Bar Levy good or bad?

[BTatHome]

£50, can't believe that it would stop anyone joining a club if one is in operation, and so scrapping it is not likely to have encouraged anyone to join either.

Great idea for the club to get a bit more money, any I'm really amazed at people that don't spend it too.

 

[TheJezster]

Our is £90 payable in October. It's usually gone by the end of the month, certainly by the end of the year.

There are probably a few who dont spend it, but seriously, how card can it be?

Played a fella last week, he had only managed to play 3 times this year due to various reasons, so hadnt spent it, so post round, not only did he buy me drinks, he bought my food as well Very nice of him.

We dont allow people to buy bottles of wine to drink off the premises at the end of the year, so you have to use it whilst at the clubhouse, which i think is reasonable.

Its not a lot of money and as I said, gets used very quickly so its a non issue for me.

 

[BoadieBroadus]

ours was £50 but was done away with on the insistence of the seniors who drink tea after a round rather than a pint. you could only use it at the bar - not for food which is a separate (but excellent) concession.

my club in scotland still has a £25 levy, but this expires after 10 months, not 12. when i found this out on a trip home 10 months and 3 days after the start of the club year, i was hugely unimpressed. not naming names, but it was East Ren.

 

[jp5]

Times have changed, I pay to join a golf club, not a social club. Of course I will stay to have a drink with playing partners after a round, though depending on the competition draw sometimes 4 hours on the course with them is enough! Dictating to me how much I should spend at the bar will make me less likely to join. If the club depends on the money that much it should be factored into membership fees.

 

[short off the tee]

hi


i have just received details of membership at a local club.

5 day membership £585.00 pa with the next 6 months having a £25.00 voucher per month to use in the clubhouse


short off the tee

 

[Sweep]

Any responsible club committee will try to set the subscription levels as low as possible. In calculating the subs, the committee will take into account the profit made over the bar and use this to reduce the cost of membership. Therefore it is often seen that those members who use the bar and support club social functions are subsidising those who don't. A bar levy at least goes some way in levelling the playing field. A £50 levy is all of £1 a week. Not too much to ask IMO.

 

[Matty]

Everyone is looking at the bottom line at the moment so golfers who don't use the 19th will but pushed away by forcing them to 'spend' in the bar up front.

Surely a better solution is to make this available as an option. Joining fee for golf or a joining fee plus a bar fee which when paid is worth double in the club house or comes with a bar loyalty card getting you 10% off all drinks (with non-card holders paying full price). That way there is an incentive to pay the money and use the facilities rather than an enforcement to make sure you spend the £50 or £100 you didn't want to spend anyway.

 

[Fish]

Any responsible club committee will try to set the subscription levels as low as possible. In calculating the subs, the committee will take into account the profit made over the bar and use this to reduce the cost of membership. Therefore it is often seen that those members who use the bar and support club social functions are subsidising those who don't. A bar levy at least goes some way in levelling the playing field. A £50 levy is all of £1 a week. Not too much to ask IMO.

Which is right in theory but not at our club as our card can be used to pay for competitions, as such, someone may not use the bar at all and yet be paying a "bar levy" and use it up, its utter nonsense at our club as it achieves nothing where calculations or projections could be made.

 

[GB72]

I can understand many of the arguments for a bar levy but the one point that always gets to me a bit is being forced to do something, in this case spend money in the bar. If you are a member of many other types of club, you pay to use the facilities, in this case the course, but not to use the catering facilities.

I can appreciate what people say about the social aspect of the club but that does not quite wash me with based on the experiences at the clubs that I have been a member of. A large part of that is due to not having drawn competitions. On that basis, everyone tends to play in their own group and socialise with them afterwards. If I am in the bar it is normally with the people I play with every week and that is the same for most of the others at the club and so going in to the clubhouse is not going to benefit the social atmosphere. Maybe that will change when I have been a member for longer but, as it stands, if I am playing with someone new then I will always stop at the bar if they are staying but if it is in my normal group, sometimes I will and sometimes I won't.

I am also not fully convinced by those that do use their bar cards subsidising the others. Surely those that do not top up their cards pay extra for food and drink to even things out.

I am not a car park golfer, nor am I someone who is in the clubhouse every week, I am something in between. I still remain of the opinion that if the club wants me to spend money in the clubhouse every week then it needs to do more to attract me in rather than force me to spend money through a bar levy.

 

[CheltenhamHacker]

As a relatively young golfer (ripe old age of 25), I'm not a massive fan of the Bar levy. I can understand why it may be required, and if I play a round, 9 times out of 10 I would stop in the bar, but I would hate to feel like I had to do so. At my previous club, I rarely used the bar, as I just didn't fancy it.

I pay for a few memberships, including a gym, and in my eyes, it's very similar.I am paying to use the facilities. I can use as many or as few as I like. A lot of gyms have a cafe area, would you like it if you had to have a levy for there? I realise the whole idea of "social membership" and belonging to a golf club is a bit different, but I, and many of my age group, relocate a couple of times during my 20's all over the UK. "Belonging" to a club isn't as vital as it used to be. It's already an expensive hobby for my age range, why make it more so? Let those who like to drink in the bar do it, and let those who don't, don't.

 

[beau d.]

13 posts on this subject with out any fall outs :whoo:
Personally I don't agree with a bar levy,if some one wants a drink after a round it should be their choice..

That's good that there are no fall outs as I find it quite interesting reading the replies.
I do try and look at the big picture myself and realise that my or most Golf clubs could not survive on the members subscriptions alone. So there are a few ways the short fall can be breached, here are some which spring to mind 1. Raise the annual fees, which with times as they are would be very discouraging for attracting new members and would go down very badly with most existing members. 2. Ramp up the number of societies, corporate days etc which would without being disrespectful to them would be very unpopular especially with myself, we all recognise we need and are most grateful of their revenue but a balance has to be struck on the amount of course/tee closures to keep the membership (the main source of revenue) happy. 3. Set a bar levy to help breech the financial gap, this also encourages people to get to know each other socially, arrange games together and so on. And most importantly you are getting something for your cash i.e food and drink, and let's be honest we must all spend way more than £3 a week on socialising, so why not help your own club to keep it's fees down and have a good laugh and a joke, chew the fat with like minded people for around half an hour after a round of golf.

 

[Fish]

That's good that there are no fall outs as I find it quite interesting reading the replies.
I do try and look at the big picture myself and realise that my or most Golf clubs could not survive on the members subscriptions alone. So there are a few ways the short fall can be breached, here are some which spring to mind 1. Raise the annual fees, which with times as they are would be very discouraging for attracting new members and would go down very badly with most existing members. 2. Ramp up the number of societies, corporate days etc which would without being disrespectful to them would be very unpopular especially with myself, we all recognise we need and are most grateful of their revenue but a balance has to be struck on the amount of course/tee closures to keep the membership (the main source of revenue) happy. 3. Set a bar levy to help breech the financial gap, this also encourages people to get to know each other socially, arrange games together and so on. And most importantly you are getting something for your cash i.e food and drink, and let's be honest we must all spend way more than £3 a week on socialising, so why not help your own club to keep it's fees down and have a good laugh and a joke, chew the fat with like minded people for around half an hour after a round of golf.

There's not a shortfall at your club though is their? I enquired recently and I think you have to be a 5 day member first and pay for weekends and the approximate time scale to become a full member is 2yrs. That sounds healthy to me!

If their is a shortfall at your club, answering an email enquiry about 24 players meeting in April wouldn't go a miss, it was sent over 5 days ago and still no reply!!

 

[Deleted member 18588]

It is interesting to read on this thread the number of postings that refer to "the club" as if it were some entirely separate entity.

Whilst this may be true of a proprietary club in members' clubs we are all, as members, "the club"​ and bar levies, or any other income raising measures, are not forced upon us; they represent a majority decision.

 

[FairwayDodger]

Bad idea for me.

Instead of "forcing" members to use the clubhouse/bar why not make it desirable for them to do so? Provide good facilities, good service, good food and people will want to spend time and money there.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Our levy is voted in at the AGM - if anyone feels "forced" to use the bar they can make their feelings know

 

[sfby]

We have a £50 bar levy, which is no problem for me as I do use the facilities. It's a new introduction (2nd year of operation) and was fairly contentious when implemented.

Some stats were produced for the first year and 143 members (of about 900) had spent nothing on their card in the year. Last year an allowance was made for members to buy wine to take home near the end of the year if they had levy funds left on the card. As they could also have paid for their comp entries via the card during the year (now disallowed), then I can only assume we have a large number of members who play only social golf, but don't visit the bar!

 

[El Bandito]

We don't have a levy - but I would happily pay one...As a bar user, a levy would be better value for me than an increase in subs.

 

[richart]

Instead of "forcing" members to use the clubhouse/bar why not make it desirable for them to do so? Provide good facilities, good service, good food and people will want to spend time and money there.

To be fair to my Club, the facilities are excellent, and the majority do use them. There will always be some members though that change in the car park, don't come in for a drink, and basically don't want to socialise. They are the ones a levy will affect most.

 

[beau d.]

There's not a shortfall at your club though is their? I enquired recently and I think you have to be a 5 day member first and pay for weekends and the approximate time scale to become a full member is 2yrs. That sounds healthy to me!

If their is a shortfall at your club, answering an email enquiry about 24 players meeting in April wouldn't go a miss, it was sent over 5 days ago and still no reply!!

Well yes there is a massive shortfall for catering and bar operations at our club. This is solely down to members not patronising the bar. Other more profitable operations heavily subsidise the bar. It would be foolish not to try and address the problem in my opinion, and the green fee may be a little cheaper for visiting societies etc.
I play no part in the running of the club regards your last paragraph. I can only suggest you try giving the course manager S Mainwairing a ring to follow up your e mail on 01543 422626. Persevere the course is a fantastic test of golf and I feel sure you will be made very welcome and have a great day.

 

[Fish]

Well yes there is a massive shortfall for catering and bar operations at our club. This is solely down to members not patronising the bar. Other more profitable operations heavily subsidise the bar. It would be foolish not to try and address the problem in my opinion, and the green fee may be a little cheaper for visiting societies etc.
I play no part in the running of the club regards your last paragraph. I can only suggest you try giving the course manager S Mainwairing a ring to follow up your e mail on 01543 422626. Persevere the course is a fantastic test of golf and I feel sure you will be made very welcome and have a great day.

I've played it twice in the last month, the rearranged Open, when it still rained, and my Captains Away Day. My Captains day was off the yellows but still a very good test but off the whites its not the extra distance, which is nominal, its the positions of the white tee blocks set back and at different angles well into the tree's.

Love the place and only 30 minutes from me.