The article below was written by Steve Carroll of National Club Golfer.

Green fees are on the rise again. But how much would you shell out to play 18-holes at an iconic venue?

It’s starting to become an annual tradition at the Home of Golf. Green fee prices for the Old Course at St Andrews are increasing yet again.

Golfers will have to shell out £320 for a 2024 high season tee time at the game’s most hallowed ground.

It represents a rise of £25 on this year’s prices and is the latest in a series of hikes imposed by St Andrews Links Trust over the last few years.

In 2021, the equivalent price was £195. That rose to £270 in 2022 and £295 in 2023.

It means players who want to tee it up between April 15 and October 13 next year at the historic course will have to pay 60 per cent more than they did three years ago.

The move continues the trend of top courses rapidly raising their green fees. At the start of this year, NCG reported that 25 of our Great Britain & Ireland top 50 ranked courses charged £250 or more.

Nine of the top 50 were over £300 in 2023 and the Old Course has now joined that number. But they are far from the only big-hitting outfit to stick up their prices for 2024.

Royal Portrush have upped their green fees from £295 to £340 and Carnoustie and Royal St George’s will both also hit the £300 barrier.

Tee times at many of these courses are available at lower rates at other times of the year.

But all of this begs the question, how much are you willing to pay for green fees? Will you continue to fork out ever increasing sums to have an unforgettable experience, or has a line been drawn?

Green fees debate: What is the most you’ve ever paid to play a round of golf?

I set a poll on X asking this very question and, of the 680 votes received, just over 41 per cent of respondents said the most they had paid to play was under £100. Thirty seven per cent said it was between £101 and £200.

With just 22 per cent saying they had spent either £201 to £300 or £301 or more, it seems most are unwilling to pay the green fees demanded by the very elite courses in GB&I.

On X, Michael Verity wrote: “It is mental when rack rates for ONE round of golf start to surpass the annual country/distant membership dues at really good golf courses.”

Mike Dodgson added: “I know they don’t want all and sundry playing their course but you can’t justify that amount of money for a round of golf.”

But Dave Allen countered: “My view is ‘it is what it is’. Like a lot of things in life you have a choice, if you think it’s worth it by all means go ahead, if you think it’s obscene then don’t.”

Here’s what the top 10 courses on NCG’s GB&I’s Top 100 list will cost during peak time summer in 2024:

1. Royal County Down: (2024 fee not set, £325 in 2023)
2. Muirfield: £340
3. St Andrews Old Course: £320
4. Turnberry Ailsa £495: (£595 during Open week)
5. Royal Portrush: £340
6. Royal Birkdale: £340 (£370 on Sundays)
7. Carnoustie: £300
8. Royal St George’s: £330
9. Portmarnock: 275 euros
10. Royal Lytham & St Annes: £320 (£380 weekend & Bank Holidays

But do these poll results and comments belie an overall trend of golfers spending more money on once-in-a-lifetime trips?

In the latest GCMA Insights episode of the Golf Club Talk UK podcast, BRS Golf’s Kevin Murray and Karen Moss revealed visitor bookings on Golf Now had passed £11 million in revenue so far this year, with some 737,000 rounds played – a 14 per cent increase on the same period last year.

With the industry having braced itself for a tough year in the face of the cost of living crisis, Murray said that “people are actually spending more on their visitor golf and more often”.

Moss added the effects of increased mortgage and energy costs may not have been fully felt for a lot of people yet, but said many golfers were also looking for bucket list experiences.

Could that demand be helping to drive up prices?

She said: “The feedback that we get from our golfers is that golf is a priority for them. It’s not just a luxury. It’s something they make room for in their budget, that they account for, so they can continue to do it going forward.

“The feedback we got, when we surveyed people in Q2, is that they wanted to play more high-end courses, more expensive courses.

“They’re not just looking to play golf, they were ‘we need an experience. It has to be bucket lists and it’s got to be the whole nine yards’.”

The article below was written by Matt Chivers of National Club Golfer.

Sean Foley believes the PGA Tour owes Tiger Woods “everything.”

The 15-time major champion’s former coach says Woods’ career has had a larger influence on current prize money than the tour’s own “business development aspects.”

Foley worked with Woods from 2010 to 2014 after successful stints with Justin Rose, Hunter Mahan and Sean O’Hair.

Describing himself as one of Woods’ “biggest fans” to No Laying Up, Foley also admitted his “arrogance levels” as a coach might’ve been high by the time they joined forces.

“To be able to spend time with him like that and get to know him and just see the sheer difficulty of his life, that type of fame and that type of notoriety,” he said.

“You wouldn’t wish it on anybody.

“And I think the game of golf, especially the PGA Tour, they owe that guy everything because purses are not here today because of the business development aspects of the PGA Tour.

“It’s all due to a kid in a red shirt from Orange County, California.”

Woods returned to World No.1 and won eight times under Foley’s tuition, but he also suffered back trouble and underwent a procedure to repair a bulging disc.

The pair parted ways in August 2014 and Foley described it afterwards as a “lifelong ambition of mine to teach the best player of all time in our sport.”

“I think we did a pretty good job together,” he added on the podcast. “I think what I would have done much more, that I understand now is I would’ve probably spent less time coaching him and more time just being his friend as I was.

“Like how arrogant was I to think ‘Did you actually teach Tiger Woods about golf?’”

What was it like to be Tiger Woods’ golf coach?

Woods had already won 71 times on the PGA Tour by the time Foley came along, having previously worked with Butch Harmon and Hank Haney too.

Foley first helped Woods during the 2010 PGA Championship, six months after the golf star made a televised statement concerning the widely reported issues in his private life.

“You’re dealing with someone who’s incredibly wounded, probably embarrassed, just in a way different place than he’s ever been in his life,” Foley said.

“I mean it was like going from a deity to a punchline almost overnight.”

The Canadian-born instructor now has a performance centre in Florida, hosts Playing Lessons with the Pros on Golf Channel and produces content for Revolution Golf.

But despite also coaching Lydia Ko, Cameron Champ and Danny Willett, nothing could’ve prepared Foley for being a staple in Woods’ life for four years.

“Being on the range and watching helicopters fly over and film us and stuff. Justin Rose, Sean O’Hair and Hunter Mahan are pretty well known, but we got to like a Prince/Michael Jackson level.

“I would imagine 99 out of 100 people in the world who have never touched a golf club or even been on a golf course still know who Tiger Woods is.

“I had to deal with a lot more, there were the fans of what we were doing and the people who hated it, so I ran into both of them at the airport.

“But look, I was the one who said ‘yes’ to doing it and so basically, because I chose to do it, I’m responsible for whatever occurred after that.”

Few sports offer more jargon and slang than golf. From ‘the unmentionables’ and ‘chilli dip’ to simpler terms such as Stableford, tee, birdie and bogey, the vocabulary of golf is a lengthy list.

Here’s another: shotgun start. What is a shotgun start in golf—and do you need to shout ‘fore!’ even louder than usual when it happens?

There’s no need to worry about the latter issue—well, not initially, anyway.

What is a shotgun start?

The term shotgun start relates to 18 groups of golfers beginning their rounds at the same time.

It’s a good name for it, actually, as if the groups have been fired out of a shotgun like pellets, landing in at all parts of the course.

It’s a clever way of making competitions run efficiently. Let’s say every group started on the 1st tee, and with 10-minute intervals between times, it would mean three hours between the first and last times, which would obviously mean the first group would finish three hours before the last one.

That’s hardly conducive to a good atmosphere at the prize-giving dinner when the early groups will eat their roast beef and then promptly leave because they know their 46 Stableford better ball points aren’t going to get the job done.

With a shotgun start, however, everyone finishes at the same time. Of course, that means the most horrific fight for a towel, shower cubicle, or 12 inches of bench space in the locker room—but that’s a small price to pay.

Shotgun starts are especially popular on charity golf days when there might actually be more than 18 groups to somehow get on the course.

More than 18 brings added complications to what is already a complicated start to proceedings. How so, you may ask…

Shotgun start—the charity fourball

Picture the scene. Your company has bought a fourball on a charity day, and you’ve been selected as one of the quartet.

It’s being held at a local course, but you haven’t played there before. Naturally, it’s nice to play a new course, but your lack of knowledge isn’t just restricted to the blind tee shot on the 5^th—you also have no idea where the 13th hole is, which is a bit of a problem because that’s where you are starting from.

But wait, help is at hand. Jeremy, who heads up the sales team, played here* “about 10 or 11 years ago” and can remember the routing of the course, so “we’re sorted”.

Turns out there’s a shortcut down the side of the 1st and then a sharp 90˚ right turn through some woodland. It seems a bit unlikely as that land sits between the 1st and the 9th that returns golfers to the clubhouse after the front nine.

But Jeremy is convinced, and it “saves at least 10 minutes’ walking” compared to simply trekking down the 10th, 11th and 12^th (which was Alan from Accounts’ play-it-safe suggestion).

You’ve guessed it. Team Aphrodite Alarm Systems yomp for a good 30 minutes before making it to the 13th tee. Still, at least they’ve seen what the line to take is on that blind drive on the 5th and also had a good look at the back left pin on the 7th.

The hooter hasn’t gone to signify the start yet, so they can chill out and cool down for a minute or two before thinking about the first shot.

Oh no, wait, the 13th is a par 3, and the organisers have reckoned the short holes are the ones to get the five extra groups out on the course.

So, sweaty and flustered, Team Aphrodite has to mutter something about “it being a maze out here” to Team FastFirst Haulage & Logistics—who are all disdainfully leaning on their 6-irons at the back of the tee—while rummaging for balls and tees.

The FastFirst lads, nominated as Team 13B, so the second to tee off, are obviously all fixated on watching Aphrodite tee off, too, and inevitably, none of the four balls find the green. Jeremy’s nine handicap looks iffy, too, and there are fears that the round 10 or 11 years ago may have been his last.

Alan scrambles a point with a brave putt, but it’s a slow start for Aphrodite, and they don’t trouble the prize-giving. Still, it’s a fun evening afterwards, made possible only because of the shotgun start.

*It later transpires he had played at Gracewood Park. This is Gracewood Hall.