Gold is considered a rich person sport due to various things like course fees, equipment, lessons, and membership fees but, but is it the most expensive sport? Let’s find out.
Golf is the most expensive sport, due to the average cost of an 18- hole rounds being $36 and average membership fees are roughly $520 a month. Golfing equipment is expensive as there are 14 clubs in one Golf bag, and the average for Golf lessons is around $30-$70
This doesn’t mean you have to be super-rich to play Golf, you can cut the price down significantly by buying second-hand clubs and getting deals on the Golf course.
I will explain how much does Golf cost to pay, and other reasons why it’s so expensive read on to find out!
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5 Reasons Why Golf Is Such An Expensive Sport
1.Golf Clubs Are Expensive
Compare Golf to a sport like Tennis and quickly you see why it’s so expensive.
How much equipment do you need for Tennis? Just one racket and some balls and a place to play, with Golf you need to buy 14 different clubs that each serve a different purpose. Sounds expensive right?
A typical cost set of Golf clubs for casual players range between $200-$400 depending on the quality of material used in the Clubs, stainless steel will be cheaper than titanium.
You can spend a LOT more on custom-fitted Golf clubs which can cost $100 for just one Club, or less and even get a set for free or very cheap either of friends/family or sites like eBay marketplace.
Whilst you can get a set of Clubs for cheap or free the fact that you NEED 14 different clubs is what makes Golf expensive, In sports like Soccer you only really need one ball and it can be played anywhere, with Golf you have to be on a course!
2.Golf Course Fees Are Expensive
A typical round of Golf costs $36 according to the Golf channel survey, the most expensive public course in America is the Shadow Creek Golf Club which costs a whopping $500 for one round!
According to the National Golf Foundation, the average Golfer plays 18.2 rounds a year, so assuming you pay the average price of $36 you’re paying $648 a year to play Golf! For my annual Tennis membership in London, I only pay $40!
Golf courses are expensive because course managers need to keep the grass in very good condition, and the average Golf course size is 74 acres maintaining even an average-sized Golf course requires a lot of workers.
For bigger courses, more land needs to be maintained which increases the price even further.
How Much Is A Golf Club Membership?
Annual fees range between $1000-$5000 a year or roughly $100-$400 a month depending on the type of membership: Family, Individual, Junior, Corporate. Some courses like Liberty National Golf Course in Jersey City have invitation fees of $450,000-$500,000 with annual fees of $29,000
Typically the annual fees cover unlimited use of the Golf course, but they vary greatly. My course in London with a special discount costs $659 so it varies a lot depending on where you live.
In some parts of Asia like Malaysia you can play Golf for a lot cheaper.
3.Golf Lessons Are Expensive
As Golf is expensive to play, so is the coaching that typically costs $30-$70/hour depending on where you live
Whilst you can learn a lot on free sites like YouTube, my personal favorite Golfing channel is meandmyGolf nothing replaces a PGA certified instructor who sees all the wholes in your game.
I know from experience, when getting Tennis & Golf lessons the real benefit you get from lessons, you improve at a much faster rate.
Golfers typically take 5 lessons a year which costs $250 assuming you’re paying $50 a lesson.
To become a professional Golfer you need to invest a minimum of 1728 hours per year averaging around 6 hours of practice per day 6 days a week for 48 weeks of the year.
Not everyone wants to be a professional Golfer but knowing how much hard it is to turn pro sheds a light on how much professionals pay for coaching throughout their Golfing coaches and how expensive Golf lessons can be.
4.Golf Clubs Are Expensive To Make
Golf requires tremendous precision as your hitting a small 1.68-inch wide ball into a 4.25-inch hole hundreds of yards away, this makes new club technology expensive to manfacture.
The margin of success in Golf is so small, so club manufactures put it a lot of technology to improve distance, apex, spin, launch and feel, the Driver the most expensive club costs around $200 itself!
The material of Golf Clubs vary the price, with graphite and titanium being the most expensive to produce, to see how much you should pay to reshaft your Club check out my post here.
In Golf it is trendy to switch clubs, and manufacturers take advantage by constantly releasing new clubs that claim to increase performance.
Casual players constantly buy new clubs almost like buying the newest iPhone, as Golf is so difficult, people often play bad which encourages players to blame the performance on their clubs rather than their own skill.
The National Golf Foundation found boomers ((born 1946-1964) spend an average of $1908 on Golf equipment! Tennis rackets cost around $59.99 in comparison, you can see why Golf is so expensive!
5.Golf Accessories Are Expensive
The must need accessories in Golf are gloves, balls, and tees. A pair of gloves costs $20(see on Amazon here) a pack of tees costly roughly $20 and 1 Golf ball around $2.
The amount of Golf balls varies depending on your skills, as worse Golfers will hit more balls in the water that lower handicap players. On average Golfers spend roughly $100 on Golf balls a year.
Other accessories are not mandatory but still important, range finders like this TecTecTec Golf Rangefinder from Amazon costs around $142, Golf shoes cost between $36-$100, pick the one you fancy from Amazon here.
Other accessories like alignment stick, head covers, GPS watches, swing assisting devices, Golf apps, Golf nets also cost a lot of money, you probably will spend about $1500 on Golf accessories over a decade.
