Orange County National Golf Center & Lodge in Orlando, is making an effort to raise $40,000 for victims of Hurricane Katrina by Labor Day. And their method of doing so will also benefit golfers looking to play a great course at a great rate. On Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 5), Orange County National is offering this deal: For a minimum donation of $30 to the American Red Cross, you’ll get a round of golf and free lunch. For players who can’t get there on Monday, they are also offering these deals on prepaid foursomes: * 100 foursomes for September play for $100 ... full post »

The Cheap Bastard takes this job seriously. For approximately 45 minutes, three or four days a week, I think of nothing but getting deals for golfers. Sometimes, it can be hard to find these deals, so I’ve decided to just start creating my own. I am proud to introduce the first deal for what I humbly like to call the “Cheap Bastard Discount Club.” Thanks to general manager Pete Campbell, Turquoise Valley Golf & RV Park in Bisbee, Ariz., now offers readers of this blog a round of golf with a cart for $25. This is their special twilight rate, but ... full post »

Saving golfers and travelers big money is what the Cheap Bastard is all about. We all have our missions in life, you see. With Hurricane Katrina wreaking havoc throughout the South, now would be a good time for us to support a group with a much higher purpose than just saving a few bucks. The American Red Cross was founded in 1881, and they have been helping Americans and the world ever since. If there’s a natural disaster, the Red Cross will be there to help as fast as the Cheap Bastard gets to a half-priced buffet. So for all our friends ... full post »

The Cheap Bastard is now in Atlanta and was angrily rebuffed by CNN’s Paula Zahn. Someday she’ll come crawling back to me. Following the trail of Tim McDonald makes a guy hungry, however. I know he’s somewhere in the South, so my plan of action now is to start staking out the only place I’m sure he’ll end up. The Waffle House. OK, there are 1,500,000 of these places in 25 states across the U.S., but I’m feeling lucky. The Waffle House, much like the Cheap Bastard, is not much to look at but is loaded with delicious food. Waffles, grits and ... full post »

A lifetime of seducing flight attendants means the Cheap Bastard can usually fly anywhere at a moments notice – and get an extra bag of those priceless, life-sustaining honey-roasted peanuts. So that’s why I’m heading for a quick one-day stop to Mesa, Ariz., before I resume my hunt for Tim McDonald in the South. Las Sendas Golf Club is the destination, and face it, it’s about the toughest course in Arizona with a 149 slope rating. The Cheap Bastard isn’t troubled by things like fear, however, especially with the summer deal they are giving at Las Sendas. For just $45 Monday ... full post »

Tim McDonald once borrowed 50 cents from me to buy a newspaper and he still hasn’t paid me back. The Cheap Bastard does not allow such slights. Luckily, I hear Ol’ McDonald is somewhere in the Deep South, just like yours truly. So I’ll be tooling around down here on the Gulf Coast for a while, trying out a couple new golf clubs I got from Optin Golfer. I picked up a brand-new Trinity Golf Stiletto II Beta Titanium Driver from them for just $24.95, as well as six fairway woods (two through nine loft) for just $49.99, which is the ... full post »

So just spent my last weekend in Florida - the Sunshine State has one less Cheap Bastard on its hands (for awhile, anyway). I headed down to Miami to complete my time here. Most of my time off course was spent at the Bayside Marketplace, searching for free samples and signing autographs for my many female admirers. Because El Cheapo has had a stressful week with all this golfing, traveling and a class-action lawsuit that came completely out of the blue, I decided to first spend a night at Don Shula’s Golf Club. They have a deal for $110 right now ... full post »

The Cheap Bastard has the stamina of three men – provided at least two of those men are in some type of coma, of course. Still, when there is a deal to be had, the Cheap one here has superhuman powers. I’ll need those powers today, as I’m just heading off to The Eagles Golf & Country Club in Odessa, Fla., to play golf – all day. They seem to have gone clinically insane over at the Eagles, which is sad for them and their familes, but great for a bargain hunter like myself. Get this: For $29.95, I get to play ... full post »

The Cheap Bastard gets his Internet connection comp’d, so if I’m not traveling, on the links or entertaining the ladies, you can usually find me online, hunting for deals to pass along to my millions of readers. For a while there, Craigslist was a favorite, but recently I found another, better site that is just ripe for some Bastardization. The site is called Oodle, and it more than lives up to its name. What Oodle does is collect all the classified advertisements, Ebay listings, etc., from one city and then presents a simple search method to find what you’re after. Currently Ooodle ... full post »

How can you not like Costa Rica? It has beautiful girls, great coffee and more beautiful girls. Plus, you can golf. If only they had lush fields of double cheeseburgers, the Cheap Bastard might just end his travels forever. But it sounds like fun to visit and, thanks to Costa Rica Golf Adventures, now you can do it without breaking the bank. I just found a 5 nights and 6 days excursion on the beaches of Northwestern Guanacaste Province that includes: Five nights in four-star hotel, three green fees, including cart and range balls, and a breakfast buffet each morning. The ... full post »

The Cheap Bastard is never wrong, he just has a unique philosophy on correctness. Still, after reading yesterday’s tip for bargain golf in Orlando, an alert reader directed me to Golf407.com, where a quick search showed you can save an additional 29 percent at Grande Pines Golf Club during off hours (after 2 p.m.). The Cheap Bastard is usually well into the 19th hole by 2 p.m., but the advice seems sound, especially if you want to play Grande Pines for just $30. Meanwhile, lots and lots of Florida tracks offer discounts for residents of the Sunshine State – just present a ... full post »

So I made my way from South Carolina to Florida this past weekend. The Nova needs a new alternator but it’s easy to get yourself a ride while hitchhiking when you have the dreamy good looks of the Cheap Bastard. Aside from having a lot of old people as well as the occasional hurricane, Florida has some of the best deals available for golfers in the summer. I ended up in Orlando, where I played the Grande Pines Golf Club for just $49. Of course, to get that rate you need to be a Florida resident (the Cheap Bastard is un-officially a ... full post »

Looking at a golf trip to Spain? I see where sundrenchedgolf.com is offering some discounts on Costa Blanca green fees. They’re offering some very tasty deals, it seems. Which brings up another point the Bastard wants to make: Whenever you see discount travel deals listed, be sure to CALL the dealer and ask if that’s the best they can do. With you tone of voice, suggest that you’re really not that impressed with their offer. They’re likely to sweeten the deal or at the very least, throw in a free cocktail or something at the resort bar. You could do a ... full post »

Hey, I’m an expert on budget golf. I pinch pennies. I pinch waitresses in the arse. I am proud to walk in with a coupon to get myself a deal. Santee, South Carolina is basically a bunch of chuck holes on wide-open fields that they refer to as golf courses. The strippers remind me of Tonya Harding, but with a few more pounds. They’re like Chevrolets with a lot of mileage that have seen a lot of car lots. Santee will tease you with $48 specials that look good. Hey if all you require is a field with 18 holes in ... full post »

One of my forefathers, the late, great Leopold C. Bastard, was involved in the purchase of Manhattan from the native population. He never got over the loss of so many beads. It was a blight on the Bastard family name, honestly. Which is another reason I work so hard to find you the best deals and give you the best advice I can. Call it Bastard Pride, if you will. So here’s a tip for the day: Ebay. I just took a look and it seems as though ol’ isoldit.ca022 is tired of having a Calloway Big Bertha six-iron lying around the house. With about a day available ... full post »

The Southern Oaks Golf Club in Lake City, FL is a good deal at $40 green fees to the public. It’s a pretty good course, and the only real decent 18-holer in this area, between Jacksonville and Tallahassee, south of Valdosta and north of Ocala. The course has a slope rating of 135, so it is not a pushover, especially from the back tees. It’s right off Interstate-75, so there is some traffic noise, but the course slowly works its way out of noise range and into some good, north Florida backwoods. It also throws a variety of different looks, for ... full post »

If you live near a real ritzy area, keep an eye on the local churches for rummage sales. Trust the Bastard on this, there are LOTS of old rich widows who are happy to finally get rid of their dead husband’s golf stuff. They clean out the garage and toss it on the church sale pile at rock-bottom prices just to get rid of it. How do you think I got most of my clubs? My bag? All my sweet golf clothes!? My “I’d Rather Be Golfing” paperweight? My book of Billy Casper golf tips? The Lord may taketh away their husbands, ... full post »

You want some of the best, cheap golf in the country? Try the unlikely Auburn-Opelika area in Alabama, recently voted the best metro golf area in the U.S. by a top golf magazine. You can start with its average green fees of just over $38 and end with Grand National and its three highly-rated courses on a site Bobby Jones practically fainted over. The Links course is considered the star by many, partly because its finishing hole is considered the toughest on the Robert Trent Jones Trail. The Lakes course has 12 holes hugging the lakeshore – and its 230-yard, par-3 ... full post »

I have a little Scottish blood in me, I confess. Probably that’s why I have such a keen eye for saving money. The last time I was over there, I could not believe how cheap those people were (I learned a lot). I aim to get back over there ASAP to do some bigtime golfing. Surfing around I came upon a web page full of enough bargains to put a serious tilt in my kilt. Check out greenfeesavers.co.uk. - Cheap Bastard full post »

It stays light a little longer in the desert. And the Bastard finds most courses in the Phoenix-Scottsdale corridor only give you their Super Twilight rates after 4 p.m. when they know you have no real shot to get in a full 18. (Those are the real bastards, if you ask me!) But Trilogy at Vistancia is one of the exceptions. It’s $20 after 3 p.m., which makes a huge difference. Yeah, it’s still late for old folks. Just take a nap around noon. If it worked for Reagan … - Cheap Bastard full post »

So, here I am: BLOGGING! Before I get this thing rolling, I want to introduce myself. I’m going by my pen name Original Cheap Bastard, because that’s what the guys I golf with always call me. But you know what, there’s not a damn thing wrong with driving with range balls (why send a good ball into OB land?) and bringing my own beer to the course. And I ain’t in any hurry to give up my persimmon Hogans just because Tiger plays something “better.” Anyway, I’m not using my real name here because I have a sweet gig with ... full post »