What star-spangled visitors really think of Australia’s bargain green fees and quality of courses.

Rancho Park, a municipal course in Los Angeles that served as one of the hosts of the LA Open between 1956 and 1983, isn’t just one of the busiest courses in Tinsel Town, it might be one of the busiest in the world. The par 71, nestled between residential neighbourhoods on the west side of the city, is where Jack Nicklaus cashed his first cheque as a pro – for $33 at the 1962 LA Open. More than 20 years later, in 1985, the LA Times reported the city-owned course logged 125,894 rounds. Today, Rancho Park is even busier.

Just ask PGA Tour/Golfbet journalist, and proud Aussie, Ben Everill, who has lived in southern California for nearly 20 years. “I have a group of mates who are part of a golf social club that gets access to some tee-times, but here in LA, getting a four-ball with your three mates is borderline impossible,” he tells Australian Golf Digest.

Part of the reason is LA’s insatiable appetite for golf and its year-round good weather. Another influence, as revealed by an LA Times report in March, is that overseas-based online brokers were buying up LA tee-times and reselling them with a brokerage fee.

“I would have to drive out to Palm Springs to get a four-ball at short notice, and it’d be expensive,” Everill says. The lack of both tee-times and architecturally sound courses charging less than $US300 or $400 a round has led Everill to lobby his mates in the States to travel to his homeland.

“Some of my mates have booked trips to Scotland because I explained that once you factored in all costs, especially US green fees, Scotland was significantly cheaper than some of the popular US golf destinations. And the courses are of a much higher quality,” he says. “Those same mates are not far away from booking a trip to Melbourne from LA given it would literally cost half the price for a week of great golf, even with the trans-Pacific flight factored in, and it’s actually possible for visitors to get onto Royal Melbourne, Kingston Heath and others.”

Everill’s mentality is similar to American golfer Chris Day, a course-architecture lover and potentially the No.1 overseas-based fan of Australian golf courses.

On X (formerly known as Twitter), he goes by @GolfGuy77. Although Day is based in Phoenix, Arizona, 30 minutes from the golf course-laden area of Scottsdale, he joined Melbourne’s Peninsula Kingswood in 2021 due to his love of Sandbelt golf. As an architecture connoisseur, he’s also a member of Prairie Dunes in Kansas and Royal Dornoch in Scotland.

“My first trip to Australia was in 2013 after I saw pictures of Barnbougle; I played Barnbougle before I played Bandon Dunes [in Oregon], which is unusual for someone living in Arizona,” Day says. “My first Sandbelt experience was in 2014 at Victoria Golf Club, and in 2015 I played Royal Melbourne. I knew Sandbelt golf was different and special. I’ve made 15 or so trips to Australia. I come down two or three times a year.”

But it’s not just the private clubs that keep Day coming back Down Under. He feels our public-access golf is among the best in world. Day points to the all-day golf rate (both courses) at Barnbougle, which costs international golfers $A336 ($US219) for unlimited, one-day golf across two Top 100 courses of the world.

“Despite green-fee increases in recent years (especially for internationals), Barnbougle and Cape Wickham are still incredible value,” Day says. “It’s such a cheap rate when compared to Bandon Dunes or Pinehurst [in North Carolina]. I love the golf experience at ‘Barny’ and Cape Wickham because it feels low-key.”

There was little opposition from Day when this magazine ranked Cape Wickham No.1 in the country in our 2024-2025 edition of Australia’s Top 100 Golf Courses. Day pays the international all-day rate of $US172-$215 and revels in the oceanside design.

“It’s my all-time favourite course I’ve ever played; it’s just magical,” he says. “The setting, the architecture, and some of the best fine fescue surfaces I’ve ever played on. One of the most spectacular first and last holes you’ll play anywhere.”

Day and Everill both know that affordable oceanside golf isn’t limited to Barnbougle in Bridport, or Cape Wickham on King Island – Tasmanian locations that can be an effort to travel to. Australia is laden with regional seaside gems that charge less than $A110, sometimes much less, for 18 holes. And there’s even more top courses inland.

“I grew up in the Illawarra, where I could play Wollongong Golf Club for less than $A60, Gerringong Golf Club with 18 holes facing the ocean for $A45, and even quirky courses like Boomerang Golf Course near Bulli for $A35. We’re so lucky in Australia and sometimes I even think I might have taken it for granted growing up, now that I live in the US,” Everill says.

The good news is, international golfers can always visit the lucky country.