This article is about the cost of golf in Arizona, presented by azgolfpass.com
This question may very much depend on where you live and how much you play. Many cities and towns have only expensive golf memberships or none at all. If you live where there are a lot of golf courses, it’s likely that you will have many options, including the purchase of a Discount Golf Card, such as the Southwest PGA Card.
Private Golf Club Membership
These types of memberships are often expensive to purchase and to maintain. Many clubs will require an “initiation fee”, which can be owned (equity ownership) and hold value, or not owned (non-equity) and are non-refundable. Let’s say that you find a private club to join. It will likely have one of the aforementioned initiation fees (typically $5,000 to $100,000). Additionally, most clubs will have a monthly charge that you must spend, say about $350 to $700 per month. This may be simply a fee, or applied to food, apparel or other purchases, and every club applies this in their own way. They may also charge for cart use.
Having a private golf club membership can be prestigious and have benefits such as: social events, tennis membership, spa use, exercise room, or any number of other benefits the club can offer. All of these are for you and your family’s enjoyment, but they are not for individuals or families who are on a budget and want to save their nickels.
Public or Semi-private Golf Club Membership
These types of memberships are sometimes referred to as “annual golf passes”. There may also be “seasonal passes” available, especially in regions of the country where there are a lot of seasonal visitors, such as Scottsdale, Arizona during the winter months. Here, we will discuss only annual passes, or memberships.
An annual golf pass will have no initiation fee attached to it, and will almost never have monthly purchase requirements. On the other hand, there will be less in the way of social events and other amenities offered to the member.
The annual pass is a great way to decrease the per-round cost of golf, especially if you are an avid golfer. Let’s say that you play two to three times a week on average, which might be 130 times a year. The annual golf pass for a single person is typically $2000 - $3000, so let’s assume about $2500 average. Your rate per round would be $19.23 under this scenario (yes, many of you play a lot more, so you’ll save a lot more!). Compare this to the year-round cost-per-round average of about $50 in the Phoenix area, and there is substantial savings. In the winter, the Phoenix area golf courses can run $79 - $250 per round.
Discount Golf Cards
There are a number of discount golf cards offered for sale in the Phoenix area, including the SWPGA Card ($125), the Eagle Card ($99), the Premium Phoenix Card ($50), the Gold Card ($129), and the Troon Card ($250). Each of these cards gives you a discount of between 20% and 50% at certain golf courses. The SWPGA Card covers most of the courses in the Metro Phoenix area, and the Phoenix card covers only the Phoenix municipal courses. The other cards cover courses that are managed or owned by the card issuer. This may be the way to go for individuals who do not play frequently, but like to get out once a week or so.
Discount Tee Times
There are tee times available online through many sources, including AZGolfPass. You can save typically about $20% - 50% by booking online, but might find up to 70% savings on some tee times. Expect that there may be an additional booking fee for booking online, for $1.00 to $3.00 per booking.
