Membership cost increase

[Oddsocks]

Spare a thought for the poor sods who have a wife that plays as well. I'm looking around for a new club and everywhere is around £2k for both of us.
Actually looking at country membership, bit of a jaunt but brings the cost down to about £900 a year.

Won’t the petrol and travelling time outweigh the saving?

 

[IanM]

I don't really factor the cost of my country membership. If I offset the value of the smile I get just driving in there, they are virtually paying me!

 

[clubchamp98]

Our overflow is on the grass. I’d like to say that’s why I bought an AWD SUV. But it was really because it was very powerful and fast.

We just don’t have the room.
It’s not a big problem until some numpty parks on someone’s driveway!
Then we get complaints.

 

[chico]

Won’t the petrol and travelling time outweigh the saving?

Don't really worry about the travel time, an extra 40 minutes round trip. I doubt it's going to cost £1100 in petrol. Because of work family etc I get to play about 40-50 times a year. I just like having a club rather than going nomad.

 

[chellie]

Spare a thought for the poor sods who have a wife that plays as well. I'm looking around for a new club and everywhere is around £2k for both of us.
Actually looking at country membership, bit of a jaunt but brings the cost down to about £900 a year.

Or the poor sods who have a husband that plays as well!

 

[chellie]

Don't really worry about the travel time, an extra 40 minutes round trip. I doubt it's going to cost £1100 in petrol. Because of work family etc I get to play about 40-50 times a year. I just like having a club rather than going nomad.

Do you not have to live far away then to get a country membership?

 

[KenL]

Spare a thought for the poor sods who have a wife that plays as well. I'm looking around for a new club and everywhere is around £2k for both of us.
Actually looking at country membership, bit of a jaunt but brings the cost down to about £900 a year.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

I’m sorry as I love Blackmoor and have played it 50+ times over the last few years, there isn’t a single aspect which is better than Hindhead in my opinion.

I enjoyed Hindhead don’t get me wrong and some of the holes in the valley are nice - but it didn’t wow me , thought the back 9 was pretty bland

Maybe just need to play it again - have played Blackmoor loads and love it

 

[chico]

Do you not have to live far away then to get a country membership?

30 miles the courses I'm looking at, mostly motorway so about 30 minutes drive.

 

[Red devil]

Liverpool here too. Totally agree with you how dire the courses are around here. The Golf Coast is massively overpriced now, but after that there are very few options sadly.

Southport resident here so smack bang in the middle of the "Golf Coast". I've given up trying to join one of the clubs around here all require substantial joining fees and have lengthy waiting lists. That have increased substantially after Covid. Even the 9 hole Old Links has a £900 joining fee. It's the not knowing a member and waiting lists that are an obstacle for me.
I just pay and play them now when I need to.

 

[mikejohnchapman]

£200 ! It didn't go up by much the previous year, due to the course being closed for two months in the summer. Fortunately the greens are better than ever now, so whilst we lost a few members on renewal as per usual, we had plenty of replacements, and they all paid a joining fee of £1900. Imagine we are still competitive compared to local courses such as Liphook, Hindhead, Farnham, Hankley etc.

Can never understand why renewals are in the winter - surely better in the spring or even summer when you have the prospect of playing the course in good condition rather than closed due to flooding.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Can never understand why renewals are in the winter - surely better in the spring or even summer when you have the prospect of playing the course in good condition rather than closed due to flooding.

My renewal notice has come in - for membership year 01/04/24. We changed from a November start membership year a good few years ago - for a couple of reasons but one being exactly that which you state.

 

[jim8flog]

We have just been informed that it will be a 20% increase this year that puts it at over £1200
My personal opinion is that Sherborne has had to have an even bigger increase and what happens there has always been taken in to consideration.

 

[D-S]

We have just been informed that it will be a 20% increase this year that puts it at over £1200
My personal opinion is that Sherborne has had to have an even bigger increase and what happens there has always been taken in to consideration.

Two questions
What was last year's increase? and what is their justification for such a large increase above inflation?

 

[KenL]

We have just been informed that it will be a 20% increase this year that puts it at over £1200
My personal opinion is that Sherborne has had to have an even bigger increase and what happens there has always been taken in to consideration.

Is that a neighbouring club?
Ridiculous that your fees are dependent on another golf course.
20% is nuts unless there was some major improvement going on.

 

[jim8flog]

Two questions
What was last year's increase? and what is their justification for such a large increase above inflation?

Last years was about expected.

No justification really given other than increase in running costs.

 

[jim8flog]

Is that a neighbouring club?
Ridiculous that your fees are dependent on another golf course.
20% is nuts unless there was some major improvement going on.

We have always kept our fees just below that of Sherborne. Realisticly we only compete against each other although there are other clubs in the area there are reasons a lot of players would not want to join them e.g for me my most local club does not allow the use of personally owned buggies and is closed a lot due to flooding.

From what I have heard we can expect an influx of members from there wanting to join us so I expect they are not worried about losing existing members due to the cost increase.
From what I know all projects that we are undergoing were already costed.

 

[D-S]

Last years was about expected.

No justification really given other than increase in running costs.

Are you a members club or proprietary?

If the former I would be asking why your running costs have increased at a significantly higher rate than almost every club in the UK, if the latter I would feel that I was being gouged.

 

[jim8flog]

Are you a members club or proprietary?

If the former I would be asking why your running costs have increased at a significantly higher rate than almost every club in the UK, if the latter I would feel that I was being gouged.

we are a members club.

Found out today the other club is raising their subs by 30%

It was discussed within the group today and somebody reckoned they making up for not raising them enough in the past 2 years.

One thing they have done is to remove the club bar levy (£50) but that make no odds to me as I spend £100s in the bar each year.

 

[chellie]

we are a members club.

Found out today the other club is raising their subs by 30%

It was discussed within the group today and somebody reckoned they making up for not raising them enough in the past 2 years.

One thing they have done is to remove the club bar levy (£50) but that make no odds to me as I spend £100s in the bar each year.

Removing the levy seems odd.