Do you really get a good deal with golf discount cards or are you just buying a useless piece of plastic for your year's membership? If you love to play golf often, you know how expensive it can get. Add up $50 for greens fees + $20 for a cart, twice a week for over 20 weeks and you spend will nearly $3,000 a year to tee it up on golf courses. Your golf game will probably improve, but your wallet says, "Ouch!"
So, is the promise to "Play more golf and pay less" really valid or just a getting an "unplayable lie?" There are lots of golf discount programs out there. Some are coupon books. Some are online programs. Some work very well, some are real duds. So as a savvy buyer, how do you pick the one golf discount card that gets you the most for your money? Here is a 7 point checklist to use when you evaluate buying an on-line membership golf card to get the savings your membership pays for.
1. How big is the size of the golf course network?
How many courses are in the network? Is it 10? 50? 150? 3,000? The more courses the better, because if 10,000 people buy the membership and there are only a few dozen courses - guess what. You won't get a good selection of tee times because you are competing with all other members.
2. Don't travel to Idaho to play golf, unless you live there.
Is is local for just one state, like Wisconsin or New Mexico? Is the network nationwide? Do you have to drive to the middle of Idaho to find a course? With the cost of gasoline and driving these days, are there enough golf course within a 50 mile radius? If you are planning on vacationing in a certain area, do the golf courses belong to the network?
3. Unless you like cow pastures, avoid "Turtle Greens" golf networks.
When I was just learning to play golf as a teenager in Wisconsin, my dad took us to Turtle Greens, which a farmer built on a hill in the outskirts of his farm. The clubhouse was a barn; the fairways were like cow pastures; the greens were shabby like a mowed back yard. Of course, we were real hackers and kids at the time. Make sure that the golf courses in your membership directory are a mixture of very good courses, medium courses and "practice" courses. That way you can select the ones you want for a particular round. Some days, you may want to play a challenging links course. Other times, you just want to play a simple course to get some exercise.
4. Get discounts for the ENTIRE golf season.
Know how long the season is for the golf discounts. Is is a short window from June to August? Do you have to play before May or after September? The best discount green fees cards will allow you to get savings all year round for as long as the golf course is open. Don't buy a golf card when you have all types of seasonal playing restrictions.
5. Know how easy it is to find a course.
I have purchased a number of state golf discount coupon books and looked through the index to find where the golf courses were listed. This is fine for a paper coupon book. Before you buy these in a golf store, you can look through the book to see if your favorite courses are listed. If you subscribe to an online discount golf card program, make sure you can search the golf course directory. It helps to search by zip code, state, city, distance to the golf course and even golf course name. If the search function is missing or limited, don't buy that membership.
6. Learn the pluses and minuses of the golf courses in the network - before you buy!
If the online golf card membership program allows you to search, it should also give you the details of what you get. Different golf courses offer different discounts. Take tee times for instance. Is the discount network allow you to play only on weekdays? Does the discount apply to weekends? Is your play restricted to a certain time of day, like before 7:00 a.m. or after 5:00 p.m.? When many golf courses belong to the network, there will be many different variations. Just make sure that there is enough variety to fit your best times to tee it up.
7. Get the facts about the vendor's performance and longevity.
Is this program new? How long has it been around? How many members has it served? How many belong now? Does it offer a money-back guarantee? These are important questions to ask, especially with on-line services. Anyone can put up a website. Take care to do due diligence and check out the vendor before you spend your hard earned money. And make sure that they have a money-back guarantee if you are unsatisfied for any reason.
Now that you have this checklist for discount green fees, all you need to do is find a golf card program that helps you save money and get out on the links for less.
To read Dave's review about how to get discount green fees, visit http://www.discount-green-fees.com.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Pipitone
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