Do we really need any more Golf courses around San Miguel de Salinas?
We have in the region of a half dozen already with God knows how many more in the pipeline.
The most ludicrous, of course, are Compoamor and Las Colinas (Golf and Country Club???) on opposite sides of the same road!!!
I know that a club provides revenue, I have heard figures quoted from €1,500 to €2,500 that some people pay for an annual membership, (these people must have more money than sense!) but do they actually benefit the area?
Disregarding the mind-shrinking nature of the game for a moment, just think of the vast acre-ages of countryside being lost to this pastime. We all thought that Las Colinas would never go ahead a few years ago, thinking it would never obtain legality having been built on protected land, but the brown envelopes obviously reached the right pockets so there it is!
Snooker takes up far less room yet we have no snooker hall..............!!!

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That is why we ( my wife and I ) chose to buy inland. We occasionally drive from Malaga to Gib. and the number of golf courses by the side of the autovias becomes monotonous. However they DO bring in revenue and God knows the country needs it.
Pete

Escorpion in Valencia, you have to pay €25,000 (shares) or thereabouts and you still have to pay a minimal green fee.

A new one near Tavernes, you can get annual membership for €3500

Seems the same everywhere. Locally I have to pay €60 - €80 a round at Oliva Nova. Many of them you just cant join anyway.

Most golf courses are struggling right now. Golf courses in Spain aren't constructed for revenue for golf like in the old days, they are solely used as a way to sell property built around it.

I've played on all the golf courses around San Miguel, but I don't bother much now, partly because it's got too expensive.

But I did know some of the areas where these golf courses were built, and a nice green golf course looks much nicer than the original shrub land, where nothing would grow.

People complain about Orihuela Costa, just down from San Miguel; they rightly say that it's a concrete monstrosity, but I used to drive along that road before the houses were built and the landscape was unattractive, lunar like, you couldn't even grow olive trees on it.

Quite right. However at Escorpion, which is built in between an Urb, I hardly see anyone in the homes there. Some of the houses have been empty from the day the were finished. The course is normally quite quiet

The new one at Tavernes (EL Galeria) however is in the middle of the countryside with no property overlooking, yet again there were relatively few people playing it. €3500 pa though. IN the UK I paid £750 a year

Yes, I've never quite understood why some people pay a vast premium to purchase a property on a Golf course and then insist on playing on every other course rather than their own...........!!!

Just because you buy a property on a golf course doesnt always mean that you get membership of the course.

Some did give a free years membership ... some didnt give anything

You should see the amount of water wasted where I live. At night, it completely floods the road for about 100 mtrs. No wonder the fees are ridiculously high, and that's just from one hole!!!

Ex - Golfer, now playing bowls.

we live near San Miguel but are in Hampshire at the moment and yesterday we noticed that the local golf course charge £14 for 18 holes, Why does anyone go to Spain to play golf?

Yes the closest golf course to us (Surrey/Hants border) charges £15 including a bacon sarnie and a pint of beer, superb setting too.

The number of golfers has dropped drastically over the last few years, not just because of prices but unfriendly welcome, refusing to give a raincheck etc. Prices have dropped at a lot of courses. Many will still come in the winter because of the better weather.

Our golf course in marbella used to get 150 to 200 golfers a day in high season which was Oct/Nov and Feb/March. A few years ago it dropped to 40 players on a good day. Prices were dropped from 85 euro to 65 and then some offers at 45 euro. Still not cheap if taking into account a buggy is essential. Some golf societies that used to visit every year started to go long haul instead, Thailand, florida, S. Africa as they got better weather and it didn't cost any more.

Because generally you dont have to worry about it being a washout when you have booked to play???

Cheapest I have got here is €30 a round, but only because I am the guest of a member.

I forgot to mention another reason why golfers come. The delights away from the course. Many are still drunk on the 1st tee or hungover, and I won't say anything about the pleasure houses

I say old boy, pleasure houses! what? disgusting! shouldn't be allowed!
(Where are they then?)