What courses would you pay $1000 to play?

[Gib_Papazian]

At one point - like before the imbeciles who run our country poured trillions of fiat money into the economy - the idea of a 1K green fee would have seemed insane.

I got news for you: Shadow Creek already broke the hymen on that screwing - and after paying your caddy, Pebble will already cost you eight Franklins, not counting your Tap Room tab.

Pebble will follow suit and charge 1K within a year, mark me well.

Trying to tweeze out travel expenses from green/caddy fees ignores the fact nothing happens in a vacuum. Do we simply flip open our communicator and have Scotty beam us to Augusta?

In that case, I'll cough up 10 C-notes to play it once, but unless I'm staying at the club, Scotty can beam me back on the 18th green because Augusta itself is a steaming pile of shiite.

Since I've accumulated enough air and hotel points to travel and play at Red Planet CC on Mars, as a total expenditure, $1,000 to play the Composite Course at RM would actually be a relatively cheap deal . . . . putting aside that would never happen as long as my good friend Clinton Russell was breathing.

Distance is not an issue in this fantasyland (assuming I can actually take time away from the avalanche of non-discretionary responsibilities), so I would also gladly cough up $1,000 to play Hirono . . . . .

But putting all that aside, I would pay $5,000 to play Poplar Creek Muni with Goodale, Sir Bob, McBride and Tiger Bernhardt. I would also use the time machine to go back and warn myself not to marry my ex-wife. ;-) 


oops, Kalen beat me to it on Shadow Creek . . . .       

[Michael Whitaker]

Bit of a loaded question.

On the public side?  Can't think of one.  On the private side however....

Show me someone who says he wouldn't pay $1000 to play ANGC... and I'll show you a liar!     (With a few notable exceptions of those who have access otherwise)

Well.. call me a liar. No way I would ever pay $1000 to play any course, anywhere. I start choking around $200.

[John Kavanaugh]

Rateritis

[Kalen Braley]

Bit of a loaded question.

On the public side?  Can't think of one.  On the private side however....

Show me someone who says he wouldn't pay $1000 to play ANGC... and I'll show you a liar!     (With a few notable exceptions of those who have access otherwise)

Well.. call me a liar. No way I would ever pay $1000 to play any course, anywhere. I start choking around $200.

Michael,

Thanks for outing yourself, I appreciate the honesty.     

As Barney alluded to, this question is a bit like the "what would you refuse to do, even for 10 million dollars".  People throw down absolutes for stuff they would never consider, but its all make believe because the cash isn't sitting right in front of you.  Safe to say if you had the ANGC invite in hand and all they were asking is a few digits be transferred on your Venmo account, well of course you would do it, especially at the bargain price of $1000!

P.S.  I think Gib's comment concerning one last round with some ex members is more interesting.  What is the most you would spend on a golf experience?

[Mike Hendren]

Gyro, Augusta a "steaming pile...?"   Perhaps the greatest example of hyperbole in the history of this website.  I call BS.  In my book it's as good as any golf course in the world.  Not hyperbole.


Come on man.


Bogey

[John Kavanaugh]

I’d pay $1,000 for the right to ban people from playing top 100 courses.

[Gib_Papazian]

Barny,


Since quatloos are meaningless to those of the manor born, you can sport a couple groups of the less economically fortunate here in the Treehouse - noblesse oblige and all that.


I still cannot figure out why you hate raters . . . . . unless your assignments are within comfortable driving distance, the travel expenses outweigh whatever was saved in green fees - and I've rarely left a course Whitten sent me to without passing out tips like a drunken sailor.   


 

[Gib_Papazian]

Bogey,


The CITY of Augusta *is* a steaming pile of shiite. Dirty, poorly run, charmless and scary as the wrong end of Philly on a humid Saturday night.


However, Augusta CC is a treat, so I'll edit my remark and stay another night to play with Mike Young. 

[John Kavanaugh]

I don’t hate raters. I hate transactional relationships.

[Rick Sides]

I have been in the wrong end of Philly on a night or two!!

[Michael Whitaker]

Bit of a loaded question.

On the public side?  Can't think of one.  On the private side however....

Show me someone who says he wouldn't pay $1000 to play ANGC... and I'll show you a liar!     (With a few notable exceptions of those who have access otherwise)

Well.. call me a liar. No way I would ever pay $1000 to play any course, anywhere. I start choking around $200.

Michael,

Thanks for outing yourself, I appreciate the honesty.     

As Barney alluded to, this question is a bit like the "what would you refuse to do, even for 10 million dollars".  People throw down absolutes for stuff they would never consider, but its all make believe because the cash isn't sitting right in front of you.  Safe to say if you had the ANGC invite in hand and all they were asking is a few digits be transferred on your Venmo account, well of course you would do it, especially at the bargain price of $1000!

P.S.  I think Gib's comment concerning one last round with some ex members is more interesting.  What is the most you would spend on a golf experience?

Kalen - I can honestly say that there isn't a golf course anywhere in the world that holds that kind of attraction for me anymore. To be fair, I've been very fortunate to visit most of the great courses of the world and I've enjoyed the adventure. But, I've come to appreciate that WHO you spend time with is much more important than where. There are a few people I would spend thousands for the chance to spend another day with (Bill McBride & Peter Mallalieu to name two). And, there are a couple of people that I would spend money to NOT have to spend another day with... but, a golf course no longer carries that kind of weight with me. I'm still fascinated with course design and the history of golf but, while I can very much afford it, shelling out buckets of money to play some course is not going to happen.

[John Kavanaugh]

Bit of a loaded question.

On the public side?  Can't think of one.  On the private side however....

Show me someone who says he wouldn't pay $1000 to play ANGC... and I'll show you a liar!     (With a few notable exceptions of those who have access otherwise)

Well.. call me a liar. No way I would ever pay $1000 to play any course, anywhere. I start choking around $200.

Michael,

Thanks for outing yourself, I appreciate the honesty.     

As Barney alluded to, this question is a bit like the "what would you refuse to do, even for 10 million dollars".  People throw down absolutes for stuff they would never consider, but its all make believe because the cash isn't sitting right in front of you.  Safe to say if you had the ANGC invite in hand and all they were asking is a few digits be transferred on your Venmo account, well of course you would do it, especially at the bargain price of $1000!

P.S.  I think Gib's comment concerning one last round with some ex members is more interesting.  What is the most you would spend on a golf experience?

And, there are a couple of people that I would spend money to NOT have to spend another day with...

I knew I wasn’t alone. Not yet anyways.

[MCirba]

There is no wrong end of Philly.


Unless you're wearing a Cowboys jersey in which case you had it coming.

[Terry Lavin]

I’d pay $1,000 for the right to ban people from playing top 100 courses.

I’ll cover half of that.

[Ian Mackenzie]

Bicker over the details, ok...


I'd pay $1,000 to play: Morfontaine on an early September morning followed by lunch on their terrace.


Then I'd beg for a replay...

[Sean_A]

There is no wrong end of Philly.


Unless you're wearing a Cowboys jersey in which case you had it coming.

Rose tinted glasses

Ciao

[Kalen Braley]

There is no wrong end of Philly.

Unless you're wearing a Cowboys jersey in which case you had it coming.

Rose tinted glasses

Ciao

My wife has travelled all over the US with her job over the last decade or so.  Philly is certainly in her top 3 of "will be happy if she never has to go back".  And that's saying something because she and I both worked in Oakland, CA for years and she's fine going there.

But Mike C, I appreciate that you fully embrace that Philly grit...  

[Sven Nilsen]

There is no wrong end of Philly.


Unless you're wearing a Cowboys jersey in which case you had it coming.

Rose tinted glasses

Ciao

Its not like its Detroit.   

[Sean_A]

There is no wrong end of Philly.


Unless you're wearing a Cowboys jersey in which case you had it coming.

Rose tinted glasses

Ciao

Its not like its Detroit.   

Thats true. Sports fans in Detroit are good folks. 😎

Ciao

[Tim Leahy]

I'd pay $2000 to play Augusta National or Cypress Point.
$1000 for Pine Valley, SFCC or The Institute.
The Institute only because I would be one of the only golfers on this site to have played there.
Even though I have played Pebble four times, the first time was in 1978 for $40 with a cart, I will probably have to pay gladly $1000 for my next round there keeping up my gift to myself every ten years or so. That means saving $100 a year which doesn't seem like much.

[David Ober]

Green fees.


 Golf trips have many expenses. Travel and accommodations. Which can be costly. So getting to some of the top courses require a great expense.


 But how many courses would you pay $1000 to golf?

Augusta in Masters shape.


Pine Valley in Crump Cup shape.


That's probably it.

[Joe_Tucholski]

As stated on the other thread with a similar theme, I'm unlikely to pay more than $250 to play a single round of golf and there definitely isn't a course I'd pay $1000 for.  My perspective is I can make lifetime memories on golf courses that cost much less.  I can play high quality courses that cost much less.


I see little value in goods that have an exponential increase in price but fail to provide significant improvement in the actual item.  Right after college I tried to play courses on the various lists.  I quickly learned the cost didn't really have a strong relationship to the quality of the golf (hosting a PGA tour event certainly increases the price).


Personally, I'm uncomfortable with fake scarcity and extreme levels of exclusivity that luxury goods utilize to elevate prices.

[Jerry Kluger]

You can get to see courses like ANGC up close and same with others like Pebble and even Pine Valley at the Crump Cup but the one I really want to see is Cypress Point - so many people have said what a masterpiece it is and the only way I could see it would be to play it which may happen some day and if it costs $1,000 so what.  At this point in my life I have come to realize that as you get older and you realize what you might have missed and what you might be able to see or do the money no longer is that important.

[mike_beene]

It depends upon whether some portion is going to what seems a good cause.Royal Melbourne would be worth paying more. And Merion is the other course that haunts me not to have played. Travel is tough on me. I play those two for 5k each and spend my remaining days at home or a few regular places that feel like home.

[Mark Molyneux]

I'd pay $1000 Augusta National and/or Cypress.


Let me put it this way, I've already played Pine Valley, which, had I not, might have been a third candidate and I played the Old Course at St. Andrews.


I played St. Andrews in April 2020 after the tour operator told me that they could "guarantee a tee time" for $1000 and I turned them down. When I got to town, I played Kingsbarns on Sunday, where I met a kid from Notre Dame and he asked if I intended to play the Old Course. I said I had my fingers crossed for the ballot. He responded by telling me that he got on by being the first person outside registration at 3 A.M. I resolved to be there at 2 A.M. on Monday morning. Did it... and I was first. They had 29 open tee times that day and I picked something around 11 o'clock.


So, let's recount. I wouldn't pay the tour operators $1000 for a guaranteed round. I played for somewhere around $300 including the cost of John, my caddie and range balls. I had to be in my B&B in St. Andrews, maybe a 3 wood from the R&A. I had to waken around 1:15 A.M. to get there by 2 A.M. I had to wait 4 hours for the shop to open. During that time, I reread Spirit of St. Andrews and talked with 4 loud guys from Texas, who were numbers 3-6. Number 2 was a gentleman from China but I speak neither Cantonese nor Mandarin. When registration opened at 6 A.M. I signed then went home to try to sleep. Around 4:30 I took a picture of the moon over the clubhouse on Links street then I turned and took a picture of the sun rising out of the sea behind the Martyrs' Monument. Did I pay a grand? No. Would it have been worth a grand? Maybe but I'd have been resentful.