The Golf Trip You Can Actually Afford This Year

Let's get the uncomfortable number out of the way first. A single round at Pebble Beach costs $695 as of April 2026, plus a $60 cart fee. To book it ahead, you'll usually need at least two nights at one of the resort hotels.

If your first reaction was a small, involuntary noise, you're in good company. Most of us aren't building a golf trip around a number like that, and nobody should feel weird about it.

Here's the good news. Every bucket-list golf destination has a cheaper door. Sometimes it's a different course a few miles away, and sometimes it's the exact same course in a different month. Plenty of great rounds of golf come at an affordable price if you know where to look.

Dream rounds and their budget twins

All figures are per player, per 18-hole round, for 2026.

Sources: Pebble Beach, Bandon Dunes official 2026 green fees, Monterey Peninsula fees, Pinehurst-area fees, TPC Sawgrass, TPC Scottsdale. Rates change often, so check each course's booking page before you go.

Five budget moves that actually work

Play the neighbor. Pacific Grove Golf Links has been called "the poor man's Pebble Beach" for years. Its back nine runs along the Pacific, and you'll share the fairways with deer who act like they own the place. (They do.)

Play the same course in the off-season. Bandon publishes rates by month, and resort guests pay about a third of the summer price in December and January. Bring rain gear and you'll get world-class links golf for less than many country clubs charge on a Saturday.

Fill the afternoon with a par 3 course. Plenty of resorts have a short course that costs a fraction of the main event. Pinehurst's nine-hole par 3 course, The Cradle, is the kind of place where a $5 bet gets very loud very fast.

Book stay and play. Golf packages bundle lodging with green fees, and the per-person math usually beats booking each piece yourself. That's especially true in the Sandhills and at Myrtle Beach, where packages are everywhere.

Bring three friends. Vacation rentals split four ways usually beat four hotel rooms, and tee times come in fours anyway. A buddies trip is the cheapest kind of golf travel there is.

Budget-friendly golf destinations

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Myrtle Beach is the original budget golf vacation. The Grand Strand has dozens of public golf course options within a short drive, golf packages built for groups, and vacation rentals right on the beach. You can play 36 a day and still find a seafood buffet open at 9 p.m.

The Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Alabama

Alabama's RTJ Trail spreads 26 courses across 11 sites, and every one is public. Its green fees have long been the envy of golfers in other states. Turn it into a road trip and stop for barbecue at every exit.

The Sandhills, North Carolina

Skip No. 2 and play the neighbors. In Southern Pines, Mid Pines is a classic Donald Ross design with friendly stay and play rates. Down the road, Talamore is a Rees Jones course that once used llamas as caddies. The llamas are retired now, but they still live on property and they're still the logo.

Talamore Golf Resort also owns Legacy Golf Links, a Jack Nicklaus II design in Aberdeen that joined the resort in 2024 and has been getting a full refresh since. Talamore's golf packages include options at about two dozen other Sandhills courses, which makes it easy to build a whole week without touching the resort premium.

New Kent, Virginia

This is the sleeper pick. Halfway between Richmond and Williamsburg, Royal New Kent Golf Club is a Mike Strantz design that debuted in 1997, and it plays like a slice of Irish links golf dropped into Virginia. It's a public golf course, and it reopened in 2019 after a full restoration.

A short drive away, The Club at Viniterra is a Rees Jones championship course that opened in late 2009. Pair the two and you've got a long weekend that feels a lot more expensive than it is.

Orlando, Florida

Crooked Cat at Orange County National is a public championship course that's hosted stages of PGA Tour Qualifying School and LIV Golf's 2023 debut. In late summer 2026, prepaid deal times were listing for under $70 a player. That's tour-tested golf at an affordable price.

Desert golf on a budget

Desert golf gets dramatically cheaper once it heats up. Las Vegas has plenty of courses, and Mesquite, about 80 miles northeast in Nevada, is known for friendlier green fees than the Strip. Scottsdale and Palm Springs both drop their rates after the winter peak. Book the earliest tee time you can find and you'll be done before the real heat shows up.

Worth saving up for

Some golf destinations will never be cheap, and that's fine. Pebble Beach, Bandon, and TPC Sawgrass sit at the top of that table for a reason. Same goes for a summer week in Northern Michigan, where Bay Harbor's nine called The Quarry plays through an old shale quarry. Use the moves above, pick the right month, and the dream trip gets a lot closer.

The shortcut

Then there's the trip you don't pay for at all.

The Monterey Slam covers the priciest row of that table for a group of four: five rounds across five Monterey Peninsula courses, including Pebble Beach, seven nights at The Inn at Spanish Bay, a full set of clubs, premium apparel, and $30,000 cash. One entry gets you in the draw for this round.

Book the budget trip with your crew this year, and Tap In for the one that covers Pebble too.

No purchase necessary to enter or win. See Official Rules for eligibility and free entry details.