Captainron
Big Hitting, South African Sweary Person
Been injured more playing hockey than any other sport. IT's mental giving a bunch of unfit slobs like me a stick and asking us to hit a ball at each other.
Can clubs discriminate over Joining Fees?
- Thread starter IanM
- Start date
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
My club has this policy.
Male member pays £1265 joining fee
Female member £0 joining fee.
Have always thought that’s wrong.
If anybody wants to play they should pay the going rate regardless of who they are.
We also have discounts for 30 + yr olds to entice younger men to the club but they still pay a JF.
Male member pays £1265 joining fee
Female member £0 joining fee.
Have always thought that’s wrong.
If anybody wants to play they should pay the going rate regardless of who they are.
We also have discounts for 30 + yr olds to entice younger men to the club but they still pay a JF.
doublebogey7
Head Pro
Plenty of research been done already, Google's your friend
https://www.cmaeurope.org/how-to-increase-female-participation-at-your-club
Jacko_G
Blackballed
Hardly reinventing the wheel that research! Basic common sense would have told me the same as that paid for research however the proof will come if they manage to convert/temp more women into the game. Its not going to suddenly temp a 50% increase in female participation.
HomerJSimpson
Hall of Famer
How much is it? I don't think its illegal but perhaps morally it stinks. I don't know how you'd get around it other than biting the bullet and paying
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
If my wife is anything to go by I am not surprised.
Dosnt like the wind blowing her hair.
Won’t go out in the rain.
Won’t go out in the wind.
Won’t wear a hat.
She should really be living in Florida but won’t fly.
We have women who go out and play on their own and ones who won’t go out unless they have company.
I have played with good and bad ones (men also) but one thing I have never understood is positive discrimination!
If you want to play golf just pay the going rate.
Because the imbalance between men and women at my club is quite big it should not be half price to join for women .
It should be equal for everybody.
Dosnt like the wind blowing her hair.
Won’t go out in the rain.
Won’t go out in the wind.
Won’t wear a hat.
She should really be living in Florida but won’t fly.
We have women who go out and play on their own and ones who won’t go out unless they have company.
I have played with good and bad ones (men also) but one thing I have never understood is positive discrimination!
If you want to play golf just pay the going rate.
Because the imbalance between men and women at my club is quite big it should not be half price to join for women .
It should be equal for everybody.
huds1475
Journeyman Pro
They're incentivising female members, not descriminating against men.
If it was kids would you spin the same way?
Nothing to see here...
Jacko_G
Blackballed
Kids are not the same as men/women memberships.
Kids can't pay, they don't work, they rely on parents.
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
Two people apply to join my club , when approved they are both members.
But one pays £1265 less than the other.
That’s Not equality as I know it.
But one pays £1265 less than the other.
That’s Not equality as I know it.
doublebogey7
Head Pro
IanM
Journeyman Pro
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- Monmouthshire, UK via Guildford!
I see lower age related fees as helping with peoples' abilty to pay.. it cuts across all groups.
Incentiving one group isnt good if it discrimates against another. Yep, we need more women playing golf, but if my wife and I join the same club, not sure I should pay double what she's being asked to pay.
Spookily, the joining fee will stop me joining as it makes it uneconomic to do so. Think I'll point that out to them.
Wow, imagine this somewhere else, the other way round?
Incentiving one group isnt good if it discrimates against another. Yep, we need more women playing golf, but if my wife and I join the same club, not sure I should pay double what she's being asked to pay.
Spookily, the joining fee will stop me joining as it makes it uneconomic to do so. Think I'll point that out to them.
Wow, imagine this somewhere else, the other way round?
doublebogey7
Head Pro
On the same basis then you would accept that women should pay lower fee's than men as their average wage is lower.
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
Men should pay less as women live longer, where do you stop.
Women want EQUALITY.
this isn’t equal.
A woman multi millionaire would pay £1265 less than a man on the minimum wage ?
Is that ok?
clubchamp98
Journeyman Pro
I did have always said a 30yr old millionaire should not get his golf cheaper than me.
I can understand why it’s done , but don’t agree with it.
I can understand why it’s done , but don’t agree with it.
doublebogey7
Head Pro
What has living longer got to do with the ability to pay?
doublebogey7
Head Pro
So you understand then why some clubs have chosen to have lower fees for women?
Wolf
Well-known member
By that same token it could be argued why should a retired 65 year old millionaire get their membership cheaper than me. Bit of an irrelevant point bringing millionaires into the equation unless you're going to do it across the full spectrum.
Back to the OP, Whilst I understand the desire to bring in more ladies to the game and if they want to make the membership cheaper based on having a drive to increase the numbers then that's understandable as they could offer its as introductory rates of say first year at X amount then increases year on year until it hits the same amount as men, that to me would be fair and inline with how many clubs now do similar age related offers. The issue though of saying men should pay a joining fee and ladies shouldn't I don't find fair at all, I've previously said in many threads I don't agree with joining fees but I won't get into that as it goes off in all tangents.
Grant85
Head Pro
I was at a club where woman were not full members. They paid roughly 1/3, but only had certain access to tee times.
It seeemed to suit a decent number of people and they had a reasonable sized section a lot of whom would probably have baulked at full fees.
They couldn’t vote or attend the AGM and there was the usual attitudes. I remember one year a load of guys voting against an older lady member getting life membership - she was in her 70s, grand daughter of the original land owners (who gifted the land) and had played there all her days.
Other clubs I’ve been at where woman were full members, I don’t really get it. They seem to play at different times and certainly not Saturday mornings. Maybe that’s their choice, but to me it seems they are getting less for their money.
It seeemed to suit a decent number of people and they had a reasonable sized section a lot of whom would probably have baulked at full fees.
They couldn’t vote or attend the AGM and there was the usual attitudes. I remember one year a load of guys voting against an older lady member getting life membership - she was in her 70s, grand daughter of the original land owners (who gifted the land) and had played there all her days.
Other clubs I’ve been at where woman were full members, I don’t really get it. They seem to play at different times and certainly not Saturday mornings. Maybe that’s their choice, but to me it seems they are getting less for their money.
Capella
Journeyman Pro
I am in favour of anything that get's more women involved in the sport. I don't think membership or joining fee discounts alone are going to cut it, though. In Germany, we have a very high ratio of female players and I never heard of any club charging lower rates for women. Some clubs have family rates, where your partner and your children pay less when they join if you are already a full paying member, but that is usually just a small discount and it is not gender specific. Like my mom pays 100 € less than my dad, but it could just as well be the other way round, since they both joined the club at the same time.
I still think it is mostly a cultural thing. In the UK, golf traditionally is a sport men play to get away from home for a few hours, and even if the wife plays as well, she usually does so with other ladies. In Germany, it is a sport that partners and families enjoy together. There are exceptions on both sides, of course, we have all male and all female comps during the week as well, but especially in he age group of players under 50, the general sentiment seems to be that golf is way more fun in a mixed group. And the female players here get every bit as equipment crazy, competetive and passionate as their male counterparts. No membership discounts needed.
I still think it is mostly a cultural thing. In the UK, golf traditionally is a sport men play to get away from home for a few hours, and even if the wife plays as well, she usually does so with other ladies. In Germany, it is a sport that partners and families enjoy together. There are exceptions on both sides, of course, we have all male and all female comps during the week as well, but especially in he age group of players under 50, the general sentiment seems to be that golf is way more fun in a mixed group. And the female players here get every bit as equipment crazy, competetive and passionate as their male counterparts. No membership discounts needed.
Jacko_G
Blackballed
Nope.
