How much does golf cost?

The short answer

Golf is listed here at under $50 to start and $10k–50k to go deep. Both are true. A bucket of balls at a driving range costs less than a meal out, and you can hit with borrowed or rented clubs. The upper figure is a serious first year at a private club, where the membership is most of the bill.

Between the two there is a lot of room. Plenty of people play public courses for years and never get near the upper range.

The first few times

Start at a driving range. A bucket of balls is usually $10–20 in the US, and most ranges lend or rent a club or two. Go two or three times before you spend anything else.

A lesson early on saves a lot of bad habits. Group clinics at public courses often cost $25–50 a person; a private lesson with a teaching pro is more like $60–150 an hour.

Your first clubs

You do not need a full set. A 7-iron, a wedge, a putter and a hybrid or fairway wood will get you round a course. A used starter set is usually $150–400, and a new boxed beginner set a little more. Custom-fitted clubs at $1,500 or more can wait until your swing is consistent enough to be measured.

Buy cheap balls. Beginners lose a lot of them.

Playing on courses

Par-3 and nine-hole courses are the cheapest way onto real grass. For a full 18 holes, a municipal course in the US is often $25–60, a daily-fee course $50–120, and resort courses $200 or more. Twilight rates late in the day are usually much cheaper.

If you play every weekend, multiply your usual green fee by fifty. That figure is what you compare a membership against.

Golf trips that are good value

Golf travel is where a modest budget goes furthest. Some places that golfers return to:

• Scotland, where golf began. Famous links courses are expensive, but hundreds of local courses charge modest green fees, and the Old Course at St Andrews is a public course that anyone can enter the daily ballot for.
• Portugal's Algarve and Spain's Costa del Sol, with dozens of courses close together and golf in winter.
• Thailand and Vietnam, where green fees are often low by Western standards and a caddie comes with every round. Hua Hin and Chiang Mai in Thailand are popular bases.
• Belek in Turkey, with resort courses and package deals in spring and autumn.

In hot countries, book early tee times. Courses get very hot by midday.

Where the big money is

Joining a private club is the step into the top range. There is usually an initiation fee, sometimes several thousand dollars or much more, plus monthly dues and often a minimum spend at the restaurant. On top come better clubs, lessons and golf trips.

Many people get most of what they want from a public course season pass or a cheaper semi-private membership. Look at those before a private club.