Selling online greens fees is a growing business that the frugal golfer should use to save big!

Increased competition for the golfing dollar has forced many golf courses to explore new ways to maximize revenues. One major way is for courses to sell more of their teetimes that aren’t getting sold. Many resourceful internet businesses have sprung up in the last few years to show these courses how.

More and more online greens fees are being sold at auction. eBay of course sells just about anything and numerous greens fees are constantly being offered by individuals and businesses. Find a course that you like & with a little patience (and sometimes luck), you can find some real bargains. Other auction sites (e.g. golfus.com & ezlinks.com ) specialize in online greens fees. Try doing an internet search on “golf tee time auctions” + your state in you have difficulty finding courses in your area.

Many companies (e.g. clickateetime.com sell online teetimes for specific dates and times for reduced rates. Some of these companies will also offer certificates for discount teetimes (for multiple dates) for a substantial reduction from full price.

A relatively new method for selling greens fees online involves naming your own price. After registering your credit card, you make an offer to purchase a specific teetime. Should your offer be accepted, you are then obligated to buy that teetime & your credit card is charged. So be careful when you make that offer! Some of these online companies using name your price (e.g. ezlinks ) offer the same courses & teetimes under teetime special (see last paragraph above), so one strategy for name your price is to offer a price a few dollars below what’s listed in the specials section.

There are also a multitude of national and/or regional membership sites (e.g lastminutegolfer.com ) that are free & can provide you numerous ways to save with golf discounts & coupons. This is an area that is growing quickly and there are too many great sites to mention. As always internet searches can identify some real gems out there.

Online greens fees are just another way the frugal golfer finds to maximize the golf dollar!

Discount golf passes can save the frugal golfer big time! AND, they are more available than you might think.

Think about it! Golf courses maximize their revenue whenever all of their teetimes are filled. Naturally, the elite courses don’t have any problem with this, selling out their teetimes days, weeks, & sometimes months in advance. But most public & semi-private courses find many of their teetimes go begging, some even on the weekends.

The smart courses find ways to fill more of their vacant teetimes. Although these courses tend to put some restrictions on discounts offered (after all they want to keep full price for the teetimes that normally sell out), the frugal golfer will find many opportunities to save on greens fees 7 days a week!

Check the sports pages in your local newspapers (Mondays can be a good time). Courses tend to place discount greens fees advertisements here to drum up business during slow times of the year. Subscribing to a course’s e-mail listing (check a course’s website) can also result in discounts.

Many courses will subscribe to one or more discount golf pass programs. The courses listed in these programs typically offer $10 to $30 discounted from their greens fees, 2 for 1 greens fees, limited free golf, or some combination. Individual courses will restrict their offers, but these restrictions vary greatly from Monday thru Thursdays, to hourly restrictions for teetimes, to weekday anytime PLUS weekends with an hourly restriction, to anytime. If you are very limited with the times you can play golf, the restrictions can be an annoyance. Otherwise, you should be able to find many suitable courses.

Discount golf pass programs generally cost between $20 & $70 per year, but this cost can be recouped with 1 to 3 rounds of golf. There are national golf pass programs covering thousands of courses (e. g. www.GolfCard.com ), as well as numerous regional and local programs. Just do an internet search on on “discount golf pass programs” + your state, and you should come up with a number of possibilities.

It’s likely that there are a number of national, regional, and/or local discount golf pass programs where you live. Since the programs do charge a fee, you probably will want to purchase only one or two. One way to help you choose among them is to approach some of the courses you play often or others you would like to play and find out what discount pass programs they subscribe to. If the local pro or counter person doesn’t know or doesn’t want to share that information with you (although it is in their interest to do so), ask to speak to the business manager.

A great benefit to using the discount golf pass programs is the incentive you have for checking out a large variety of golf courses. Over the last several years, my main golf buddy and I have played literally dozens of courses that we would not have tried were it not for one of our regional discount golf passes — TeeTime Golf Pass .

Discount golf passes are just another example of how the frugal golfer maximizes his fun as well as his golf dollar.

This page is your page — where you submit your favorite frugal golf courses! A frugal course is a course where the value to price ratios are the highest! They range from the solid municipal course that might cost you $20 to that resort gem that is worth every cent & more of its $150 greens fee. A great example of a frugal course is the world class Bethpage Black! Bethpage Black was the venue for the 2002 US Open (won by Tiger) & will host this year’s US Open as well. Greens fees are $50 for NY State residents & $100 for non residents.

This frugal course list is compiled from submissions from people like you — frugal golfers who are looking for the most bang from their golf buck. Most submissions are unedited & unverified, so please consider them primarily as suggested courses worthwhile to check out further.

New York
Bethpage Black, Farmingdale, NY — The world class Bethpage Black was the venue for the 2002 US Open (won by Tiger) & will host this year’s US Open as well. Greens fees are $50 for NY State residents & $100 for non residents. Very few places will give you more value for your golf dollar! Submitted by Lee T., Columbia, MD, 3/2009