Affordable Golf! Who does not want golf to be affordable. However I fear we again seem to miss the underlying theme that to make golf affordable in the first place we must site our courses on locations that are friendly to the game. By doing so we at a stroke greatly reduce the greatest cost to the game (that is after the building of the course) which is the on-going maintenance required to maintain the course in an acceptable state.
Acceptable state does not mean super manicured courses with the grass combed to perfection, but more aligned to Nature and the natural rather than Manmade. To achieve affordable Golf we must accept that courses cannot be built in certain areas, well not without compromises, which calls into question, will the end result still allow the golfer to play golf or having to resort to major assistance just to get around the course.
The problem in my eyes being what is affordable golf, my opinion means cheap to fair Green Fees, a real balance re value for money encouraging my return to re take the course’s challenges time after time. It has zero to do with cost of clubs, equipment, clothing, carts, trolleys, travel etc., nor the cost of a pint in the club bar afterward, all that is my choice and subject to my tastes having little to do with anything apart my ability to pay. A shirt is a shirt yet some love their designer label yet it performs the same function as any shirt, perhaps it’s just all down to the vanity of man and certainly women.
So IMHO until we accept that golf has limitations in the selection of sites, nevertheless affordable golf can be found on many of Scotland out of the way courses. But then again what is affordable golf? Surely we must start with the game itself and where it is being played.
Melvyn