I realise that golf is hardly a Mustachian sport. Only old and boring people play and it's a huge money sinker, right?
With an estimated 28 million golfers in the US, I am willing to bet that there must be quite a handful of occasional golfers, even here on MMM. Over my money-strapped teenage and college years, I have come up with techniques to bring costs down. There are roughly 3 categories of expenses directly related to chasing the white ball around your favourite course.
Saving money on equipmentBuy old, or even better, used clubs. What do you need the latest TaylorMade irons with adjustable weight for? Golf companies release new clubs every 6 months. Did the pros improve their game in such dramatic fashion over the past five years? What was good enough for Tiger in 2005 is good enough for you in 2012. But seriously, clubs will last you forever. It's a piece of metal at the end of a metal stick that was specifically designed to hit rock solid objects all day long. Assuming that you are a grown adult, you should never have to buy new clubs in the same decade. Regrip them every 5 years if you really need to and clean them once every now and then to prevent rust.
Be on the lookout for free stuff. Most golfers succomb to the need to upgrade their equipment way more often than necessary, so just borrow or buy their old stuff at a fraction of the price. Some clubs even keep a closet full of lost/abandonned equipment.
Take care of your shoes. That leather is not going to feed itself. A good pair of shoes will cost you and should be treated with care. My current pair set me back $100 and I religiously clean them after every round.
At the rangeDepending on where you live, hitting balls at the range can be expensive. The average golfer routine looks something like this:
1. Drive to the range
2. Buy bucket of ~40 balls for $5
3. Hit 10 short shots (9-7)
4. Hit 10 mid-to-long shots (7 and lower)
5. Switch to the driver while discretely ensuring the other guys are shorter
6. Remember to work on short game with 4 balls left in the bucket.
7. Putt for 5-10 minutes before driving back home.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
First of all, enough with the driver. It accounts for less than 10% of the shots the pros make at the range. Who gives a crap if the other guy hits it 30 yards further? Focus on a slow, easy swing and keep the godamn ball on the fairway.
Now short game (including putting) should account for 50% of your practice time. So head over to your practice green and keep working at the chips, lobs and bunker shots and putts. The great news is that this work is essentially free. I always keep a couple balls and clubs for short game in my car and will randomly drop by my local range for 30 minutes on the way back from work. Practice makes perfect.
Additionally, focus on each of your shots. It takes me close to an hour to go through a bucket of balls. Following the 50% rule, this means that I should be at the range for 2 full hours. That’s $2.5 for each hour of entertainment. Cheaper than going to the movies! If I don’t feel like staying that long, I will discretely pocket the remaining balls and use them the next time. Make sure the staff doesn’t see you doing this because the will think you are stealing their balls to play on a real course.
On the courseMost golfers like to alternate courses. I am lucky to live in an area with enough courses in a 20 mile radius to forget what each course is like by the time it comes back in rotation. With the recession, a ton of private clubs have started opening their doors to non-members to make ends meet and there is very little incentive to join a country club these days (at least from a pure golfing perspective). I cannot recommend golfnow.com enough. It is basically a way to browse all available tee times in your location and get a discount from the price you’d pay by calling the course directly. A round of golf on the weekend costs me around $25 for 18 holes and a cart, plus a $2 booking fee. Retired Mustachians who are able to play during the week can get ridiculously low prices, at least here in North Carolina.
Come prepared with a fully-stocked bag. Nothing worse than paying $12 for 3 Titleist Pro V1 at the pro shop because that’s all they have left. Buy found balls online
http://www.lostgolfballs.com/ or you know, fix your slice and stop losing them.
What are your tips?