For both US and abroad, what are some places that combine cheap golf and low cost of living with a relatively long playing season?

The Carolinas come to mind, especially away from the cities.

Try the Rio Grand Valley in South Texas. Harlingen, South padre Island, McAllen...great weather, cheap (with the exception of the valley), can play golf 12 mos out of the year, 10 in shorts.

I'll throw in a plug for my town, Dallas. Very inexpensive for a large city and you can play nearly year round.

Dallas, anywhere in Texas really. It depends on whether you want city living or country living. That will help decide on where. Texas in general has lwer taxes, nice weather, and a low cost of living.

By the way, we have tons of nice golf courses too.

Yakima, WA - Very affordable housing and you can golf as long as there isn't frost or snow on the ground. Last year, I was golfing the day after Thanksgiving and as early as middle of January. Plus it's close to the Tri-Cities area where it's typically a longer golf season. And it's only a 2 1/2 hour drive to Chambers Bay for the 2015 US Open.

San Diego, CA.

You can play 365 days a year. Literally. With no problems.

Unlike Florida with its hurricane seasons, SoCal is perfect all year - and no humidity! If you can stand the 100-degree DRY HEAT of the desert inland but cool 70-degree ocean breezes without the humidity, then San Diego is it for you - just pick a spot.
And if you're a resident, you get good discounts at places like Torrey Pines.
Palm Springs is only 2 hours away, and so is L.A.

2 1/2 hours? How slow are you driving?

Yakivegas, its the Palm Springs of Washington

He included "low cost of living" which would completely eliminate San Diego...

Not to mention the 6+ hour rounds on the public courses. I play only about once a month here because by the time you drive to the course, warm up, putt, play, and drive home you could be in for 9 hours. In that way it reduces the effective playing season if you have any other responsibilities in your life. Or you could pony up 40k+ and close to 1k a mo. to join a private club!

Isn't there a Cat 4 Typhoon barrelling down on you guys??

That's at the southern tip of Baja, almost 900 mi. away. For an east coast analogy, it's like being worried about a hurricane that's hitting Miami when you're all the way up in VA! Hopefully we get some rain out of it, but it would just be a regular low-pressure system when/if it gets here. I haven't seen a drop of rain since at least as far back as April.

Dont' get me wrong I wish I lived in San Dog. Loved every trip there for work - typically to Coronado.

BTW hope this system helps with all the fires and stuff in that area- that's scary stuff. But if you haven't had much rain since April that can't be good at all.

Washington sounds great, but I really want to be able to play all year round. In the around 10 mounts of playing time you get, how many of those days are good golfing days, and what are the rates like at area courses? For those of you suggesting Texas, what are the playing rates like there? How about practice facilities in both locations?

I live on the east side of the mountains so it's a very dry climate. Not much rain at all. Actually, we can go months during the summer months with maybe a day or two of small amounts of rain so I'd have to say about 28 days a month during the spring and summer and early fall season. I work out of my house and golf about 6 days a week at a private course in Selah (the Elks which is about $1600 for the year and unlimited golf). We have Apple Tree golf course up the road which is about $45-65 per round, Suncadia Resort which is about an hour away and the rates there are anywhere from $60 on Tuesdays to I think $90 or so. There's about another 4-5 courses in the Tri-Cities area (about another hour away) that Chris could probably chime in and give you some rates.

Housing on the east side of the mountains is much cheaper than on the west side (Seattle/Tacoma area).

Great info, thanks.

Houston. Probably lowest cost of living of all the major cities in the US.

Florida Panhandle.

Relatively low cost of living, no state income tax. Plenty of relatively inexpensive golf. Weather's similar to southern GA.

A little too sleepy for me, though.

Mississippi Gulf Coast, year around playing and cheap cost of living!

That depends on WHERE around SD you live. You don't have be IN San Diego proper to live - you can go 30 minutes outside to the Burbs and you can get plenty of good deals. Plus - who knows what kind of a place he needs for his comforts? May be he only needs something real basic? hahaha

I think 12 months of playing is difficult for anywhere but Myrtle Beach is the most likely. Housing and golf can be had very reasonably for most of the year.

The heat of Texas does not equate to 12 months of golf. I'd rather play in the winter in North or South Carolina than play in the heat of Texas from May - September.

houston area, Cooperfield is a good one. cheap new homes, lots of golf, a little humid but long season.

Siler City, NC - low cost of living. Lots of $15-25 golf courses around.

Anyone else have any input on the Carolina's? I'm looking to give myself 3-5 years to see how good I can actually get, so I'm be probably not gonna buy a property and flip it, so what about rentals in these areas?

Sure it does...if you grow a pair.

I'm from eastern NC (Goldsboro), very sleepy but golf is cheap (similar to Ronzo's characterization of the Fla panhandle). Lots of military around the ENC towns, which typically makes rentals plentiful. I could probably rent there for half of what I used to pay in rent in San Diego. To the west the sandhills region, especially near Southern Pines, has quite a bit of golf available with low living expenses. I can't speak to the mountains or SC, but there are some active posters here from those regions that could probably help you out.

Gotta say South West, Florida. I know, I know it's hot in the summer but you are always in a cart any way and the golf is CHEAP as well as the overall cost of living. There's a community called Rotonda West about 5 miles south and a few miles in-land from me and a yearly membership with unlimited golf at all 5 of their courses is around 2k and 2 of the courses are A++. There's also alot of good semi-private and public courses in the area. And you could lease a brand new condo here on the beach for 1k a month out the door, and I'm talking places that were going for 1mil+ in 05 and are now going for 3-500k.

As a response to people saying Houston- Sure you can play golf 11 months of the year, but during the summer time you won't want to tee off after 12:00PM (unless you're possibly riding a cart. maybe)

Phoenix

Hot Springs Village is a great community. $14 green fees for owners.
http://www.hsvpoa.org/

+1

http://sandiego.craigslist.org/apa/

Fort Worth, TX.

Lowest cost of living among 20 largest cities in the US. Plenty of golf courses at good rates. Area is still growing (which can't be said in most of the US). The Fort Worth-Dallas region is the third largest MSA in the United States (Behind NYC and LA), so there is plenty of variety. However, the cost of living is about 80% of that in Dallas.

You can join a good country club for $6,000 or a great one for $60,000 (much less if you're a junior) and play with many aspiring pro's and other guys who've already made it.

Personally, I love the heat and prefer playing when it's 105 to when it's 55, but that's just me. That said, I played in shorts at least once during every month of the past year. We get alot of warm days in the "winter" and very few cold ones.

If you're looking for the most bang for your buck, nothing is going to beat Texas and in Texas, nothing is going to beat DFW.

Cary, NC. Reasonable cost of living, decent range of green fees and great year round weather. Also, easy drive to Pinehurst, the mountains and the beaches of NC and SC.

North Carolina is pretty good. Plus my mom is buying a townhome and needs some one to live there before she moves down.

I live about an hour east of the "triangle" of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill in Rocky Mount, NC. You don't necessarily want to live where I do but, I have lived in Raleigh, Durham, Goldsboro, and Greenville as well and they certainly are all nice enough. However, if I were able at the moment to pick anywhere in North Carolina to live, I would choose the Wilmington area. You would be very close to a ton of nice courses, the ocean is right there and relatively speaking, the cost of living is not bad.

The Sandhills area would be another good choice.

Definitely Texas, and you can pick your area. I like the Houston area, simply because I grew up here. It does get hot, but, I have never had a problem playing at any time of any day. Cost of living is relatively low. When we were looking for a house, 2000 - 3000 sq/ft houses in decent areas were easily had for $130k - $160k. Golf is pretty cheap as well. Daily fee courses average $25 - $50, $50 being typical for weekend prices. The heat does get bad, but not bad enough to keep you indoors unless you have health problems. A healthy person would be fine. The only problem with the Houston area, and really the entire gulf coast, is hurricanes. If you are planning on renting, it's not that big of a worry.

Also, if you are looking to rent, accommodations can be had for cheap.

The above poster makes good points. I live in Palm Springs and play golf year round. Summers are hot but I can play some great tracks for peanuts May-September; and the cost of living is relatively low here compared to much of So Cal.

To top it off San Diego and LA are less than 2 hours away.

Southwest Florida

Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Estero, Bonita Springs.

The closer to the Gulf, the easier the summers are.

Lots of inexpensive golf. On-season and off.

Private clubs are hurting a bit, so good deals are to be had.

My buddy lives in Estero, there is no low cost living in the state of Florida, maybe Jacksonville, but that is really southern Georgia.

How about $189,900 with a pool on Royal Tee Golf Club in Cape Coral? http://www.visualtour.com/applets/flashvie...41866&sk=31

Here's the course: http://www.royaltee.net/

$150,000 on Palmetto Pine Country Club in Cape Coral with a pool: http://www.floridamoves.com/property/prope...302310000000000

Here's the course: http://www.palmettopine.com/

Lots of great deals to be had in SW Florida. Its the hardest hit real estate market in the nation.

I had no idea there was those kind of deals down in Florida. Personally, I'd still pick Texas (though the only part of Florida I have lived in is Ponte Vedra Beach) it certainly is a closer call than I realized.

In a post like this you usually get recommendations based on where people actually live.

Bottom line, if you want it dirt cheap, you are going to have to deal with some negative. Insufferable heat, crime, rural vs. city life, etc.

Yakima?......

thailand. cheap cost of living, cheap green fees, and beautiful weather...there is a rainy season, but it's not too bad. relatively hot though...

I 2nd Thailand.

AUSTRALIA
In sydney we play 12mths a year
plenty of courses cost about us $25-30 a game
Middle of winter at about 10-00am its averages about 65 to 75 deg
can play in shorts
summer gets warmer
Also try Brisbane to the north including the Gold coast plenty of courses to choose from at reasonable rates
Our courses are different in that they would be dryer and probably harder to play due to run and roll
Greens are not as receptive so you have to manufacture a lot of shots
makes for interesting golf

I would second Australia for good value golf all year. I would also add New Zealand for even cheaper, but climate not so good and can be pretty cold or wet at times. South Africa also some great golf at low cost all year, even if Cape Town gets a bit fresh in winter

Would caution Thailand as cheap golf, many of the better resorts are way more expensive than the $20-30 you would pay in NZ, Aus or South Africa. Mind you Thailand is normally all female caddies and the service is top drawer.

I have a question: what do you consider "playable" weather? I live in Charlotte and would say the playing season is about 9-10 months long unless you want to play in some 40 degree weather. Fairly cheap cost of living considering it is a city, and a relatively short drive to the mountains or the beach. Cheap golf is also relative. Most of the nicer courses around here are $45+ on the weekends (which is the only time I can play). Cheap to me is $20-30. I'm not a big fan of Charlotte though, so you won't hear me praising it too much.

I don't mind playing in cool to cold weather, 40's are fine, but I stop enjoying it as much when it's in the 30's.