Intermediate Golf

[Crazyface]

I'm not in favour of this. If they want to play they should pay the full member costs. Don't give me the "they have young family" arguement. They have low mortgage rates, 4.5% praise the lord what we'd have given for that. They have rented brand new cars. They have £40+ mobile phone contracts and phones worth more than I paid for my first car. I didn't pay golf until I was 34ish. After I'd finished with footie. And that's how most will do it anyway. Giving them a bonkers cheap rate will not make them stay when the rates go up. They will mostly clear off to be nomads.

 

[Orikoru]

Who put 50p in Crazyface this time?

 

[BiMGuy]

My son has a phone that cost more than your car. You should see how little his annual subs are.

I think subs should be based on the ability of a person to construct a coherent sentence and use paragraphs! (yes I am fully aware my subs would go up a significant amount)

Maybe @Crazyface and @TimShady should start a topic to discuss all of the different ways the world is out to get them!

 

[TimShady]

My son has a phone that cost more than your car. You should see how little his annual subs are.

I think subs should be based on the ability of a person to construct a coherent sentence and use paragraphs! (yes I am fully aware my subs would go up a significant amount)

Maybe @Crazyface and @TimShady should start a topic to discuss all of the different ways the world is out to get them!

Au contraire, I absolutely agree that we should do more to make golf accessible to those of lesser means.

 

[HomerJSimpson]

We have an age related discount to 35 which I do find excessive and unfair. At a push I'd have it up to the 30th birthday and I agree most will have the house, kids, car etc by that time and the majority will be on an OK job with suitable remunerations so I don't see why they need the discount. I understand there is some degree of dangling the carrot to try and get them into being a member for a number of years and so less likely to suddenly move once these discounts finish and to be fair they would be the next generation of the club, but I still think 35 is way too long (at my club at least)

 

[Old Colner]

We have many age level discounts, not sure of the exact bands but definitely into the 30's, they were implemented mainly as others have said to try to get younger people involved and hopefully stay on after the discounts, we had an ageing membership with the vast majority being seniors,

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I’m in shock - imagine Crazyface being unhappy that someone is getting something cheaper than him

Well I guess all that research multiple clubs and governing bodies have carried out to try and get people into golf was a waste of space and we shouldn’t have done anything

It’s almost as if we haven’t been able to change our demographic by adding at least 70 members under the age of 35 where before we had a total of 3. And it’s almost unthinkable that that people that have migrated from intermediate to full member have stayed at the club


We have a system where the fees go up each year to ensure the jump to full isn’t too large

 

[Bunkermagnet]

Personally I think intermediate should start to taper back from 25 and stop at 30. I have no problem with that. Perhaps also we should abolish the senior rates as well. I don't see why they should get a reduction on the 7day rate when most 7days members can realistically only play 2 days a week, as we still work.

 

[AddisonRoad]

I'm not in favour of this. If they want to play they should pay the full member costs. Don't give me the "they have young family" arguement. They have low mortgage rates, 4.5% praise the lord what we'd have given for that. They have rented brand new cars. They have £40+ mobile phone contracts and phones worth more than I paid for my first car. I didn't pay golf until I was 34ish. After I'd finished with footie. And that's how most will do it anyway. Giving them a bonkers cheap rate will not make them stay when the rates go up. They will mostly clear off to be nomads.

Didn't you say a few months ago you were considering leaving your club due to the welcome offer they were providing to new members? That sounds.... pretty nomad-ish to me.

 

[Bdill93]

Our clubs stops at 30, some locally run to 35.

I'm also in this category until I turn 31 in September - so bring it on.

I am time poor, I can only play golf some weekends but not all and some evenings in summer - I play significantly less than the majority of the rest of the membership.

Yes, I have a young family, my son is 2, his nursery fees for 1 day per week alone over a month are £300.

I have a mortgage locked in at present at 2.2% but soon have to remortgage (June) and find an additional £300 a month approx for my payments. My wife has reduced her hours though to help us cover childcare costs.

My house is worth over 8x my annual salary, was that ever the case when rates were very high? Inflation is a thing, £40 for a car says it all...

I work in the public sector, wages are not increasing significantly.

I apologise to you for my cheaper golf membership but man is it totally justified.

 

[Orikoru]

Our clubs stops at 30, some locally run to 35.

I'm also in this category until I turn 31 in September - so bring it on.

I am time poor, I can only play golf some weekends but not all and some evenings in summer - I play significantly less than the majority of the rest of the membership.

Yes, I have a young family, my son is 2, his nursery fees for 1 day per week alone over a month are £300.

I have a mortgage locked in at present at 2.2% but soon have to remortgage (June) and find an additional £300 a month approx for my payments. My wife has reduced her hours though to help us cover childcare costs.

My house is worth over 8x my annual salary, was that ever the case when rates were very high? Inflation is a thing, £40 for a car says it all...

I work in the public sector, wages are not increasing significantly.

I apologise to you for my cheaper golf membership but man is it totally justified.

My club's lower subscription actually runs until aged 39 - that's one of the big reasons I joined that as that made it cheaper than most of the other local clubs. It is only around £200 less than the full membership though so shouldn't be a huge shock when I turn 40. In fact my subscription will have increased by that much since I joined as it is anyway.

I think the majority of people in their 30s are in a similar boat to you and certainly don't have disposable cash to fritter around. If we have a second child (which we would like to) we'll have to move to a bigger home, and somehow find the money to double the nursery fees etc. It might be the case that I genuinely can't afford a golf membership anymore when that time comes. Yet apparently we are all rich with our lovely low mortgage rates and fancy new cars. News to me.

Those saying to cap the low rates at age 30 - what would be the point of that? Nobody in their 20s plays golf anyway.

 

[Imurg]

We have....
Junior
Intermediate in full time education 18-25
Intermediate 18-20
Intermediate 21-25
Intermediate 26-30
New Full Member 31-33
New Full Member 34-36
New Full Member 37-39
New Full Member
Full Member (5 years+ with £200 discount)

The fees gradually increase which, I guess, is a good thing...but it's a bit over the top.
Could easily chop the number of categories in half but that would increase the jump from category to category...

I'm for them and against them.
They make it easier on the new family age group.
I'm against them purely because I've never benefitted from them.....

 

[WGCRider]

Personally I think intermediate should start to taper back from 25 and stop at 30. I have no problem with that. Perhaps also we should abolish the senior rates as well. I don't see why they should get a reduction on the 7day rate when most 7days members can realistically only play 2 days a week, as we still work.

On the other end of the scale I think fees should increase for the over 60. You've got boys playing 4 times a week paying the same as those that can only play Saturdays.

 

[Voyager EMH]

I'm looking forward to 2029 when I will get the 40 years loyalty reduction. Sometime after that I will get the right-old-codger discount.
I have no issue with the whippersnapper discounts. I would not disagree with further tapering up to 31-35.



If only I had not had that gap from 1980 to 1988.
I would have had the 40 year thing in 2014.

 

[Orikoru]

I'm looking forward to 2029 when I will get the 40 years loyalty reduction. Sometime after that I will get the right-old-codger discount.
I have no issue with the whippersnapper discounts. I would not disagree with further tapering up to 31-35.

View attachment 51751

If only I had not had that gap from 1980 to 1988.
I would have had the 40 year thing in 2014.

Wow, there can't be many who have been a member for 80+ years.

 

[Peter Alliss]

Ah yes, get as many young people hooked into clubs as young as possible. Charge a joining fee to keep them there as well.

Splendid.

 

[sjw]

I'm not in favour of this. If they want to play they should pay the full member costs. Don't give me the "they have young family" arguement. They have low mortgage rates, 4.5% praise the lord what we'd have given for that. They have rented brand new cars. They have £40+ mobile phone contracts and phones worth more than I paid for my first car. I didn't pay golf until I was 34ish. After I'd finished with footie. And that's how most will do it anyway. Giving them a bonkers cheap rate will not make them stay when the rates go up. They will mostly clear off to be nomads.

You might have had a higher interest rate, but you probably paid £3.50 and got a packet of biscuits thrown in

 

[RichA]

I know wealthy younger people, poorer older people, vice versa and many on a sliding scale in between in either direction.
Unless golf clubs start to introduce means testing, which would be ridiculous, it could never be completely "fair".
If you can afford it, pay. If you can't, look elsewhere and stop worrying what other people are paying. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Voyager EMH]

Ah yes, get as many young people hooked into clubs as young as possible. Charge a joining fee to keep them there as well.

Splendid.

Hello.
Are you a grumpy old man?

 

[Genu9]

Hello.
Are you a grumpy old man?

View attachment 51752

Ah! The Ghost of Fairways Past..........

and a Gentleman to boot.