Hey Golfers,

Has golf genuinely become too expensive, or are its most outrageous prices distorting our view of the whole game?

A new driver can cost $850. A round at a famous course can approach $500. Some private clubs demand six figures before you have paid a single annual subscription.

From the outside, the verdict looks obvious: golf prices have finally gone too far.

But once you account for inflation, the story becomes far more interesting. Mainstream golf has not simply become unaffordable. Instead, the game is separating into two distinct markets: one selling access, and another selling exclusivity.

The $850 driver is not quite what it seems

Titleist’s flagship driver cost around $470 in 2005. Its modern equivalent is roughly $850.

That looks like an 81% increase. Yet after adjusting for inflation, the 2005 driver would cost approximately $860 today. In real terms, the modern club is actually fractionally cheaper.

This is the difference between a price rising and a product becoming less affordable. The number on the shelf has increased dramatically, but so has the general cost of almost everything else.

The same pattern appears across much of the mainstream equipment market. Pro V1 golf balls and standard iron sets have also risen by less than inflation in the comparisons we examined.

That does not make an $850 driver cheap. It does, however, challenge the claim that manufacturers have suddenly made ordinary equipment vastly more expensive than it used to be.

There is also a crucial point that launch-day marketing tends to obscure: golfers do not have to buy the latest equipment.

A driver does not stop working when its replacement arrives. Previous-generation clubs are discounted, used equipment can be resold repeatedly, and a sensible beginner can assemble a perfectly playable set without going near the premium end of the market.

The golf industry is very good at making an optional upgrade feel essential. That is not the same as the sport becoming impossible to enter.

Where prices really have broken away

Equipment can be manufactured in greater numbers. Desirable golf courses cannot.

There is only one Old Course at St Andrews, only so much daylight and a fixed number of tee times. When demand rises for something that cannot meaningfully expand its supply, prices can move very differently from the rest of the game.

In 2010, a round on the Old Course cost $175. By 2025, the green fee had reached $460 - an increase far beyond inflation.

That is not simply golf becoming more expensive in cash terms. It is a prestigious golf experience becoming materially more expensive in real terms.

The distinction matters because famous courses dominate how golf is presented online. Drone footage, bucket-list trips and immaculate resort golf are far more likely to appear on our feeds than an ordinary Saturday medal at a local members’ club.

We therefore risk treating the most expensive version of golf as though it represents the entire sport.

The price of getting through the door

The same divide is appearing in private-club membership.

In a recent survey, more than 90% of US private clubs charged an initiation fee, with the average standing at approximately $58,000. At the very top end, some clubs charge six figures, and still maintain lengthy waiting lists.

That statistic should be treated as evidence about the American private-club market, not the cost of joining a typical British golf club. The two systems are different, and plenty of clubs remain far more accessible.

Nevertheless, it reveals something important about prestige golf: the high price is not always a flaw in the product. Sometimes it is part of the product.

For a club selling privacy, status, scarcity and access to a desirable network, lowering the price could weaken the very sense of exclusivity its customers want. A waiting list only reinforces the message that entry is valuable because not everybody can have it.

This helps explain why extraordinary fees can coexist with strong demand. These clubs are not simply selling rounds of golf. They are selling membership of a restricted world.

One game, two markets

At one end of golf, players compare green fees, buy previous-generation clubs and use public, municipal or pay-and-play courses. Price matters, and operators compete by making the game easier to access.

At the other, golfers pay premiums for renowned venues, invitation-only memberships, destination trips and the social value attached to being somewhere other people cannot easily enter.

You can pay $50 for a round - or $500. Both are golf, but they are not really competing for the same customer.

This is why asking whether “golf” has become too expensive can be misleading. Golf is no longer behaving like one coherent market.

The more useful questions are:

Can a beginner find an affordable place to start locally?
Can an existing golfer play regularly without committing to a large joining fee?
Are ordinary clubs still serving ordinary golfers?
Is the middle of the market being squeezed between budget golf and prestige golf?

That final question may be the most important. Affordable pay-and-play golf still exists, while wealthy players continue to support the luxury end.

The vulnerable part could be the traditional middle: good members’ clubs that must cover rising wages, energy, machinery and maintenance costs without possessing the scarcity or international reputation needed to charge prestige prices.

What this means for ordinary golfers

For most players, the best response is not to chase the version of golf marketed most aggressively.

Judge equipment by what it adds to your game, not by its launch date. Compare membership with the number of rounds you will realistically play. Look at flexible memberships, twilight green fees, local opens and previous-generation clubs before assuming the sport requires a luxury budget.

At the same time, we should not dismiss concerns about access. A £340 green fee or a five-figure joining fee may not prevent somebody from playing golf somewhere, but it can shut them out of the courses and clubs that shape the sport’s identity.

If golf wants to attract and retain younger players, it cannot rely solely on the argument that cheaper alternatives exist. Those alternatives must be visible, welcoming and available close enough for people to use.

Final Thoughts

So, has golf become too expensive?

Not universally. Mainstream equipment has broadly tracked inflation, and affordable ways to play still exist. But prestige golf has become dramatically more expensive, and increasingly exclusive.

The result is a two-tier game. One market sells access. The other sells scarcity, status and exclusivity.

The danger is not simply that wealthy golfers can spend extraordinary amounts. It is that the luxury version becomes the public face of golf, making the entire sport appear less accessible than it really is - while genuine barriers at desirable courses and private clubs continue to rise.

Which version of golf are you experiencing, and what does the game now cost you?

See you next week,

Mannie
Golf Manual