WDW has 5 18-hole courses, Palm, Magnolia, Osprey Ridge, Eagle Pines and Lake Buena Vista. DVC member golf discount card costs about $91 (tax included; it is $85 plus a 6.5% tax). You buy it at one of the clubhouses when you show up for a round. It is good for a year. Member then pays a discounted price for a round and can bring three guests who also get discounted price. It is good only for rounds after 10. Real issue with buying the card is that you need enough play in the year's time so that total discounts you get per round exceed the actual cost of buying the DVC card.
For the time you are going the following applies:
1. Regular rates before 10 are in the $75 to $110 range.
2. Regular rates (called price-slice rates) after 10 are $45 for Palm, Magnolia, and LBV; $55 for Eagle Pines and $60 for Osprey (Osprey is by far the most impressive course there).
3. DVC disounted price for those after 10 rounds will be $35 for any of those courses.
4. Thus, to compare prices and actual discount what you need to estimate is how many rounds you will play and where. Key to buying card is that you need to make up the $91 price with total discounts you eventually get. For example, if two players play three rounds each at Palm (and don't come back for over a year) , the card is a mistake because the total discount off regular price for those 6 total playing rounds is only $60 and does not make up for the cost of the DVC card. However, if all those same rounds are played at Osprey, total discount amount equals $150 and thus the card would be worth the money.
During other seasons you pay more per orund with the DVC discount -- $50 for Oct to Jan and $95 for Jan to April. However, actual amount saved per round is significantly higher than summer during those seasons because regular rates are much higher, e.g., in Jan to April, Osprey is $165 for rounds most of the day and thus your after 10 DVC discount is $70 for one round.
Note that Annual Passholders and Disney Club members can get a discount (believe it is now 20%) off of regular price and that can be used for before 10 a.m. rounds and does not require buying any special golf card.
There are also a lot of off-site courses which are usually low cost that time of year (others can speak better to those).
As to the Disney courses, Osprey and Palm are the most difficult, LBV the easiest, but none is overly difficult or easy. Magnolia is the longest and has the widest fairways (Palm the narrowest); Eagle Pines is the shortest but it is a lot of "target" golf with lots of trouble around the greens. All the courses are good to play and kept in excellent shape. Osprey has the most memorable holes including two of the best finishing holes anywhere. Palm and Magnolia are used for the annual PGA tournament in October (Magnolia has the Mickey shaped sand trap on the No. 6 hole that appears in ads for the courses). The courses drain rain fairly well but LBV is the slowest to do so and thus can be the worst to play right after heavy storms. You can call to reserve times up to 90 days in advance 1-407-WDW-GOLF (if you call a month before it is usually very easy to get anything you want and then still very easy to get after noon times even if you call the morning of).
