Oddsocks
Ryder Cup Winner
As some will remember a few weeks back i posted about my sheer disappointment in the current club and after an unofficial chat with one of the managers while at the range last week, im now convinced that nothing is going to change. Cut backs in budgets to maintain the course mean its unfortunately on a downward spiral, which is a massive shame as its one of the best muni's in the area.
So here's my predicament
My current course sort of suits my situation, £60.00 a year then £24.00 per green fee means i have the flexibility to play other courses when i fancy a change, without feeling that im losing out on a pre paid annual membership, there is around 40 comps a year and no need to pre book any tee slots, As a member section of a muni, we are allocated 9-9:30 on a sunday so can always get a game, and its only 5 mins from my house. Now i know that this can be an expensive why to play golf at around £1250 a year based on 50 rounds, and this isnt taking into account range tokens as there is no practice ground or any greenfee's, but in the 18 months ive been there its worked ok, mainly because i do really enjoy traveling.
Now up until today i had 2 course options as a main for local courses, both within 10-15 mins drive (8miles each one)
Course 1 (park wood) at £1200 (for 12+5 free months)
not a bad course, no tee pre booking and roll ups on sunday and saturday, pretty good practice area with plans for a range to be built this year, the only downside can be that it can suffer with fog during winter months as its on the surrey downs.
Course 2 (north downs) at £999 (12+4 free months),
heard good things mainly about the condition, practice area, but rolls ups on saturday only and from what ive been told tee booking for the sunday opens a week prior, effectively finish your game and pre book the following weeks tee, now this along with no sunday roll up has just taken this one out of #1 contender spot.
Now i want to get into a fixed course to play more frequently, but part of me still fancies the idea of being able to wonder to new pastures should i fancy a change of scenery one week, theres a group of 12 of tour about a fair bit, so at least once a month maybe twice im going to be playing new courses so maybe 30% f my membership could effectively be wasted
Well today another option come into play and its getting more and more appealing by the minute, Foxhills recently purchased a 27 hole local course and in the last few months have put in major investment, Rumours of around £500k in machinery, along with £200-£250k going in to each of the 3 nine holes has seen major improvements to the course, and a 1.5mil club house program is due to start any day now, along with the range they have this makes the course very attractive at only £970 a year, especially as its a 27 holer meaning it can get mixed up week in week out for different comps and will do more so once the modernisation of the final 9 holes is complete. What i also like the idea of is the fact that if one nice is more wet than the others, they have the flexibility to close one 9 to protect it and so on...
Now the best bit:
Now between the twelve of us that tour about, around half are self employed or have our own business's, and our thinking is that it is effectively 6 corp memberships that could be split 50/50 between the company owner and 1 names player, £425 pound would give each player 50 games each, options of all comps to maintain HC, with the options to take other guests to use up our allowance of 50 games per player, Ive spoke to the club already this morning, and im waiting for 2 things to be confirmed:
* is it just medals we can enter or is that all board comps too.
* if we run out of games (IE use all 100 round passes) how much are additional green fee's?
can anyone give any feeback on my thoughts, and more importantly any question that i may have over skipped.
So here's my predicament
My current course sort of suits my situation, £60.00 a year then £24.00 per green fee means i have the flexibility to play other courses when i fancy a change, without feeling that im losing out on a pre paid annual membership, there is around 40 comps a year and no need to pre book any tee slots, As a member section of a muni, we are allocated 9-9:30 on a sunday so can always get a game, and its only 5 mins from my house. Now i know that this can be an expensive why to play golf at around £1250 a year based on 50 rounds, and this isnt taking into account range tokens as there is no practice ground or any greenfee's, but in the 18 months ive been there its worked ok, mainly because i do really enjoy traveling.
Now up until today i had 2 course options as a main for local courses, both within 10-15 mins drive (8miles each one)
Course 1 (park wood) at £1200 (for 12+5 free months)
not a bad course, no tee pre booking and roll ups on sunday and saturday, pretty good practice area with plans for a range to be built this year, the only downside can be that it can suffer with fog during winter months as its on the surrey downs.
Course 2 (north downs) at £999 (12+4 free months),
heard good things mainly about the condition, practice area, but rolls ups on saturday only and from what ive been told tee booking for the sunday opens a week prior, effectively finish your game and pre book the following weeks tee, now this along with no sunday roll up has just taken this one out of #1 contender spot.
Now i want to get into a fixed course to play more frequently, but part of me still fancies the idea of being able to wonder to new pastures should i fancy a change of scenery one week, theres a group of 12 of tour about a fair bit, so at least once a month maybe twice im going to be playing new courses so maybe 30% f my membership could effectively be wasted
Well today another option come into play and its getting more and more appealing by the minute, Foxhills recently purchased a 27 hole local course and in the last few months have put in major investment, Rumours of around £500k in machinery, along with £200-£250k going in to each of the 3 nine holes has seen major improvements to the course, and a 1.5mil club house program is due to start any day now, along with the range they have this makes the course very attractive at only £970 a year, especially as its a 27 holer meaning it can get mixed up week in week out for different comps and will do more so once the modernisation of the final 9 holes is complete. What i also like the idea of is the fact that if one nice is more wet than the others, they have the flexibility to close one 9 to protect it and so on...
Now the best bit:
- 20% off all purchases with your exclusive Black Membership card. Just £50 activates the card and then top up any time you want
- Free Wi-Fi
- Free Room Hire Up to 5 last minute meetings with a 48 hour lead time.
- Free Golf Day
Have a free Golf Day on us. This could be used as either a corporate hospitality event for your clients or as a morale boosting staff golf day. T & C’s apply. - Free Guest Passes or Free Range Balls
4 Guest Passes per year or Driving Range balls worth £88. - Foxhills Treats
Receive 2 Green Fees and 2 Day Spa Memberships at our sister club Foxhills. Privileged rates are available on bedrooms. - Zero Joining Fee
100 Rounds
Handicap for 2 nominated Players including access to all board comps
7 Day Access
21 Days Advance Bookings
20% discount in bar and shop with Farleigh Card*
Range Discounts*
Complimentary Golf Day
Complimentary Room Hire
Complimentary Guest Passes
Now between the twelve of us that tour about, around half are self employed or have our own business's, and our thinking is that it is effectively 6 corp memberships that could be split 50/50 between the company owner and 1 names player, £425 pound would give each player 50 games each, options of all comps to maintain HC, with the options to take other guests to use up our allowance of 50 games per player, Ive spoke to the club already this morning, and im waiting for 2 things to be confirmed:
* is it just medals we can enter or is that all board comps too.
* if we run out of games (IE use all 100 round passes) how much are additional green fee's?
can anyone give any feeback on my thoughts, and more importantly any question that i may have over skipped.
