Any thoughts on the Valley Ridge course? I didn't have the opportunity to golf it this fall, but with it being a 10 mintue walk from my house it's very appealing. They were sold a while back and are now converting to semi-private. I'm debating buying a membership, but hesitant to do so without having played it. It looks very nice and quite challenging from the heli flyovers they have on their website:
http://course.valleyridgegolf.com/1-9/

They have a sliding price on memberships too - the more they sell and get closer to the planned capacity, the higher the fee becomes. Is this normal for Calgary? Any thoughts on this as an investment? Do other courses in the area see an appreciation in the share price? Back in Regina there was one private and one semi-private course. Share price was stagnant for as long as I can remember.

Thanks eh? Still can't believe I'm worried about golf on Feb. 1st!!

 

I haven't been to Valley Ridge... but I've heard good things about it.

I'm planning to do a lot more golfing this year. I got out about 20 times last year and I'm finally starting to get a little bit more consistant.

 

Valley Ridge is a nice course. Especially since the they redesigned it. However, I would never buy into a semi private course. They used to hold a lot of tournaments there and guess what...that eats into your tee times. The best type of membership to buy is one where the members own the club. They will generally do what is in the best interest of the players. JMHO

 

I used to play this course quite often. It was a great deal at one time, but they doubled the green fees over a couple of years. Seems to me it's about a hundred bucks now and there are nicer courses around for that much money. It is a pretty nice course though.

I don't like the idea of a membership because I like playing a wide variety of courses. Of course, if there was one in my neighbourhood...

 

Any thoughts on a membership as an "investment". Do these tend to appreciate in Calgary?

Green fees on the website are well under $100 - varies depending on time of year and weekday/end, but $50 to $80 range I think.

 

After many years of ups and downs there has been some nice appreciation in equity golf membership values. You could have purchased a Pinebrook share about 8 years ago for roughly $6,000...I heard a rumour last year that they were selling for $55,000 (tidy profit even after the club gets their share). I had a founding membership at Country Hills that had about $17,000 invested into it...I believe that they now sell for close to $30,000. Can we see more of a price appreciation...who knows...but if it is anything like housing prices perhaps things have a long way to go yet.

 

I just wanted to bump this back up... we need to do a game of golf this spring.

If you guys want a nice course to play on for a reasonable price... either Alberta Springs near Sylvan Lake, or Riverbend here in Red Deer are both "cheap" to play and are quite nice.

I'd be willing to come down to Calgary of course too if there is a nice public course to play on for a reasonable amount