Membership in north west is expensive!

[matt71]

Just back from a weekend in Scotland visiting the family and managed to plat a couple of rounds of golf while I was there.

Muckhart near kinross and Linlithgow ( not far from Falkirk), the courses were superb and the views out of this world at Muckhart!

Now my my little gripe this am to join these clubs is around £550-650 nearly £200 cheaper than mine. The courses are stunning and greens,fairways are fantastic! Loads better than my own place and to be honest feel a bit cheated having to pay what I do after seeing what is on offer somewhere else!

I even noticed that fellow members courses are nicer than mine and also cheaper too ( mine is the 2nd best course in the area behind Preston but Preston is stupid money)

anyway back to my point why is golf membership so expensive for the north west when the north is so much cheaper ?

 

[Junior]

As a general rule the further south you go, the more expensive it gets.

I agree though, Scotland has some great courses with reasonable membership fee's....im unsure why though, could it be the cost of the land? supply and demand?, could clubs be subsidised? Could it just be because that is what people expect to pay?

 

[Imurg]

Try coming down South!
A "good" course is often well over £1200.....
Bog standard courses come in at 800+.....
As to why?
No idea

 

[Bratty]

Dunno, but given that, in the south-east, mine is £1450 this year, I don't think £700 is that expensive!

 

[matt71]

My membership is £850 a year my club : http://www.ashtonleagolfclub.co.uk

its a nice track and I do enjoy it but as you said still cheaper than down south

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Would love to have subs that cheap

 

[matt71]

Dunno, but given that, in the south-east, mine is £1450 this year, I don't think £700 is that expensive!

Does look ruddy nice though

 

[pbrown7582]

Supply and demand there are more courses in Scotland, clubs can only charge what people will pay.

 

[Oddsocks]

Around here you will struggle to find anything less than £1000

 

[Scooby999]

Wales is pretty reasonable, £650 for my stunning links www.tenbygolf.co.uk and some other good memberships options.

£1400 that's a big dent per month esp over the winter

 

[Martin70]

Lots of deals this year in South Wales if you shop around.

 

[Slab]

So who controls (or has control) on the prices in order to make them what they are?

 

[Fish]

Averages around here are in excess of £1k plus an average of £300-£500 joining fee's for 7-days.

 

[stevie_r]

Supply and demand, plus a little bit of local wage averages dictates I suppose. Around Renfrewshire/ Glasgow most are in the 700 - 800 bracket, some cheaper and some dearer.

 

[Deleted member 3432]

I don' t think Silloth On Solway is too bad at £420

 

[davidy233]

My links ticket which gets me an Open qualifying course (Monifieth medal) and a lovely little short links (Ashludie) too is £450 a year - Three clubs share the links though and my club membership is £155 on top of that.

 

[guest100718]

Plenty of decent courses in the south for around 7 to 800. Also plenty that are double that but in recent times have struggled for new members due to joining fees and probably a belief that some might see joining a golf club is some kind of status symbol and they can afford to be selective.

 

[thepodgster]

is this because of the strength of the £ with the exchange rate when you go up north?????

 

[Crazyface]

Stop paying it. Get a few other members to stop paying it......and down it will come. It is what it is probably because it attracts members because it is good. Where I play we are stuggling for members holding prices at £650. A mile away there is another place with snooty members, a course that is not as challenging as ours, or as good, membership is at £800 plus still have £800 joining fee. Go figure.

Strange world. Oh and our seniors just whooped their lot last week. :0)

 

[drdel]

A lot of old style clubs owned by members often fix subs by committee. They are usually high entry fees and subs. commonly for snobbish reasons - but their members are dying because fewer new members will put up with being 'soaked' for cash so a few are entering the real world of supply and demand. Some of the really old clubs have owned the land for years and only need enough cash to cover annual operating costs, those who are enlightened can be very competitively priced!

Clubs that are operated by 'tenant' companies must pay rent for the course from land owners and tend to be more business focussed and thus sensitive to pricing; hence more competitive.

In general, IMO.