Mac Plumart, I think I like your line of thought best. And, I have to come to the conclusion of no wonder our economic environment is so completely out of whack when people are making hypothetical propositions to even consider a discussion of contemplating what they'd pay twice the current market rate. Isn't this why we have bubbles in various sectors of the economy.
Who do we think we are as a bunch of golfers who just happen to have a fancy or taste for our version of good architecture (an elusive and intangible subject for sure) to be contemplating what we would volunteer to pay double for? That is nuts! I may have not been the greatest labor contract negotiator in my time, but I certainly recognized the concept of bargaining against one's self. We are consumers. We buy things presumably within a market and how dumb is it for some fringe group tospeculate to arbitrarily and voluntarily drive up prices based on some aesthetic and subjective notion of what we would pay double the already established market for as golf course architecture.
And, to say for instance, that one would pay double to play a place like Lawsonia is doubly ignorant, because one ought to at least consider that what you are paying already makes a profit. Profit is hunky dory. But, do you think that Lawsonia would have held the line at the prices they did if they couldn't run at a profit. Same for Wild Horse and all the other so-called 'value' courses that people are somehow thinking they can bid up due to their own desire to demonstrate they have GCA accumen to define what they "think" is undervalued, and others just cherish because it is one of life's few good bargains.
I say, which courses of great cost now, would you maybe consider paying at half the price. I'll tell you what. In this cat's world, it sure ain't Pebble Beach, Shadow Creek, That course in Oz, or any course for that matter that would appear to be dozens of times more than what it costs to offer said course based on cost to operate it.
Private clubs cost of initiation and dues addresses a different notion in my mind. If you can afford the freight at a private club, have at it. You buy into a private club for many other reasons than price. But, I think most people well off enough and sharp enough to have arrived at the stage of joining a private club at whatever price that seems much more than price per round, are still not going to entertain the silly notion of if they love ithe GCA so much they'd pay twice the price!!!
This bubble topic just popped in my head!
