Originally Posted by
Scottt
Ireland is stupidly expensive for everything, golf included. Ireland, Scandanavia (Copenhagen and Helsinki) and Moscow are the most crazy expensive places I have been, they put London to shame.
Thankfully I managed not to pay the rack rate for any of the courses I visited in Ireland in October, but they are steep.
Britain is much better, IMO, and in short breaks down that for low-level basic courses you get screwed compared to Australia (very little less than £25 for 18 holes, so $50+), but at the better courses, I think the prices are pretty fair.
There are many ways around the worst prices. For instance, in summer when it's not dark until after 10pm, most clubs do a twilight rate after 3pm, so plenty of sunlight to get around in and up to 50% of the green fee.
You pay overs for golf near London just because it's such a huge, prosperous city that they can get away with it, but in some rural areas, you're playing World Top 100 standard courses and getting change from £70-80, which is pretty bloody good.