Those of you who have visited this site before will notice a total makeover in style and format. But don’t let that confuse you.  All the content of the site has been retained — it has just been reorganized to be more user friendly.

In the last couple of years Frugal Golfer has grown in both content & traffic. Exploring different ways to maximize your golf dollar and then publishing them for you has been exciting and rewarding for me.  However, I felt that the website needed to be more dynamic. My experience and research have only started the journey to becoming a frugal golfer. Your experiences, your feedback, your input will help to accelerate that process!

I plan to post entries on Frugal Golf fairly frequently. Some will be new and some will be updating information from my previous pages. I invite your comments and ideas responding to the post and/or some other related subject.  The more input I get from you guys (and gals), the more useful Frugal Golfer will be for everyone. Give me some ideas and let me run with them!

Lee ***
The Frugal Golfer

Note: Special thanks is warranted for my wife and daughter for providing me inspirational and technical support for this site!

“Frugal” – meaning costing little, inexpensive, & marked by economy in the spending of money. If you’re time limited in how often you can play, frugal golf means spending your golf dollar in ways that will increase your enjoyment of the game. If time is not the issue, but you have limited funds, it will simply enable you to play more golf!

WE SHOW YOU that bargain equipment doesn’t have to mean “cheap” equipment. Brand names & value offbrands are available at closeouts & discounts.

Lessons, training aids, & instructional media don’t have to be expensive. WE SHOW YOU discounts, bargains & other alternatives that sometimes can be better or, at the least, just as good. AND…

WE SHOW YOU that you can play at the better quality golf courses for less money. Plus, with all the money you’ll be saving, you can ocassionally splurge & treat yourself to a course you ordinarily can’t afford.

Let’s face it – golf is not inexpensive – and most of us don’t have unlimited budgets. Over the years, necessity has demonstrated to me that being a frugal golfer is satisfying, and yes, FUN. Check out some of my pages & you’ll find out too!

Lee ***

March 30, 2009 – a new page where you can add your favorite course to a growing list of frugal courses. Check it out at Frugal Golf Courses!

February 28, 2009 – It dawned on me that I check out Amazon.com for just about anything I’m planning to buy, so why not golf stuff? Find out more at Buying At Amazon!

Hello fellow golfing addicts! My name is Lee Triplett & I live in the Baltimore, Maryland metropolitan area. My brief life’s history includes being a local boy, a University of Maryland alum (go Terps!), three years in the Army during the late 1960’s, a 35 year Federal Government career much of it as a human resources manager with USDA, a 25-year marriage to a wonderful & supportive woman, and a bright & successful daughter in her early 20’s. But, cutting to the chase….what do I know about golf?

First, what kind of golfer am I? I “learned” the game in my late teens by playing with my buddies a few times a year. I played mostly socially for the next 15 years or so, although with my competitive nature I was always looking to improve. A close call with the embarrassment of receiving a “duffer’s” trophy, coupled with a sensitive athletic ego, led me to actually give the game up for a decade! Fifteen years later when injury forced me to give up another passion (softball), my dear wife says “Well, you’ve got to do something! Why don’t you take up golf?” (She’s had mixed feelings about that suggestion ever since…..) So I took the game up again. And when I did, I quickly became energized to learn as much about the game as I could. In the early years, my scores ranged from the 120’s to the low hundreds, occasionally venturing into the high 90’s during my 30’s. When I took the game up again in my early 50’s, I quickly settled into the low hundreds to the high 90’s. I’m happy (relatively happy, that is) to say that I now typically shoot in the 80’s, sometimes in the 90’s, but have even tasted the high 70’s on a few occasions!

The most basic thing I know about golf is how I feel when I play it, watch it, read about it, and talk about it. Most of you can relate to just how exhilarating it can be to spend 4 to 5 hours breathing in the fresh air of some gorgeous surroundings. Share it with those whose company you enjoy! Compete with your buddies, the course, yourself. And if you can play your round well, so much the better!

But I digress – the first thing I did when I retired in early 2005 was to get myself a job at the local golf course. Turned out to be one of the best moves I’ve ever made. In addition to all the benefits to the avid golfer of getting such a job (see my page on Golf Course Jobs ), I now found myself around countless others who were as enthusiastic about the game as I was! Interacting with the professional staff, club members, and other employees in this environment has led me to a wealth of information about the game. And since I don’t have unlimited funds to pursue the game as much as I’d like, I often focused in on ways to maximize my golf dollar.

My years of trying to stretch my golf budget, combined with my golf job experiences, and my natural affinity to exhaustively explore the internet before I buy anything, has led to this website. The content you’ll find is tried & true, based in most cases on my own experiences, and I know you’ll find at least a few things that will help you maximize your golf dollar. But I’m not naive enough to think that I know it all. Many, many of you out there have been playing golf on a budget for a long time & I would be interested in any tips and thoughts that you can share with me! I will, of course, pass them right along to everyone else on a new webpage on this site — giving you full credit!!!

Thanks for visiting this site & I look forward to a long relationship!

Lee ***

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Hey Lee – GREAT site!!! My frugal tip is to donate all your old golf equipment that you don’t want to sell to your local charity & get a charitable donations deduction on your taxes.

Herb Bailey
Manhattan, Kansas (March 2007)
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