to repair, so you know, like, hey, this is under repair, and they put G U R for ground under repair. So I was like, okay, cool. They at least try to let you know. Um, but several of them were under repair, so some greens were rolling, some of them were a little bit slower, a lot of things that you kind of have to fight with with that. Um, but another thing that I feel like it is very worth mentioning, and is this is probably the first time I've seen this at a golf course before. Um, it's not a knock to the golf course at all, but it is something that I was not expecting. Um, there is a very small practice facility uh at this at the at Legends Oak, the driving range is pretty small. Um, I think it's probably about 80 yards east to west, like it's about 80 yards wide, um, because it sits right between the 18th, the approach, you're probably your approach shot on the par 518 and your T box on one. Basically, what I would say is imagine if you happen to be on the T on the on the T, you have a possibility of somebody shanking a practice ball right into the back of your head or in your back. That is probably not something I would say is ideal if I'm about to tee off. Granted, we were playing for pretty much almost the tip, so we were not in that direction. But if you're playing from the blue or the whites, there was like five T markers out there. So if you're playing from the um senior men's and you know, anything further than that, you're in you're in shot of getting hit from a golf ball on the practice range. So didn't necessarily like that it was kind of tight-knit and snuck between there, um, which also means that there's a lot of golf balls that are sitting on the 18th fairway and also on the first fairway because the range is people are hitting shots that are going, you know, shooting across the way. Um, and then also the last thing I will mention is that the practice putting green, um, the practice putting green was actually a really good green. It just was too far away from the first T-box. The practice putting green was across the 18th green, up a little heel, sitting at the top on the far right side of the clubhouse, if you're looking at, or the left side, I guess, if you're looking at it from the uh 18th green. So to walk to go practice my putts, I basically needed to drive the cart around, although I did walk because the situation called for it. But you gotta drive your cart all the way over there to practice your putts, drive it all the way back if you wanted to hit balls or tee off. So all that being said, quest conditions, I would give it honestly probably about a 6.5 um due to the fact that greens were under regulation. Greens were under repair, excuse me. I didn't get too many greens in regulation, but greens were under repair, and also the fact that the uh first and 18th hole was a little bit of a of an of an interesting thing to try to find your ball when there's 40 other balls sitting in the fairway and you're trying to make sure yours is wet. So maybe a little bit of a tough thing, but with all those things that I said, course conditions 6.5. All right. Pace of play. Uh, we all know that pace of play is a major thing for us as weekend golfers. And if we can be, if we can have a good pace and we can have a good mojo going, uh we're good. Like we don't want to sit here and we don't want to wait. We do want to catch up with our friends, catch up with our guys, talk about some things, but we also have a lot of time to do that. We're on this golf course for possibly at least four hours. So that being the case, pace of play was a little slow. It was a little slow. Yeah, it was it was a little slow. It was a little slow. Okay. But probably the biggest negative of the day. Course conditions was not necessarily it. Pace of play was it was pretty slow. So we were we were backed up pretty often. Um, we had a foursome group go out right in front of us. I don't know what their tea time was. Um, we were foursome as well. Um, it was me and my my my buddy that we went out with, and then we got paired with two other guys, really cool guys. Um but we were four, there's a four in front of us, probably a foursome in front of them, and you know, we're just we're waiting on teas, and you know, at and even at one point, I think we were probably on the third or fourth hole, maybe. Um, we had even asked because there was a single behind us, and we had told him, we were like, hey, if you you know, if you want to play through, you know, you can. Like we just finished the part three, getting ready to hit a part five. We're like, hey, if you want to play through, we can. This guy was like, Hey, I appreciate it, but I'm not even going to go anywhere because I get in front of y'all, there's still a four or seven in front of y'all. Like, that's not that's not gonna be beneficial. And he's like, I'm playing two balls at this point because I know I'm gonna be out here for a minute. So this man was literally playing two balls on every hole, and like if he hit one bad, he hit a good one, and he played both of them. Like he was playing it's like two people basically. One person was playing two people, so pace of play is I can obviously tell you that that was it was pretty slow that day. So, with that being the case, and we're waiting, pace of play, it's gotta be a five out of ten um for that. All right, value. Um, so again, I told you guys at the beginning it was $77 to play on a Friday, um, which honestly I still think I had a good experience. Um, the layout was enjoyable. There's a lot of water, a lot of like you know, places you can put yourself in a tight spot. So you do want to make sure that you're striking the ball correctly at this golf course. Um, but the fairways were in good shape. I had a good time. Um, the greens, if they were healthier, then you know the pace might have probably got to been able to pick it up, or if these guys are probably hitting the way that they should, the pace could have put could have probably picked up. Um, at best, I could say maybe not necessarily charging your normal fee when your greens are under repair. Um, but I do also possibly understand the business side of it and the fact that you still need people to come out there so you can pay for the greens to be repaired. So, value-wise, I would still say it was an eight out of 10. I think I like I like the course layout a lot. There's a lot of hidden spots that you're not sure about. Um, a few blind shots, a lot of water, but like little ponds and small little pockets of water that you do want to stay away from. Um, but I did like the course, and I definitely would probably pay the same price to go out there again. All right, and our last uh notion is our fun factor. So at the end of the day, this is why we play golf, ladies and gentlemen. This is why, as weekend golfers, this is why we go out to go play golf. Um, and this was you know a fun time. I was on a beach trip with some friends, we got to spend some time, you know, we were talking about you know things that were going on, and that's really what makes you know weekend golf the special thing. And then we got paired with two guys that were really cool. Um, one guy, I believe his name was Eric. He was a uh he was on the LSU uh tennis team um at one point. He's living in the Charleston area, him and his friend. I've uh I forget his friend's name. If he's watching this, forgive me. Um, but you know, we're talking with a lot of what they're doing. Um what was even really cool is that uh obviously, like I mentioned earlier, you're trying to go out, have a good time with your friends, get some brewski's, enjoy yourself. The uh South Carolina rule is that, and it's probably across other places, but it's a little bit different in other places, I will say that. But the Pro Shop does not sell any alcoholic beverages until after 10. Legally, they are not able to do so. So luckily, these guys had some stuff that they had brought with them. They shared uh with us some kind of like white clawish type of drinks, but they weren't white claws, so but nonetheless, already making a bond, sharing over some drinks, having a good time, connecting, and then talking with a guy that's a scratch player, too, the tennis guy, Eric. He was he's like, we were like, hey, what do you shoot? He's like, uh, normally par. And we were like, It's about to go back. Alright, so we knew what we were getting into at this point, but at the end of the day, fun factor, I'd give it a 9.10. Um, being out there with a good friend of mine, making friends out of some new guys that we've never met that we may or may not ever see again, but having a good time for unfortunately five hours. Um still was a good time nonetheless. At a certain point, you know, your scorecard, it is what it is. Um, I will tell you guys honestly, you guys can follow me on 18 Birdies. I shot a 96, which is lower than what I normally has, which is lower than what I last shot as a hundred. I don't know what's going on, but we also are trying to figure out these new irons and hitting off the grass because our distances are all over the place. But different story for a different time. But question though, would I absolutely play this golf? Would I play this golf course again? Absolutely. Um, I definitely you know go back once the greens are fully recovered. Um, next time I'm in the Charleston area, um, I would definitely, you know, have Legends Oak uh golf course on my mind, on my forefront to say, hey, this is a good golf course that I know. Um so at the end of the day, Legends Oaks golf course, you guys are gonna get a 7.1 out of 10. Uh so overall, I think the course was really good, good fairways, solid value, a fun layout. Um, once the greens are taken care of, uh, I think that rating is going to shoot right up. The practice area still makes me a little bit nervous just because of some guys that may or may not be really like used to hitting and all those things, like just making sure I'm not getting a ball to my forehead as I walk up the 18th green. Um and then slower pace of play, this is something we've all talked about. I still believe that no on a weekend, your pace of play, your average time should be split by 12 minutes, not just 10 or 8. Um, nothing less than 10, 12 minutes, I think, should be the case where if I'm teeing off at 9, the next person's not teeing off until 9, 12, 9.13. And then go on in that type of concept. But needless to say, Legends of the golf course in Somerville, South Carolina, you guys get a 7.1 out of 10. So, but in all of that, and thinking about the round and thinking about the golf course in itself, and you know, obviously providing you guys with a review, it got me thinking that the house that we were staying on and on Seabrook Island was actually right on like right on the side of the second hole of one of the courses in Seabrook, like in the backyard, like I could walk down the patio the the porch or the patio area and walk on to the fairway of the second hole. And it got me thinking, like, you know, I spent $77 to play on a public golf course, had a pretty good day. It wasn't necessarily perfect by no means, but it made me ask, like, what exactly are we paying for when we play a public course versus if we paid a little bit of a different type of money and put and join a private club. So it's something that we were obviously the meat and potatoes were talking about today, so let's dive into it. First and foremost, why do we love public golf? Um first and foremost, I think public golf is the heartbeat of this game. Like you meet so many people, um, make so many different types of connections. If you go out as a two, uh as a two-group or one or a three, and you get paired with people, you have a way of connecting with people that you may not have never connected with on a daily basis. Um, like imagine you play at a golf course that's public, uh, or maybe semi-private, and you end up connecting with somebody who's a CEO or a general manager of something, and it's actually a field that you've been trying to get into. Just playing golf on a random end up being somebody you might need to be talking to, which I'd never consider. Sometimes we do get some bad randoms, I will say that. But you never know who you're playing golf with, and you never hold you never know who you might necessarily be speaking with. So I think public golf is the heartbeat of the game. Um that's honestly where a lot of us have learned how to play this game. You know, our you know, having our our dads, our uncles, or whoever taking us out to, you know, the public range or the public golf course and teaching us how to hit a golf ball, how to hold a golf club. Um, it's where we meet our friends for Saturday mornings or you know, having a good time, having coffee, having lunch, like all those good things. You know, we plan trips around it. We plan trips for you know golf to go play a public course, and it's like you know, one of the favorite things that we can do. And every weekend, what I like it also is that every weekend can be a different experience. Um but then there's a freedom also with public golf. I mean, you get to play a different course whenever you want. Like I could go play Sunset today, I can go play Charles T. Myers tomorrow, I can go play uh uh uh uh well Lark Haven's not here anymore, they close that course down, but I can go play Lakewood or this course or that course, whatever the case may be. There's a different challenge because this course has water, this course has a lot of bunkers, this course has uh is very open, this course is very tight. But like different things that happen on the public golf course, different memories that can happen on the golf course. And as somebody who now is played a lot of the golf courses in the Charlotte area, now and I'm shifting about to move to South Carolina, now I'm really interested to see what South Carolina have to offer. Um, especially in the Columbia area. So public public golf truly is the heartbeat to the game that we all love and why we play. Now, on the flip side, why do golfers you know, why do we dream necessarily? I because like I'm I can't speak from personal experience. I mean, I've played some private clubs, I've seen obviously some videos from you know like Mr. Short Game. I know he did a whole series on um like the private clubs and how much they cost and what all you get with it, which you know, shout out to him for you know getting us all into that experience. Uh maybe one day, you know, I'll be able to hit that echelon of YouTube golf and be able to, you know, show everybody and you know, you guys as weekend golfers, not followers, weekend golfers, um you know what those courses look like. But we all dream about, you know, hey, what would it be like to be and to like be a member of a private club? And you know, let's be honest, like private clubs are very attractive for a specific reason. The courses are usually, if not exponentially, better than what we usually see. Um you could probably imagine if like the golf course, I can tell you this, even the golf course at Legends Oak, their greens, even under repair, the parts that were not under repair look ten times better than the course I played in my recent video at Sunset Hills. It's a different type of, you know, like the situation that's going on. Legends Oaks is semi-private, but Sunset Hills is a very public city on golf course. So different type of conditions. Um your tea sheets usually are not packed. Um, I even on the app that we used at Stand at Seabrook, we're able to see um, because like if we wanted to book a golf club or book a bath club, if we wanted to book uh uh a tea time, you have to go through the listing and it actually tells you who's playing. Like it has a the first initial and the last name, and you know who's playing on the app. And it also will give you the times, but you can scroll through and see that like oh one, two, three, four, four, four, eight, four, like a whole bunch of times are open. The T sheets are not stacked for private clubs, which that could be a real good thing to know. But one thing that I also wanted to share is that with um, I don't know if this is for every you know, private club or anything like that, but specifically at Seabrook, um, like I mentioned earlier, it is member only. Um, like you have to like you you own a property on the island and a member of the Seabrook Club, member only for until one o'clock. So anything from like seven when the sun rises to one o'clock in the afternoon, you're not getting anybody who has not paid their money, paid their dues to be out on this golf course to play. And also, you have unlimited golf. That was that that that's the part that stuck to me a little bit too. That's why I asked the question at the beginning of the podcast with this. Unlimited golf. As a member on Seabrook Island, as a member of the Seabrook Club, you have access to unlimited golf however many times you want to play. You have access to unlimited golf. The only caveat is that you have Limited golf, but you do have to um I think you just have to do something for like if you want to hit the range just by itself. Like you just have to do something for that. But I have to pull the app up to read that. But nonetheless, unlimited golf. Um, the other thing with private clothes, you also get access to better uh practice facilities, like the the range. I didn't get to hit any golf balls on there because I didn't have time to, but looking at it, it was all grass, the grass looked really good, it looks taken care of. They had bunkers in the in the fair in the fairway portion, they had five different targets to go for at different distances, like not the biggest, the grandest of all, but we've all seen the driving range at Augusta, we've all seen the driving range at these golf courses that these PGA tour guys are playing. And my God, we don't never see nothing like that when we're you know at a public course, we're just getting open field, which we're still thankful for, but an open field, and it's just hit a ball, here's a stick at maybe 150, maybe at 155, depending upon how the wind's blowing. I don't know. Something weird about the public driving ranges. Um you have club tournaments, you know, there's a restaurant where everybody knows your name when you go in, like you say, hey Bill, hey, Tom, how's it going? Hey, uh Calvin, how John, how's it going? Like, there's a community that's already built within just because you joined a private club, because you're seeing the same people, you're playing golf of the same people, and again, there's a connection that probably happens that you may not necessarily know, but there's a giant sense of community with that. And maybe the the the biggest benefit that I believe from you know private clubs, you're more likely to finish your round in under four hours. Like that just that gave me chills just now. I'm not even gonna lie to you. You can finish your round look at look at I don't know if you can see you see the goosebumps? Y'all may not y'all see it. It gave me chills, actual chills. Got it again. You are more likely to finish your round in four hours. Here's the here's a thought. I want you to have this thought before we get before we move on. Here's a thought You can play golf at nine o'clock in the morning finish up by one and even choose to go back out there after having lunch, and you can play at three and play nine holes. Or if you play at seven in the morning, you can be done before noon and you can have lunch from twelve to like one thirty, whatever, and go back out and play at two o'clock tea time and still finish too. You play thirty-six holes in a day. Because you should be able to finish in under four to eight hours because it's not that backed up. I'm just saying that gave me channels, I enjoyed it. But that's the kind of comparison that I want us to see. Like, we know what happens on a public golf course, but those are the things that we dream of at a private club. So the question is which one is better? Meaning, which one is better for the weekend golfer that's going to get their best buck for their value? And so I honestly don't think there's a right answer. Because it's a it's a first of all, it's always an opinionated thought. And it's also my opinion that you guys are here and able to see. But I want to also make sure for one, you guys are commenting, you're you know, doing all those things necessary because I want to hear you guys' thoughts. But in comparison to a private club versus a public, of course, which one's better? I don't physically, I don't believe there's a right answer because it depends on the preference of that set person or that said golfer. If you're playing, you know, three or four times a week or every week, uh then you know, maybe a private private membership could make a lot of sense for you. Because then you have you know, you're paying, you know, obviously the fees and stuff. We all know that there's an annual fee, there's what all these other stuff to kind of join private clubs, we all know that. But if you have the funds to do it, or if you really play golf three to four times every week and you calculate how much it costs to play for you on these public courses every single time you go out over a time span of a year, if you touch in close to annual membership fees, you might want to do that, brother. You might want to do that. You might want to do that. Just saying. But a private membership could make a lot of sense. But if you're like the most of us working Monday through Friday, trying to get one, maybe two rounds on the weekend, then public golf is probably where we thrive at versus a private club. But also with public golf courses, you get a variety. Because I had this conversation with my dad at one point, and one of the things that he brought up was that he didn't necessarily want to join a private membership because then he's tied into that one golf course. Granted, yes, if you spend upwards to $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 for memory club memberships for and obviously if you got this kind of money, you can afford to do it. But if you're paying this kind of money, that's probably where I'm playing. Like I'm not playing Charles T. Myers or uh Sunset or uh um any of these public golf courses that are out here. If I'm got a membership at like Quill Hollow, I'm not going anywhere else because I got a membership at Quill Hollow, you're gonna see me at Quill Hollow. Like that's that's where I'm gonna be. So with public golf courses, there's a variety. And there's there's a difference, and like like even for myself, like one weekend I can be playing golf in Columbia. The next weekend I can be go playing golf at Myrtle Beach, take a two-hour drive from Columbia to go to Myrtle Beach. Um, next week I may discover a hidden gym that I never even heard of in Gastonia or something. Um, it just makes golf so much more fun when you have a variety of public golf courses, and you could still have a variety in in private golf clubs. Typically, you'd end up seeing the same person at the private club and they're not going anywhere else. However, Seabrook, the island of Seabrook, has two golf courses. If you move just right on the other side, 15 minutes on the other side to the different island at Kiawa, Kia Island has three. So there is a potential of variety, and you could be really good at said golf course if you play three. Also, you're probably getting invitations to other play other courses to go play. Hey, we got this tournament at Cebro, hey, we got this tournament over at Koh Hollow, we got this tournament here. But there's still a variety in public golf and private golf courses as well. So I'm just saying, I don't think there's a right answer to which one is better. I do think there is a personal preference, and there are there there is also different opportunities that you are getting versus with a public golf course, and there's different opportunities that you get with the private club. So my two cents. Alright, so even with that, so we've we've kind of we've talked about we've talked about you know private versus public and you know what the difference is, what may be the best thing or the best option for you. I definitely still want to know um what you guys think. Do you feel like a private club is better or a public course or public you know, freedom of public courses is better? Um, I would personally let you know that if an opportunity presented itself for me to be able to play or to be a member of a private club, I would probably do that in the sense that if it's going to benefit my entire family. Um, my wife loves tennis. She played tennis in high school, a little bit in college, and she she loves that. So if she could get connected in a golf in a tennis community while I'm connecting with a golf community, and the kids are connecting to something else, like that would be worth an investment for me. Like if we're if we're doing that. Um also, even just the concept of like having the the privacy and the exclusivity that you would have as a private club member of being able to put yourself in on hey, I'm gonna play at one o'clock tomorrow, or I'm gonna do this, or I'm gonna have unlimited golf. Like, I would be fine playing the same golf course unlimited all the time because if I still wanted to go play a private course or a public course, I can go pay the money and do it. Because hopefully I have the funds and the anonymous money to be able to afford a different type of lifestyle playing a private course and going to a public one. So I think that there's a best of both worlds and all of that. But I want to give you guys what I would call the weekend golfer value check. So what I wanted to basically say is what is the best value for the everyday golfer? Let me know. Um today's question for this specific value check, someone gives you $10,000 that can only be spent on golf. And this is a the a thought you know to have for yourself, because but if you want to leave it, leave it in the comments below for sure. But today's question for the value check. Someone gives you $10,000 that you can only spend on golf, here are your options that you have to choose from. You could join a private club, you could play golf all year long, uh, you can option C take two unforgettable golf trips in that year, or you know, whatever you decide in two years, however, ten thousand dollars. Two unforgettable golf trips. I mean, like you go to Hawaii, you go somewhere crazy. $10,000. Or the last option, you buy new clubs, take lessons, and you still have money left to play public golf. So $10,000, somebody slides right over to you, gives you a check, says you can only spend this on golf. Are you playing, are you joining a private club? Are you playing public golf for all year long? Is that your new golf budget? Um, are you taking two unforgettable golf trips, or are you buying new clubs, taking lessons, and still having some money left over to play a public course? Let me know in the comments below. I will gladly tell you that since I've kind of done option D uh or number four, uh, because I just recently bought almost everything, a new brand new bag. Um, I still would probably take that one, you know, getting some good quality lessons and still have money for some public golf. Um, private golf, some private golf clubs, you're not paying $10,000 ain't cutting it. Um I will say that $10,000 ain't gonna cut it. Um But I think maybe two unforgettable golf trips will be good. Um I think if you budget that out pretty well, two unforgettable golf trips will probably be my my first choice. So, but let me know. I want to know what you guys want to decide. Would you choose A, B, C, or D, and whatever option, let me know in the comments below. All right. Getting towards the end of our podcast, I do want to give you guys a little what I would call probably a swing confession. And I'll admit, every time I have ever driven through or driven past a private golf club or a private golf course, uh, I kind of picture myself being a member. Um, I do want to be extremely honest in the notion of that um when it comes to golf, the game of golf, especially in a private setting, it is not necessarily impossible, but in the few times that I have been out in a very in a golf course that is maybe necessarily private or anything like that, there is not a lot of people that look like me on the golf course. And I don't say that to push any shade whatsoever, but I do want to just say it in the sense that I want to make sure that other people are seeing some of the things that I see and some of the things that I think of as a obviously African-American black man in America. Um, but I don't think that there's anything that I feel that is limiting us from getting to that. Um, that's the other encouraging thing I want to say, because the fact that I don't see it doesn't mean that I'm missing it or the fact that there's something preventing it. The fact that I'm just saying is that I do believe and I do hopefully one day want to see where a lot of people that are of my same skin tone, if not a little bit darker, whatever the case may be, brown, whatever, Asian, no matter what. There's a diversity that you're able to see at a private club, at a private course, the same way you see it on a public golf course. Because I definitely drive past, you know, Kabaras County Country Club, or in this case, you know, Seabrook Island, and you know, see myself, you know, hey, this would be really cool to have access to unlimited golf, but also access to this club, access to the people that are here, seeing who is doing what, how people are moving, how people are changing and shifting. What does this person do? What does this person do? Like I see myself eventually getting to that place because I love being able to connect with people and have a great culture and create conversations in a culture base of just golf. So I definitely picture myself at some point being a member of a private club one day. And then I remember, you know, like I'd probably still be driving somewhere else the next weekend going to play a public golf course just because there's a different type of community that you're able to connect with. I think that's just probably the weekend golfer in me. But I do I do want to make sure that there's a there's a full diversity that we're able to see because we all know for one, historically golf has been um like I I've heard the term golf as a white man's game. Uh it has been. I do want to say it has been, but I don't believe that it is now because I see way more and more people playing golf. Um, granted, the private clubs are a little bit more different in their capacities, but it's not to say that we're not seeing diverse diversity on a private club because I don't have access to one necessarily. It doesn't mean it's not there. So I do believe, though, that I want to see as weekend golfers that we're seeing a diversity across all regions of golf, whether it's YouTube, golf, private clubs, public golf courses, uh um, hitting you know, golf simulator businesses, whatever the case may be, like we're seeing that golf is just golf. It has nothing to do with the color of your skin. It has all to do with the community, the connection, and the full beauty of the game that it is. And so before we you know we wrap up this whole thing, we're gonna head to the 19th hole here. And the week's question for the 19th hole for this week on this podcast, um, is what's one public golf course that every weekend golfer should play at least once? Um, whether if you're in the Charlotte area, I can definitely let you know, but if it it doesn't matter what area that you're in, what's one public golf course that every single weekend golfer should at least play once? Um leave your answers in the comments below. Um, it might get featured in your recommendation. You might see me on that course checking it out and letting everybody know if you're if you what you said is legit. You know what I'm saying? So, all right. So, all in all, I don't think that this debate is really about you know private clubs versus public golf courses. I do think though it is really about finding the best golf experience that fits your life. Um, some golfers, you know, we love a home course. We'd love to be able to say, hey, that's where I go, that's where I play. You'll always find me out there if I'm playing golf. Others, you know, we might want to explore. We want to see what the world has. You know, the world is our oyster, which I like grilled. I don't like raw oysters. I haven't tried that yet. I just got to the new oyster game, different sort for different day. Nonetheless, neither answer is wrong versus a public nor private club. It's just a matter of what fits you. So uh it's all really at the end of the day. It's about making memories, it's about you know enjoying the game that it is and you know just getting out with your friends and having a good time. Um, if you're doing that, you're doing golf the right way. So, I want to thank you guys first and foremost for spending your day with me as weekend golfers. I appreciate you guys so much for the support. Continue to do so. If you've enjoyed today's episode, make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel. It's gonna pop up just as a reminder that you can like. You can also comment if you want. I've challenged you multiple times to comment. If you haven't commented already, you need to do so because you're missing out because you're not being a fun person. But also, if you comment, you might get a giveaway because we have a few to do right now. So, um, but make sure you subscribe here on YouTube, uh, follow the weekend golfer myself on TikTok or on Instagram. If you happen to be one of the OG golfers and you're on Facebook, make sure you join the Weekend Golfer Clubhouse. It is a group, about 50 members strong right now, where we just get together, a lot of different conversations, suggestions about hey, where should I play here? What courses do you know in this area? I'm new in the area. What do you know here? It's almost like the 19th hole where people can just kind of come together, talk about what they've experienced, what they've seen, what's going on. So until next time, work all week, golf all weekend, and we'll see you guys on the first team.