Annual fee's & membership problems

Teetotal

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I suspect the cheap ladies fees may date back to the not so long ago era when ladies weren't allowed on the course at the weekend. However now they have equal rights that's really not fair. Couples fees are a good way of attracting people - at my gym you can join with a friend if you are single to benefit from the discount.
I would love to join a club but where I live I can't commit or afford to forking out the membership fee. Who knows if I'll be living in the same area in three years time. That may be why all the local clubs are full of pensioners.
 

GB72

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From conversations that I have had receently, there has been in an increase in people who are ditching their membership and prefer to use the money to pay and play on a number of courses over the year. Certainly at a number of clubs in my area, members are being treated very shoddily with the approach appearing to be that the club already has that money and now wishes to pander to the needs of the society or the pay and player to secure even more money for the owners. Don't get me wrong, golf clubs are business and should be run as such but if the members are not getting any preferential treatment for their investment, they may as well just pay and play.
 

viscount17

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I don't know if my situation is atypical; I haven't been in golf long enough to know.
Club fees are low but the club doesn't own the course, it's more a case of 'based at'. The club runs the comps, administers handicaps etc.
Course fees are more of a season ticket, definitely worth paying for if you intend to play more than twice a month.

I do know of other courses in the area where you need more than a second mortgage, an interview and invitation just to pay the joining fee; you've still got club subscriptions on top. Even then you will only be permitted 5-day. In the fullness of time (and if you humble youself suitably) you will be invited to take 7-day but will also be expected to pay another joining fee.
 

brendy

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Interview etc at my club but I was lucky in that a few members died (unlucky for them) that year and I got straight in 7day, I do not think i'd be interested in house, 5 or 6 day membership, ive said it before with golf I live for saturdays.
 

GB72

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I too can only play on one of the days that the weekend and that is a another frustrating aspect. I can only play once a week for a majority of the year and so the joining fee and high annual costs seem even greater. If I could play 3 or 4 times a week it would not seem so bad.
 

Parmo

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As I don’t drive and a taxi to my local municipal about £10 return and £13.50 green fees, a month that works out with six games a month at £141.00, but my localish private (pub, range and course not so much an elitist style club) is £15 return in a taxi and £63 a month full membership and works out at £153.00 + I get free buckets, free use on the very good 18 hole course and decent 12 hole 3 par course & the other benefits of being a member.

So for an extra £12 a month I would be a mad man not to join up, but wait… there is a £450 joining fee, I know not that bad as it goes but things are tight at the moment and £450 would get lots of things finished. I might check with them to see if they can add the joining fee to the DD payments but then again it would push it to £190 a month…
:(
 

clubchamp07

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Equal rights are coming and faster than we know!!!!! I'm on our clubs council and we have asked our ladies section to move their day form a friday to any other week day but they wont budge. Our Manager could sell our course to companies 3 times on Fridays and make a fortune for our club but the ladies wont play. I dont know how many ladie members we have but I have been looking at their time sheet on Fridays for the last few months and apart form Open comp's for them there are at the most 61 ladies go out on Fridays. I wouldnt mind but during the better weather these times are spread from 9am till the last ladies go out at 5pm. I went down last Friday with a friend of mine and we caught up with 3 ladies. Well I 'm not joking here we had to check if we had put our trouser's on I mean you should of seen the glares we were getting. Equal rights are comming and faster than we know it. :mad:
 

clubchamp07

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I've just looked at our Friday time sheet for a ladies competition and counted 40 ladies out all day. ^ of these ladies wont play the competition because their 2 old. so that leaves 34 ladies taking up a course all day. The men cant book a time even if there is 3 hours between the ladies. As I said I'm on our council alot of the guys on council dont care about Fridays so I'm banging my head aainst a brick wall................ :mad:
 

John_Findlay

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Sorry to be grumpy, clubchamp, but that sounds like a prime example of bad management at your club!

You have 60ish ladies going out over 8 hours. Sorry, but you should allocate 15 tee times for them! That's 2.5 hours at 10 minute intervals.The rest of the day makes you much needed visitor income. Why are you letting them trample all over you? Equal rights? I think not. You're exercising positive discrimination.

Thank God our club doesnt have a commitee. We'd go bust.
 

John_Findlay

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alot of the guys on council dont care about Fridays so I'm banging my head aainst a brick wall:

They will when their subs go up by £100 next year. I only hope your lady members are all heavy drinkers...to make up for all the custom your bar is losing by allowing them free rein on Fridays.
 

USER1999

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I think the joining fees are there to hook you into a club. What clubs don't want is for golfers to join a club for two years, and then move to another one for a bit of a change when you get a bit bored. Joining fees effectively stop this happening and enable clubs to plan long term.

I hate friday societies with a passion. A lot of people no longer work friday afternoon, and you can't get near the course for the societies. I know fridays are a popular choice, but the members should come first.

Thursday is ladies day for us, but it doesn't seem to cause huge problems. They also have a dedicated slot on Saturday mornings too. Again, this doesn't seem to matter either. They pay less, but then on competition days (sometimes Saturdays, sometimes Sundays) they can't play at all. When you look at the number of comps over the year, this is substantial. All their medals are on Thursdays.

If you join our club, you have to serve about a year as a five day, unless you join in division 1. This is just the way it is. If you can't except that, don't join, or get a better handicap.

Joining fees, and 5 day membership seem unfair, but I am sure the reasons for it are pretty sound. If all our 5 day members were made up to full tomorrow, the course would be rammed. We have looked at reducing membership anyway to reduce the wear on the course. For similar reasons my course is also trying to reduce societies too.

You will guess from this that mine is a 'members' club. It is not run as a profit making business, but run by and for the members. I would not consider joining a commercially owned club, as you are at the mercy of the owner changing the business plan to make more money, and once he has your money, your opinions / playing time don't count.
 

USER1999

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If you think golf courses should be run just for your benefit and convenience, rather than the benefit of the whole membership and visitors to the club, by achieving a well maintained resource, with a stable membership and a stable financial plan, then yes, we are old school elitists. However, most visitors enjoy our club, and its' friendly atmosphere. We are also one of the few courses around that still have a waiting list, which has just reopened, as we had so many people on it, it was closed 4 years ago.

On the other hand, since you want to play on your own, pay the minimum amount possible, play at dawn (and finish before the bar opens), not meet any one new, etc... How elitist is that. A club of one. Marvelous. That'll be a successful business.
 

GB72

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My only issue with the above description of a members club is the 5 day membership. As I cannot play in the week it would not be for me but if those are the rules then so be it. I would not object to paying for such a set up, however as it is clearly run for the benefit of the members. My objection is with those clubs that see the members as nothing more than a revenue stream. They charge a joining fee not because it is a necessary income for the running of the club but because they can and because it stops people leaving if the service is not up to scratch. I object to ever increasing fees for less and less benefit. A club local to me is soon to switch to compulsory booking of tee times for members, not because the members want it or because it helps but because it will allow the owner to put in place block booking provisions for the hotel on site. One of the 2 courses is frequently closed for societies and the other jammed as the pro-shop will not group together 2 balls to ease the pressure. This is my objection, paying joining and membership fees when the benefits of being a member are being reduced all the time. If I could afford it, I would love to be on a course that is exclusive in its numbers so I could be assured that I would be enjoy my round of golf but these are few and far between. I will happily pay the fees if there is some value but increasingly this is not the case.
 

Parmo

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On the other hand, since you want to play on your own, pay the minimum amount possible, play at dawn (and finish before the bar opens), not meet any one new, etc... How elitist is that. A club of one. Marvelous. That'll be a successful business.

To be honest I have been thinking about this all week, and decided that the best way to play golf is to sample other courses week in and out rather than be stuck with the same over priced course.

If I play alone or with others it should make no difference to anyone as long as I am paying my fees like the old folks who slow down play in groups of four hacking away and strolling along.

It also sounds like some people can not leave work in work but take it to everything they do in life including the club.
 
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