I have been seriously considering a trip to OZ

[Sean_A]

and New Zealand.  After seeing photos of Cape Kidnappers I checked out the site.  The price these folks are asking to play a game is astonishing.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 quid!  Can this be right or are my maths wrong?  I was lead to believe that golf is cheap in that part of the world.  What can I expect to pay for Barnbougle?  Strangely they don't seem to list prices on their site.  How bout Royal Melbourne etc.?

Ciao

Sean

[cary lichtenstein]

Suggest you phone them direct

[Sean Walsh]

Sean,

Come on down we'd be glad to have you.  

Re the prices Barnbougle is around $100AUD = 40-50GBP plus cheaper for a second round.  

Royal Melbourne is just about the exception re price.  I'm not sure the price for o/s visitors but it would probably be $250AUD = 100GBP.  In general our best will be cheaper by a fair margin than your best. Others on here are better placed to advise you on the costs on the sandbelt.

e.g Barwon Heads approx $65AUD
     Kennedy Bay $50AUD

Drop me a line if dream becomes reality.

[Tyler Kearns]

Sean,

I am in the initial stages of planning a trip to Australia/New Zealand this upcoming winter, and I'll agree, the price of golf is not cheap. Cape Kidnappers is NZ $225, Kauri Cliffs NZ $400 and Paraparaumu Beach a much more resonable NZ $90. Things are a little cheaper if you decide to travel during the off-season.

TK

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

I paid $400 at Cape Kidnappers, so there prices must have gone down.

Golf in Australia is cheap, relatively, but all of the great courses are above $250 AUD and RM is $325.

[tonyt]

A wealth of excellent courses can be had for less than $A50.

In New Zealand, many of the prime tourist courses charge astronomical fees for non NZ registered players.

In Australia, these high fees are for the highest end private clubs. So when you pay north of $200 for a Royal Melbourne or Kingston Heath, remember you are doing the equivalent of me heading over to the US and paying same as a welcome unaccompanied visitor to Pine Valley or Cypress Point!

New South Wales Golf Club is around $A130ish.

In the main, we Aussies can play at some very good courses for $A15-40, but for an infrequent short stay visitor, these are the courses that won't make up part of a trip. If you did a little traveling around and sightseeing as part of such holiday, then maybe a $25 Port Fairy type game could be included, in the same vein as some of the ripper cheap and unsung good courses around the UK.

[Ben Cowan-Dewar]

Tony,
I am not arguing the relative value of Australia golf, but for overseas visitors, it has gotten more expensive.
NSW is $250 AUD now, as is KH. Victoria and Royal Adelaide are both $200 or more.

It has certainly gone up in the last couple of years, though I still think it is a relative steal.

[Sean Walsh]

Tony,

You're up early.  I'm working what's your excuse  

[Chris Kane]

Tony, there's no point travelling across the world to Australia unless you play the best courses.  And unfortunately, for the most part, the best courses are the ones which charge highly for unaccompanied guests.

Sean, I'll second what Sean Walsh said - we'd be glad to have you.  I'd be happy to tee up a few games for you on the sandbelt (including my home club Commonwealth), send me a private message.  

[tonyt]

Tony,
I am not arguing the relative value of Australia golf, but for overseas visitors, it has gotten more expensive.
NSW is $250 AUD now, as is KH. Victoria and Royal Adelaide are both $200 or more.

It has certainly gone up in the last couple of years, though I still think it is a relative steal.

NSW is under $150. At least it was on Thursday, and this wasn't predicated on where the visitor was from.

I'm not arguing they haven't gone up big time. I'm reminding people that these higher fees are usually for the type of courses that in the US, nobody can go and play without being hosted. So I think it is unfair to compare. If Cypress, Seminole, Shinnecock and the like let me ring the pro shop right now and book a time without any affiliation to any club or person and I merely needed to show up correctly dressed with cash in hand, the comparison would be fair.

Chris,

Some visitors have amongst their itinery a day in areas well away from the great courses, and are still open minded about a game on those days.

I wasn't encouraging play outside the premiums at the expense of premiums. Just pointing out that like some other recent visitors on similar missions, some sightseeing has been had away from these central zones. One guy wanted a three day plan between Melbourne and Adelaide. So I sent him to Port Fairy for golf and Coonawarra for wine.

Sean,

Same  

[Mike_Clayton]

Sean,

The cottages at Barnbougle are 300 yards from the clubhouse and 400 from a 5 mile long, esentially private beach only accessed from the course.

Most clubs are expensive if you turn up unaccompanied but if you play with a member most green-fees are around $60 Australian dollars.

March-April is the perfect time to visit.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Michael - practice up, we're coming to get you in Feb - just ask J. McC!  

JC

[Tyler Kearns]

Golf in Australia is cheap, relatively, but all of the great courses are above $250 AUD and RM is $325.

Doh! But what are you going to do. It is very generous that these private clubs open their doors to unaccompanied guest play.

TK

[Mark_F]

Sean,

Green fees have gotten very expensive because of the amount, and size, of the spiders in the clubhouses.  

Men brave enough and dangerous enough to venture into the dark corners these loathsome creatures inhabit are rarer than plumbers than turn up on time, and can thus charge whatever they want.

[Shane Gurnett]

Not to mention the snakes. Big ones - everywhere.

[Big Pete]

Green fees at Barnbougle are still $80 aus . The seaview cottages on the links are priced from $40 per head depending on configuration . The Barnbougle bus from Launceston Airport starts next month and will probably cost about $33 , and air fares from Melbourne to Launceston on Jetstar or Virgin start from $49 . If that's not economical I don't know what is!

[Voytek Wilczak]

I didn't know there were so many Aussies in OZ.  The word over here is that OZ is full of Kiwis.

Ciao

Sean

I thought Oz stands for Australia. There should be many Aussies there

Sounds like a nice trip - my friends are currently in Oz and I am dying of envy.

[James Bennett]

Sean

I expect the Beach at Barnbougle would be fine for a person living in England.  The water temperature will be fresh and bracing, compared to beaches on the east coast (Sydney and north to Brisbane).  We have had people come here from Englans for work, and they have gone swimming in winter often, despite what we perceive as 'fresh' temperatures.

If you choose to visit, and make it to Adelaide, please IM me.  Of course, the co-sanctioned event between the US Natiowide-Tour and the Australian Tour is on at Royal Adelaide in late February.

Peter Wood is right - if you know how, there are some very cheap flights about to get across to Barnbougle - similar to the way your Ryanair and EasiJet work.

The suggestion for March visits is also excellent - we call it 'Indian Summer' - temperature in the mid 20's, fine and sunny.  Ideal for 'firm and 'fast' as the potential for severe heat sterss on the turf has gone, and many fairways are having irrigation reduced in preparation for the winter rains.

James B

[Tom_Doak]

Sean:

The green fees on the top Australian courses all shot up dramatically after the President's Cup at Royal Melbourne, when the clubs suddenly realized that visiting Americans would pay top-dollar US prices to play one of the great courses of the world.

It's the same thing that the London clubs and the Scottish and Irish clubs have done [or that any professional athlete does] ... they take the money because people will pay it.

The green fees at Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs are a bit of a different story.  They cost a lot to build, and they only play 5,000 to 10,000 rounds per year, so they have to charge high green fees if they want to make their money back.

Barnbougle discussed charging higher green fees to international visitors, but I don't know if they have ever implemented that policy.  Certainly, Americans would pay more than US$60 to play there ... but on a public course and not a members' club, I'm not sure how you can charge some visitors way more than the majority.