MPlefty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 30, 2013
- Messages
- 17,428
- Reaction score
- 28
- Location
- Montreal, Quebec, Canada
- Handicap
- 12.8
So there is outcry here locally because our city owned course is doing discounted green fees until May 30th. For $32.00 you can play 18 holes with an included cart. A great number, when you consider this course had been under water/flooded/destroyed with 2 seasons of no play, and they are trying to draw people back.
Other local courses, are complaining publicly (in the newspaper and social media), that the city owned course is endangering the viability of privately owned courses with it's low green fees. They argue that other courses will suffer due to having higher rates. For example, one local 9 hole course charges $20 for 9 holes, $28 for 18, and then another $15 for cart. Other courses are usually in the $30 range for green fees plus the cost of a cart. But these fees keep increasing every year.
I can see both sides of the issue, with the city course needing to draw customers, and with the private courses being worried they will lose groupings. As a golfer though, $32 all in for golf is a killer deal here, and has a lot of us excited to play. Even after the "early season discount is removed" I would be paying $22.50 per 18 plus cart (regular price I believe is $28).
I see it more as a win-win. I can play a great course for 1.5 months at a super low cost. After that, I can get out to other courses in the area with more available tee times because the city course is functional, leaving more available tee times because there is then an additional course that will vie for a person's golf dollar. Yes competition might hurt your business, but it might also make golf more accessible to others and grow the sport, and in turn maybe there will be more people who want to support golf here locally.
they way I see it, the private courses do not understand how commerce work. early season deals are common, as the courses are not in their optimal conditions yet.
they should should do one of threee things: 1- offer competitive pricings, 2- offer a better product or 3- shut their pie holes.