How much would you pay to join a Golf Club

[colintrav]

Lets be realistic ,as i feel this subject is rarely spoken about by the Mags in general .

Golf club membership fee's

Even before the eco situation , what price did you pay to join your local Club and have you seen the prices drop since the Eco situation to entice new members and visitors ..?

Are you full members and what benefits do you get


IMO some venues do seriously over charge for memberships .. IE Loch lomond for starters 75grand and even if your a member you still have to fork out and extra 100 for everytime you invite your friends to play a round .

 

[Ste_Denial]

75k for a membership fee!!! thats steep

im not a member but my grandad is, he paid £375 for a weekend membership which is unlimited golf and i get a couple of quid off everytime we play

 

[tiger_sheridan]

Well, for admittedly a short 9 hole course, i pay £95 (ninety five) for family memebrship - which gives unlimited golf and the option to buy a Cheshire card which gives half price golf on most courses in cheshire.

I have to say I cant complain!!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think when I rejoined Ascot it was avout £1k and the same again as a joining fee. Expensive for the first year but just about value for money since.

 

[Herbie]

75k is that a misprint? That is utterly daft!
I wouldnt pay more than 500/600 at a decent club and at a significant club may stretch to a grand.

For 75k membership I would want to be carried to and from my car/toilets/clubhouse, I would want my bottom wiped for me should it be required and I would want my own personal day of golf at least 12 times a year where I had the course to myself and invited guests, I would also require my own parking space and a free caddy service and thats just for starters.

 

[colintrav]

75k is that a misprint? That is utterly daft!
I wouldnt pay more than 500/600 at a decent club and at a significant club may stretch to a grand.

For 75k membership I would want to be carried to and from my car/toilets/clubhouse, I would want my bottom wiped for me should it be required and I would want my own personal day of golf at least 12 times a year where I had the course to myself and invited guests, I would also require my own parking space and a free caddy service and that's just for starters.

It's true , and recently it was reported the Owner of the Place was in Financial trouble yet he was looking for planning permission to build 3rd Course And yet 20 chefs were paid off due to the severe downturn in business .
Bear in mind the 2nd course has a joining fee of 5000 , Cheaper than the Lomond but still out of pocket of the local Golfer ..

The venue itself isn't aimed as the Average Golfer it's aimed at those Super yacht owners , Celebrities and Rich Investors .

Playing Golf is about appreciating the game , not to be exploited by those only interested your Money .

 

[colintrav]

Also it's cheaper than the newly built club in the vicinity of Hamptons New York joining fee is £500,000 .

 

[colintrav]

I think when I rejoined Ascot it was avout £1k and the same again as a joining fee. Expensive for the first year but just about value for money since.

When was the last time you bought Andrew a Drink

 

[Cernunnos]

Of course none of this answers the original question posted by the O.P. Or at least the crux of what is reallyimportant.

I do think the answers can & are multi faceted. On one hand what we'd like to pay & what we are prepared to pay & then there is what some of us find we need to pay to be a member of a club.

To be quite honest I think no-one should need to spend much more than £300 for any club membership anywhere for a reasonably popular club. I'd say £350 as a working figure. Especially if a club wishes to make aditional income from lessons, equipment & food & drink from its members.

Around where I live I generally have no option but to in general pay more than what I consider golf membership is worth. This is where we enter the hazy ground of what we are prepared to pay & what we find we need to pay for a membership. The thing is we all want & need to play golf. To some of us membership is more important than for others.

And when we get to these murky waters of what we are prepared to pay & what we need to pay for the club we want to play things start to get really complicated.

I'm currently between clubs & weighing up whether I really want a membership with all that, that entails or simply a season ticket, where I can play all the local golf I want without the hassle of making myself available for club comps. Something I see as a chore, as most club comps are not held when I consider it convinient. Not to mention I really only want a handicap to enable myself to guarentee myself admission to certain clubs I want to play, not that I'll be able to do much if any of that this year.

I've seen dozens of really good courses around the country that if I lived there I'd love to play & at prices I'd consider reasonable & leave me with enough money to allow me to have a bacon bap & a coffee then a sandwhich & a Pint when I come off.

As far as local courses around here go the ones that come in at those sort of prices are either 9 hole, or Par 3 or get waterlogged at the mear mention of rain & even then I'd pay more than I want to have to pay.

So its not always a case of what we/I'm prepared to pay but what I/we need to pay, just so long as the bank balance will stand it. This year its a not stand it, so It leaves me with no option but one this year. Fortunatly, I happen to enjoy my only option of somewhere to play for the rest of this year.

Most of the clubs I want to play mean parting with £600 - £800, something I cannot afford, this is before even taking into acount joining fees for the first year or years, dependant upon the club.

Fortunatly I can get a season ticket that gives unlimited access to two local'ish courses for £290. which I consider a bargain, but if I wanted membership to either club its aproximately another tonne on top, something I can live without at least for this year.

As for Joining fees I don't want to be paying them anywhere.

On the issue of courses asking silly money to play them. Its just that, its silly money & makes a real joke of exclusivity to the extreme.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

When was the last time you bought Andrew a Drink

[/QUOTE]

No idea what you are talking about????

 

[Cernunnos]

On the eco front the local course I would like to be a full member off that is closer than that which I find I'm going to have to pay for, is too expensive & has incresed its prices even though its eco efforts have actually made it more efficient. Okay, they are spending a bit of money in improvements & rejigging of certain holes & would have loved to have been in a position to join as a full member this year.. Hey ho.

 

[CrapHacker]

For someone commited to supporting a decent club, I reckon £15 a round is reasonable. Playing once a week for 40 weeks that's £600.

That's what I'd say is about right.

But round here the going rate seems to be £700-£900 ish.

However, for me the question is irrelevant at the moment. I can't afford a spare pack off tees. So until then, it's P&P as and when it's affordable

 

[colintrav]

When was the last time you bought Andrew a Drink

No idea what you are talking about????

[/QUOTE]

So Prince Andrew rarely appears at your club then lol

 

[haplesshacker]

We've gone down this road before. What some of our Northern friends think is reasonable and what we think is reasonable here down South are two very different things.

Try finding a golf club to join around here for less than £600! Yet this seems a high figure up North!

I prefer to look at it, not in terms of pounds, but in terms of value. Yes my budget is tight, like many others, and that is why value matters more to me than price.

So in terms of critria it probably goes something like this.

What's the course like bearing in mind the cost of a round or membership. Some course I believe are over-priced for what they offer in the way of quality.

Is the course a challenge to me; but not too much. I have to able to be motivated by results, not demoralised by impossible odds.

Does the club have more than one course. I get bored easily, so having a different track to tackle makes it all the more worthwhile, and keeps the golf 'fresh'.

Can I get to it in half an hour? I don't want to waste time travelling, or stuck in traffic.

Does the club run weekly competitions?

Does the club have any practice facilities?

These things are more important to me than just price. It's about value for me. But then again, that's all just relative.

 

[pigmeister]

I paid £825 this year at John O`Gaunt and i consider that to be money well spent for one of the best 36 hole private members courses in this part of the country. The joining fee is around £1500(i think???), which again i think you can pay over 3yrs. I could`nt play muni`s each week, following moron`s(and 5 ball`s) with half a brain cell in jean`s and t`shirt`s smacking the ball over the place, taking 6 hour`s and not letting you through. I know they are not all like that, but if your paying £20+ each week on green fee`s, it`s got to be worth thinking of joining a club.

 

[Deleted member 1740]

I will not pay a joining fee to no club on principle, and if i'm missing out on "exclutivity" then so be it. Especially when the joining fees are more than the yearly its a disgrace imo.

As for yearly subs as long as the course was well looked after, playable all year round etc then i'd pay £1k year. Some of the muni's by me charge £15+ a round and the courses aren't that great.

 

[mono217]

I'd pay £500 max

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I think I get value for money at Ascot. I have a decent practice ground, a new and challenging course (compared to the old track in the middle of the racecourse) which is maturing and getting better year on year. We have a full competition and fixture list. Its easy to get to and the members are friendly. There is always a good atmosphere in the 19th. It ticks all the boxes.

 

[robin]

Having had a happy time at Whitehills, Herts at about £780 a year, but no investment in facilities, I joined Essendon (London Hatfield) for £1195 where I get 36 holes of quality golf in very pleasant surroundings and friendly staff.
I actually got 16 months for 12 as there are now a number of good offers available and many clubs in Herts waiving the joining fee.

 

[CrapHacker]

The other thing I'd concider nowadays, which I haven't done in the past, is take a lesson before I joined anywhere.

For me, getting on with the pro would be vital nowadays.