The Cost Of Golf

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have done quite a lot this year; various trips up to Scotland to play, new clubs, lots of tournaments, several lessons. It got me thinking about how much I’ve spent on everything golf related during the course of 2010.

I have been tracking my competition profit and loss, to the penny, all the way throughout the year, so I’ll start with that first.

For the purposes of this exercise, when I enter a competition not all of the fee will be used in prize money, so I split it out between how much of my entry fee goes into the prize fund, and how much is used for other purposes, like green fees, trophies, or any other expenses that the competition organisers incur. For example, the Craw’s Nest Tassie had 345 people playing £185 each, giving an income of £63,825. But only £4,320 is paid out in prize money. So of my £185, only £12.52 (4320 / 63825 x 185) gets attributed to prize money, with the remaining £172.48 going towards green fees.

My fees that went towards prize money this year were £195.61, and I won £458.10 back in prize money, a very healthy return of 134% profit! I split out the ‘Magic 2s’ entry separately (‘Magic 2s’ are where competitors pay an entry, and a dividend is paid out for any 2 that is scored during the competition), and they show an entry of £37.00, and a return of £140.95, this time a profit of 281%!

So overall, my competitive profit and loss was +£366.44, or 157% profit. It’s worth reinforcing that I don’t play golf to win money, anything I do win is a nice bonus but it is not expected and is not the reason I spend hundreds of hours practising each year.

The reason the competition profit is not the be all and end all is because it barely makes a dent in my overall spending on golf over the course of the year.

The full cost of my golf for 2010 comes out at £3,261.60, and is split out into the following categories in the table below;

Based on the number of hours I’ve spent playing golf this year, I calculate that golf costs me £6.85 per hour. A completely uninteresting fact, but a fact all the same.

I put together a short comparison with other hobbies, and how much I estimate they cost per hour;

- Watching Chelsea; £31.00 per hour

- Watching non-league football; £6.00 per hour

- Going to the cinema; £5.05 per hour

- Going to the pub; £5.00 per hour

- Hillwalking; £3.00 per hour

- Going to the gym; £2.60 per hour

- Watching tv; £0.34 per hour

Although golf is more expensive that most of the other hobbies on that list, for me it represents that best value for money by far, due to the combination of the health and social benefits, and the availability of it. Going to the gym is the only other one that I think represents value for money, but is restricted by the number of hours that can physically be completed in a given time period.

I have put together a template budget for next year, which shows a very similar bottom line as 2010, but with the component parts being made up differently;

2010 was an extremely expensive year for new equipment, 11 of the 13 clubs in my bag, as well as the bag itself, were bought this year, and that will not be repeated in 2011. I also won’t be spending so much on green fees as I won’t be going away to play other courses, other than the courses already accounted for in the competitions line.

The saving of over £900 on equipment and green fees is offset by several cost increases for next year. The main three items that take up this cost are; increased membership fees; as I’m going to join a course in Scotland as well as my current home club, as this will allow me to play in a lot more qualifying competitions. Travel & Hotels will take up more cost due to the diary I have planned. Competition profit & loss is budgeted to break even instead of the £366 profit from this year. I certainly expect to make some profit on this item, but like football clubs who budget on being knocked out in the first round of the cup, any profit will be a nice bonus.

So 2011 will cost another £3,200, but it will be worth every penny, and if I get down to scratch then it will be priceless.