Bethpage's Black Course is top dog on our list, but only if they don't raise their greens fee a single cent...
New York State Parks
Head spinning from GOLF’s latest list of Top 100 under $150? Inspired to pack the car and go? Discouraged to know that $50 doesn’t buy what it used to? Reconsidering your real estate decisions? Here are nine numbers to help you make sense of the newly released list of value courses.
Number of courses on the list with top greens fees of exactly $150: Newport National in R.I., American Dunes in Mich. and the No. 1 course on the list, Bethpage Black. Will the allure of remaining on GOLF’s Top 100 Value Courses pressure them to keep those cemented in their current position? We can only hope…
7
Number of courses that made the list from Michigan, the most from any individual state. Belvedere in Charlevoix, Mich. led the way at No. 10 and helped the state edged out logical favorites like New York and California, which each tallied six courses. Texas and North Carolina had five each, while Washington, Alabama, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin each notched four.
Belvedere is one of Michigan’s seven representatives on the list.Facebook/Belvedere
12
Number of different courses you could play if you started with a greens fee budget of $500:
Spring Valley (Wisc., $25), Buffalo Dunes (Kans., $30), Aiken (S.C., $30), Palatka (Fla., $34), Mirimichi (Tenn, $36), Memorial Park (Tex., $38), Wilmington Municipal (N.C., $40), Riverdale (Dunes)(Colo., $40), Sleepy Hollow (Ohio, $44), Keney Park (Conn., $44), Manakiki (Ohio, $44) and Butterfield Trail (Tex., $45). Or you could play one brand-name public course…
15
Number of courses in Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin, making the Midwest a value golf mecca. Y’know, if you’re planning a road trip through Big 10 country.
Lawsonia Links in Wisconsin is No. 2 on our list.Patrick Koenig
25
The cheapest top greens fee, in dollars, at Spring Valley in Salem, Wisc., which you could play six times and still stay under this list’s top number. That’s value.
34
Number of states represented, including all of New England and every state bordering Canada (except Alaska). The further north you get, the more tantalizing the deals seem to be.
Hawktree Golf Club in North Dakota.Patrick Koenig
16
Number of states missing from the list, including noted golf destinations like Arizona and Nevada, the entire DMV (Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and D.C. were all goose-egged) and a swathe of the South (Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas were shut out). That doesn’t mean there’s not great golf; of course there is. But some of it’s private and some of it is expensive, at least seasonally.
And if your course’s outrage at being left off the list leads to better, more valuable golf, that’s a win for everyone!
40
Number of courses on this list that would have made the cut if we’d kept the top fee to $75 or under. So if you’re put off by the initial ceiling jumping into triple digits, know there are still plenty of courses for you.
70
Number of courses that would have made the cut if we’d set the top greens fee at $100 or below, which was the subject of a spirited in-house debate. Like any list, this one deserves to be argued over, so I hope you do.
And if your local spot is charging $155, well, here’s hoping they knock off five bucks by the time we run through this list the next time.
Dylan Dethier is a senior writer for GOLF Magazine/GOLF.com. The Williamstown, Mass. native joined GOLF in 2017 after two years scuffling on the mini-tours. Dethier is a graduate of Williams College, where he majored in English, and he’s the author of 18 in America, which details the year he spent as an 18-year-old living from his car and playing a round of golf in every state.
