Whether the golf discount for the WDW courses is a good deal depends on the nymber of rounds you play and time of year. You have to pay $85 plus tax (6%) for a
DVC discount card that you buy at any of the proshops and is good for a year (actually if you buy it early during a month it is good for longer than a year as it always runs to the end of the month you are in a year later--for example a discount card purchased on June 2 is good until June 30 of the next year). The key to the discount is that you have to play enough rounds during the year so you make up for the cost of buying the discount card. In other words your total discounts need to exceed $91 to make it worthwhile.
A member can take three other persons to play and all get the discount. Thus if you have multiple players in the family it is usually easy to make up for the cost of the card with only a few rounds. All rounds must be played after 10 a.m. and time of year determines the actual discount per round. For example, during the peak season, 1/15 to end of April, the $95 per round charge with the DVC discount card amounts to $45 to $60 per round off the regular price depending on course (Osprey Ridge is the most expensive, then Eagle Pines, and then the other three--Pine, Magnolia, and Lake Buena Vista--which cost the same. In summer season (May through September) the $35 per round charge is only $10 to $25 off the regular price (in summer regular price falls to $45 to $60 at 10 a.m.)
All the courses are very nice and playable by all handicap levels other than beginners. Osprey Ridge and the Pine are the more difficult of the group, Lake Buena Vista the easiest. The best course is Osprey Ridge by a large margin--it has the most memorable holes and two of the best finishing holes you will see anywhere. Thus, if you can only play one, make it the Osprey. My personal second choice is the Pine--it has the feeling of being an old course and the large number of pine trees (that literally eat balls) makes it quite interesting. Eagle Pines is the shortest, but it is "target" golf with long fairway waste areas and a lot of trouble around the greens. However, it is a good course for woman (or men) who play the forward tees as those tees are placed more forward than any other course there. The Pine and the Magnolia are the courses used for the annual pro tournament in October and the Magnolia has the Mickey shaped sand trap on the sixth hole that often appears in ads for the Disney courses. Magnolia is also the longest course with the most par 4's over 400 yards and two near 450. However, it has the widest fairways and I consider it the second easiest course there.
Other than during the peak Jan to April season (when you can reserve only two days in advance if you are going to use the DVC discount card), you can call and reserve a tee time up to 90 days in advance. You don't need to have the DVC discount card to call, you just need to buy it when you get there.Note that it is generally easy to get after 10 times any time of year by calling only a few days in advance except on weekends and holidays (many local residents play the coures then). If you are a single, you can still reserve a tee time; they just hook you up with others.
They sell course books at the proshops that show distances to and from various points and the size of the greens. Recommend you purchase one if you are going to play. Many of the greens are huge--some reach 60 yards long-- and without that course book you may not realize that from the 150 yard marker that back pin is really 175 yards away or a front pin only 125.
