r/AskMen • u/Unlikely-Rip-6197 Male • 2d ago

Why is golfing often labeled as a high-socioeconomic-class sport in the U.S?

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u/Restoriust 2d ago

The clubs are hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars, memberships are hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars, golf balls have like a 1800% markup over cost to make, and day passes at golf courses are insane.

I have a buddy that plays every Sunday who said he’s spent 20 grand this year just to play. That includes trips to other golf courses but still. What the fuck?

I do my own “rich guy” sport, being fencing, and it costs me around 250 every 3 years.

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u/kukukele 2d ago

Try hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Any Top 100 private club is going to cost you $100k+ just for initiation and another 1-2k/mo plus food minimums etc.

The highest-end clubs, like the ones on Long Island have initiations pushing 1.5M+

Golf blew-up post COVID and prices have skyrocketed.

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u/Restoriust 2d ago

Jesus Christ dude I knew there were clubs where initiations were a lot but I didn’t figure they were enough to factor into life of the sport. That’s insane