How many members - how well does it work ?

[El Diablo]

I am looking around at possibly moving golf clubs (annual renewal April 1) and was wondering how many members your clubs have and how well it works - what do you think is an optimum number to facilitate good access to the course based upon your playing profile ?

So far the range seems to be from 500 to 770 members (all private members clubs).

I currently play at a club which has circa 550 members and it can get very busy at peak times.

I probably play 2 x 18 holes midweek plus during the summer a few 9's (or more) depending upon circumstances and 18 on a Saturday early morning (sometimes switch to Sunday to catch a comp).

Midweek, other than navigating to avoid or work around the senior and ladies reserved times (3 mornings tied up per week) it is usually very straightforward and not too busy other than the general pace of play can be pedestrian.

Weekends is somewhat different, in the winter it is pretty packed out all day if you want to get 18 holes in before dark, Sunday slightly less so and in the summer it eases off a bit as the golf gets spread out more though later rounds can be tortuously slow.

Interested in your experiences and how many you think is about right.

 

[fundy]

Were a proprietary club, membership currently is just over 400 men and approx 50 women, has been a 100 higher in total previously. We also take a fair bit of pay and play (a lot moreso since introducing BRS).

Theres some big bottlenecks tee time wise, mainly mid week mornings (where Seniors and Women block book most of the morning). We get upto 100 in comps on a weekend which means that takes the tee up until a max of 11.30am (except club champs)

 

[Lord Tyrion]

This is a difficult one as the key is active members. You can get some clubs with huge memberships but mainly occasional golfers. I suspect there is no hard and fast formula, it will be a combination of factors. Sorry that isn't very helpful but it is something to think about when others post the numbers. One example was a club up here, Alnwick, who had a low to decent membership of around 400, but then packed out the course with Groupon offers. They lost members who were fed up of not being able to get on because of £8 a round people.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

No idea what our numbers are but we're nearly full. There are recognised peak times (ladies day on Tuesday morning, several roll ups midweek, and another three or four at the weekend) but avoid those and we're not too bad even in the summer. with not booking roll up and go up and if the 1st is busy and providing no-one is playing 9, you can go out on the 10th. Never more than 10-15 minutes top to wait

 

[Capella]

Our club has 950 members (that's the full paying ones, so it does not include the juniors and passive memberships), but of those I'd say only about a quarter turns up regularly. The others play four or five rounds a year. The only time the course is ever crowded is on Sunday mornings and public holidays, when the weather is nice.

 

[JakeWS]

About 330 Members at our place I think, not many pay and plays either, just the odd society, it's almost empty half the time.

 

[El Diablo]

I think the question is probably that as I play somewhere with a lower membership than clubs I am looking at, and it seems pretty busy at various times (which mainly means slow - no round should ever take more than 4 hours ....) how much worse could this be if the membership is 30/40% higher.

Active members is impossible to measure as are playing patterns but by default is likely to be worse due to sheer volume of potential players.

I need to tap up some members who play similar times and see what they reckon though this is only one aspect.

The question then is the trade off between what drives me crazy at my current club and has gradually got worse over the 10 years of membership and how these look better elsewhere and what is more valuable to me.

 

[Crazyface]

our club has 950 members (that's the full paying ones, so it does not include the juniors and passive memberships), but of those i'd say only about a quarter turns up regularly. The others play four or five rounds a year. The only time the course is ever crowded is on sunday mornings and public holidays, when the weather is nice.

how many !?

 

[Capella]

how many !?

That's actually pretty standard for German golf clubs. For one thing we have way less golf clubs than the UK and we also have very few public courses. To be able to play golf you pretty much have to be a member somewhere. The official rule is that a club with an 18-hole course can have up to 1400 members (700 per 9-holes, that's why quite a few clubs either extended to 27 holes or did build a separate 9-hole course, so that they can take on more members). But as I said, many of those members hardly ever show up, so it does not get too crowded.

 

[patricks148]

i think we have between 700 and 1000 members. not all full playing though.


we have a fair few country and overseas members, but only about 200 regular playing. you could walk on pretty much when you like within reason though, Sat and Sunday mornings can be busy, but you could guarantee a few won't turn up for their booked time so if you were wanting a game just turn up and the starter will get you out 9 out 10 times