I'm sure all of us have had a peek at the Elite collection in the Pro Shop here on the site. There are some wonderful looking prizes on offer, well we can't exactly call them prizes when you have to purchase them. Regardless, wonderful they are.
Yes, wonderful...AND pricey.
I took a look at some of the prices of the things in there and thought, wait a minute...this can't be right, these prices (converted back into actual money) are ludicrous! So today having the day off from work, and bored senseless decided to punch a few numbers together and see how they compare to buying them in the actual shop.
I didn't bother trying to find comparative prices for everything in the Elite Collection as some would require seasonal demands, flights etc in order to convert them back in to real money. I decided on using things that can be bought for a fixed price just about anywhere.
Let's start with the gift cards:
There are $250.00 gift cards for Amazon.com, American Express and Golfsmith available. They each cost 165 000cr and the $500.00 versions of the same cost 300 000cr.
This means that for the rock bottom price (now converted back into real money from credits) of $1650.00 and $3000.00 you can buy something that costs $250.00 and $500.00 respectively.
Now, according to 2011 figures the minimum wage in the USA was $7.25.00 per hour or $58.00 per day (9am-5pm). So in less than 5 working days you would have made enough money to purchase the "real" $250.00 gift card. However it would have taken about 28 days if you were working on the prices offered by the Pro Shop.
But we know that no one is dumb enough to take 28 days pay and put it on their credit card and convert it to credits to purchase the card which would have been bought 6 and a half times over in real life. Which mean you play for those credits...earn them...
So, if you're a good player, and fancy yourself in Ready Go's then you could earn these credits. A winner of a 100cr 18 hole Ready Go receives 600cr for his efforts. He will typically take about 45 minutes to complete that round, which is not bad as that is equates to $7.80.00 per hours play (above minimum wage). So now if you come first...And ONLY...first in every Ready Go you play, you would need to win 275 of them to qualify for the $250.00 gift card. It would have taken you 206 hours and 25 minutes.
Comparatively you would have earned $1493.50 in real money working your minimum wage job.
Other products I found online were the Golf clubs:
Ping G15 golf club set - 850 000cr ($8500.00) *1172 hours of min wage work
I found them online
Irons: $439.00
Driver: $199.00
Redwood putter: $300.00 Total: $938.00 *129 hours of min wage work
Taylormade R9 golf club set - 900 000cr ($9000.00) *1241 hours of min wage work
I found them online
Irons: $999.00
Driver: $400.00
Rossa putter: $300.00 Total:$1699.00 *234 hours of min wage work
Maserati Grancabrio - 70 000 000cr ($700 000.00) *96551 hours of min wage work
I found it online
$139 700.00 *19268 hours of min wage work
So how many Ready Go's do you have to win to get these wonderful prizes from the Pro Shop? Well as I mentioned I have the day off so I worked it out.
Gift cards ($250) 275 wins (206 hours of playing without losing)
Gift cards ($500) 500 wins (375 hours of playing without losing)
Ping set 1416 wins (1062 hours of playing without losing)
R9 set 1500 wins (1125 hours of playing without losing)
The SuperDuper car 116666 wins (87499 hours of playing without losing)
Add all that carnage up and its 90 267 hours of play or 3 761 days or 10 years and 100 days of solid non stop playing.
During that time you would have earned $654 435 USD doing a minimum wage job. Which would be enough to get all the products above in real life as well as a house, a boat and a packet of salted nuts.
It has taken me about 45 minutes to work all this out, in which time I could have been playing a Ready Go, but I didn't. It's also my day off, so I wont get paid today. So effectively I have made zero money doing what I have done so far this morning.
But I am about to play a game with a mate I met on here. We will both probably play badly, and we will both probably laugh and joke while doing it. We will make zero credits from this game, but we'll be glad we played together over a few laughs. Perhaps in 10 years and 100 days we'll have met in real life for a round of golf, and chatted about our jobs and had a drink or two with a few more laughs.
There are elite things to be won on this site, and none of them are listed above. Playing for enjoyment and meeting good people while relaxing and having fun is the real elite adventure/prize available to each player on this site.