Editor’s note Welcome towards the cash Game Mailbag, a new golf line in which we’re fielding all of your questions that are burning the intersection of golf and, you guessed it, cash! Have a question in an upcoming column for us— on your personal (golf) finances, the economics of golf, or if jumbo winner’s checks are actually cashable — and our resident golf-and-finance whiz, Paul Sullivan, might just answer it. E-mail your queries to him. This week, Sullivan tackles your concerns on club subscriptions, Tour costs that are pro simply how much of your financial allowance you should invest in tennis.
Does a club membership ever buy itself in a strictly financial sense? — tpowers319, via email
Did my wife submit this concern? (You’re the best, honey!)
The answer is almost always no if you think in strictly financial terms. But let’s parse this one.
The mathematics first. Your initiation charge could range from a couple of thousand dollars to thousands of dollars. When Liberty National opened within the b m that is pre-crash of 2006, it charged an initiation of cost of $500,000, but the story had been that sum came with a “free” pair of clubs. Long lasting price, consider the initiation table stakes — even when it’s roughly the same as a downpayment for a household. ...