Membership Fees

[patricks148]

Member at 3 at the moment Nairn is just under £800 for a top 100 Uk course, Kings is £550 for reasonable Parkland course, though is a bit wet in places in winter. Nairn dunbar winter membership is £120 for 5 months, wouldn't normally have that, but Nairn is having an update this year is phase 2 for the Am championship

 

[Albo]

No joining fee, 85 a month for 2 golf courses (one championship) , driving range (100balls a month), book of vouchers including guest passes, buggy vouchers, 2for1 etc, half price pro lesson, 20% off in pro shop and in resort bars and restaurants. Annual gift at the end of year (such as a night stay, pro lessons or gift shop voucher), 10% off if you pays subs in full in March, 10% off if you introduce a member. Active membership with comps and leagues.

Option to upgrade to the gym etc.

Pretty good deal I reckon, and only 2 miles from my front door

What he said

 

[craigstardis1976]

$3,600 a year, includes cart, driving range, short game area, swimming pool and gym. In the 6th largest city in the USA and a golf mecca. You will not find much cheaper in Phoenix for a decent course.

 

[IanG]

@ £640 a year - it'd be churlish not to feel lucky... The place is very busy with visitors, so many retired members have a second club in the local area at around the same price.

 

[KenL]

~£700 for full membership on a fantastic course in great condition throughout the year.

 

[timd77]

Including fairway credit interest, I pay approx £950, no joining fee. That includes unlimited access to its sister course.

First time I’ve been a member anywhere. It’s a lovely, challenging course in the summer, but unfortunately it’s struggling now. It’s been reduced to 9 holes for all but 2 days in the last month and so not really getting value for money. Real shame. May look elsewhere next year, but saying that, it’s only 15 minutes from my house, which is a huge bonus.

Would love to join Enville, which is also 10-15 mins from my house, but the joining fee prevents that unfortunately.

 

[Deleted member 3432]

£525 full membership for a top 100 track

 

[Backache]

I pay about £1000 including bar levey.
Attractive and reasonably well maintained course, being in the West of Scotland it can certainly get a bit damp in winter.
Very convenient from home and I play a lot in the summer but infrequently in winter.
Quite happy with the value.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

£1640 plus £50 bar tab and £40 (I think) development levy. So £1730.

The £1640 is standard fare for a decent members club in Surrey/Hants/Berks borders area. It is what t is.

For this I get all year golf on a course that is superbly well looked after; great food and pro shop; and top practice facilities. The £40 development levy is currently going towards build of new and re-modelling of bunkers on four holes; rebuilding of all the bunkers on the course; and build of level tees on our practice area. Next year - complete the bunkers rebuild and significant remodelling of the 'approach' to one of our par 3s.

 

[Deleted member 21258]

To answer the question, for me :-

Reasonable to me is under £1000 for 7 days
Expensive is over £1400
Cheap is £600-700.

Country membership I would expect to be in the region of £250 to £850

My memberships are in the above price regions, but some I get much better value for money(based on cost of each round), than others. Will have to consider dropping one of the country memberships if it increases much above the £900 next year, as just don't use it enough to warrant it.

 

[Jacko_G]

I think I'm about £1260 for my main track and £260 for my country membership which will be getting sacked in January at renewal time.

I probably average at least 2 visits per week to the club whether that is to play 18 holes or to hit balls on the range.

 

[jim8flog]

A curiosity thread more than anything. With golf being a relatively expensive hobby ?

Not a comment I would agree with where I play. £20 a week for play as often as like, you could not go to most football matches once a week for that amount. Or for those that use expensive coffee houses about the same as a cup of coffee a day.

I am fortunate in that what I did for a living gave me the time to play 3 days a week (4 if I played at the weekend) these days in retirement I play 2-3 times a week so the cost per round is relatively little, add to that the lower cost of drinking in the clubhouse coffee £1.30 a mug and a pint of bitter at under £3 (Southern England cost in a pub being about £3.50-£4.00).

 

[Kennysarmy]

I pay monthly but the total costs for full 7 day is around £950.
Sadly the course does not drain well so for at least 3-4 months of the year it's carry only

I will have played ~ 73 rounds this year by the end of December at ~ 300 hours. Works out at about £3 / hour.

I'd say that's not bad value at all.

I've also played about 24 rounds at 18 other venues this year! Green fees for those will be in the region of £600 I'd estimate. They work out at nearer £6 / hour.

Interesting to work these figures out, I'm off to Forest Green tonight, £23! 90 minutes of football ~ £15 / hour! But if you include the full match day experience, ie. drinks before hand and half-time maybe it's nearer to £7 / hour.

I don't drink or smoke, gotta spend your money on something

 

[clubchamp98]

£1400 for a top quality track.
I get my money’s worth .
Play 3/4 times a week.

 

[RangeMonkey]

If it hadn’t been for the deal I recently got that gives me all the access I need to a £1240 club (by far the most expensive in a 20 mile radius), I would have joined a £420 club that has 27 holes and a driving range.

 

[sunshine]

Golf clubs obviously look at their competitors and price accordingly. The competitor isn't necessarily the course next door as an Open venue isn't competing with the nearby Pitch & Putt.

What I don't understand is how the money is spent where you have large discrepancies for similar courses across the country. Clearly, staff salaries increase as you move further south, but otherwise my assumption is that costs are similar.

For example, I’ve picked 3 decent courses in England. All are well regarded, better than average, but not elite: Tandridge £2145 (south), Beau Desert £1100 (midlands), Goswick £565 (north). Are the salaries of greenkeepers and bar staff 4 times higher in the south east compared to the north east? I’m assuming they are all maintained to a similar standard which requires a similar level of manpower.

I don't understand how this equation works. Private members clubs aren't trying to maximise profit from subscriptions by charging as much as they can.

I’m excluding the top top courses from this as they are actually real bargains … if you can earn £1000+ from a 4 ball of tourists you only need to offer a handful of visitors times a day for the green fees to subsidise the membership.

 

[Parsaregood]

Not a comment I would agree with where I play. £20 a week for play as often as like, you could not go to most football matches once a week for that amount. Or for those that use expensive coffee houses about the same as a cup of coffee a day.

I am fortunate in that what I did for a living gave me the time to play 3 days a week (4 if I played at the weekend) these days in retirement I play 2-3 times a week so the cost per round is relatively little, add to that the lower cost of drinking in the clubhouse coffee £1.30 a mug and a pint of bitter at under £3 (Southern England cost in a pub being about £3.50-£4.00).

You only need a football ticket to go to a match, if you play golf you need a membership, clubs, bag, balls ,gloves ,tees ,clothes, shoes. If you get lessons they can be expensive. It all adds up to a fairly substantial amount so I'd certainly say it was on the more expensive side of hobbies

 

[Jacko_G]

Golf clubs obviously look at their competitors and price accordingly. The competitor isn't necessarily the course next door as an Open venue isn't competing with the nearby Pitch & Putt.

What I don't understand is how the money is spent where you have large discrepancies for similar courses across the country. Clearly, staff salaries increase as you move further south, but otherwise my assumption is that costs are similar.

For example, I’ve picked 3 decent courses in England. All are well regarded, better than average, but not elite: Tandridge £2145 (south), Beau Desert £1100 (midlands), Goswick £565 (north). Are the salaries of greenkeepers and bar staff 4 times higher in the south east compared to the north east? I’m assuming they are all maintained to a similar standard which requires a similar level of manpower.

I don't understand how this equation works. Private members clubs aren't trying to maximise profit from subscriptions by charging as much as they can.

I’m excluding the top top courses from this as they are actually real bargains … if you can earn £1000+ from a 4 ball of tourists you only need to offer a handful of visitors times a day for the green fees to subsidise the membership.

Goswick will have "less maintenance and cutting" than the others being links which is a shorter and hardier grass.

 

[pendodave]

Golf clubs obviously look at their competitors and price accordingly. The competitor isn't necessarily the course next door as an Open venue isn't competing with the nearby Pitch & Putt.

What I don't understand is how the money is spent where you have large discrepancies for similar courses across the country. Clearly, staff salaries increase as you move further south, but otherwise my assumption is that costs are similar.

For example, I’ve picked 3 decent courses in England. All are well regarded, better than average, but not elite: Tandridge £2145 (south), Beau Desert £1100 (midlands), Goswick £565 (north). Are the salaries of greenkeepers and bar staff 4 times higher in the south east compared to the north east? I’m assuming they are all maintained to a similar standard which requires a similar level of manpower.

I don't understand how this equation works. Private members clubs aren't trying to maximise profit from subscriptions by charging as much as they can.

I’m excluding the top top courses from this as they are actually real bargains … if you can earn £1000+ from a 4 ball of tourists you only need to offer a handful of visitors times a day for the green fees to subsidise the membership.

I share these sentiments. I'm at a pleasant, but bog standard, private club in Herts. £1600 a year. Hard to reconcile the difference with other parts of the country.
Having said that, I won't be leaving. It's extremely convenient, my mates are there with me, and afternoons in the week and at the weekend are not at all busy. I play enough to justify it, it would just be nice if it was less!

 

[Springveldt]

£750 for a course that is nice in the summer but doesn't drain that well although to be fair it's better now than when I joined 4 years ago. It's been shut more than open for the last 3 or 4 weeks with the current spell of being closed since last Friday. The weather in the NE of England has been terrible for the last 6 weeks, feels like it's rained for 35 days out of the last 42.

I only get out on a Saturday morning and even then I feel like I get decent value for money as I do like the course during the summer. It's a nice and easy walk with not a lot of hills.

One of the lads I play golf with now and again has been asking about me joining at his place but at £1600 a year with a £1000 joining fee I'm not going to get value for money from that. The course is nice but not that nice.