Value for money from your membership. Are you getting it?

[palindromicbob]

I know for sure that I'm not.

So far I've managed 4 qualifiers at home. Played 1 shotgun start (walk off after 13 due to rain), 4 9 hole evening rounds and 2, 18 hole knock arounds.

Work, has been a barrier to social knock arounds (last thing I want to do in the evening is swing a club when I barely want to lift my head to watch TV).

I have enjoyed several Opens this year at other courses but a few of these have been on days when there wasn't a qualifying comp at home (such as ladies days etc) and then I do usually have one Saturday Society day per month so that reduces options.

Weather has been the real killer though. Have cancelled a few rounds because playing in ridiculous mounts of rain isn't my idea of enjoyment. So far I've worked it out at about £74 per 18 holes. This jumps to about £165 purely based on qualifiers. Looking ahead there is only about 4 more qualifiers scheduled that I am likely to be able to enter. Think there is one Sunday qualifier and a few other Sundays are closed to host match play comps so even a casual round is off the table. Other things like scrambles or 12 hole comps just don't float my boat. Come end of September the season is over even though the October is likely to be a great month for golf if last few years are anything to go by. Ok there is always winter league but without handicap adjustments it's meaningless to me so drive to play is reduced.

Maybe if I'd focused more on just playing at home I'd have played about 8-10 home qualifiers but that still doesn't represent much value for money.

Next year I'll be looking at my options and will join another course that has some good offers on just to maintain my handicap and GUI status and use the money saved to play more opens around the country. Tempting to go nomad and play society golf but enjoy opens to much to want to drop GUI status.

Anyone else struggling to get value this year?


Sorry for the rant but really just spitting it out there. The other bug bear that the groups that seem to get the most golf out of their time are also those that pay less in fees but that's a whole other thread!

 

[Imurg]

It can be hard for some to justify the cost of membership, that's for certain.
Personally, I reckon but the end of the "year" (April) each round will have cost me somewhere between 2 and 3 quid. I include rounds on our short par 3 course - I can go round that 3 or 4 times in little more than an hour.
I'm lucky.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Im very lucky that i work shift so im playing around 80% of the year so getting very good value for my membership

 

[full_throttle]

Despite now working days I think I'll still get about 100 rounds in at my course, working about £5 each. If I added the competition/match fee to the cost I'd be up to £7 per round.

 

[Hobbit]

i'm a member at a course I want to play. Whether it works out at £2 a round or £50 a round, I'm happy. The alternative is to either join somewhere cheap, that I won't enjoy as much, or become a nomad and then not have comps etc to play in.

 

[palindromicbob]

I'd probably be happier and use it more if there was decent practice facilities. There is a putting green in front of the club house but no chipping allowed. The practice facility has a raised green where you can't practice bump and runs and doesn't really allow you to emulate the types of shots you need around the course. You could get really good at flops shots I suppose.

 

[KenL]

I am getting great vfm. Fees are £650. I play well over 100 rounds per year at my club and being a teacher really ramp it up over the hols. Probably play 30 rounds in my 6 week summer break.
I had been a member of two clubs for about 5 years but couldn't justify the extra cost but it did mean I had a huge amount of qualifying comps - sometimes 2 in one day.
i also play quite a few opens which provides some variety.

 

[JT77]

It depends on how you look at it really. Galgorm is hosting a challenge tour event this week and the course looks amazing, but I'm not able to play it til Monday. So far this year I have played a decent amount, but I have been walking off disappointed in the quality of the course as they Gear up for this week all year round which makes it worse quality for members than it should be. At least we might get 4-6 weeks now where it's good to play but then this will all start again.
I love the course and friends I have but every year this goes on I get more and more disgruntled. My problem is it's the only decent course near me, 2 miles from my front door and pass it on route home. Moyola is 14 miles away and I like it a lot, if I played twice a week I would join there and it's getting a possibility now if we have to put up another event. I used to play 9 maybe 3 times a week and 18 at least twice currently I am playing 9 once or twice and 18 a Saturday.
Lots of thinking to do I reckon, but sometimes I'd rather play quality less often than below par more often!

 

[palindromicbob]

It depends on how you look at it really. Galgorm is hosting a challenge tour event this week and the course looks amazing, but I'm not able to play it til Monday. So far this year I have played a decent amount, but I have been walking off disappointed in the quality of the course as they Gear up for this week all year round which makes it worse quality for members than it should be. At least we might get 4-6 weeks now where it's good to play but then this will all start again.
I love the course and friends I have but every year this goes on I get more and more disgruntled. My problem is it's the only decent course near me, 2 miles from my front door and pass it on route home. Moyola is 14 miles away and I like it a lot, if I played twice a week I would join there and it's getting a possibility now if we have to put up another event. I used to play 9 maybe 3 times a week and 18 at least twice currently I am playing 9 once or twice and 18 a Saturday.
Lots of thinking to do I reckon, but sometimes I'd rather play quality less often than below par more often!

High quality in a realistic distance to make use of is limited. I'm now thinking of City of Derry. It's a decent track but more importantly to me it's significantly cheaper to join. Even if I only played it 6 or so times I'd be getting better value for money and then price difference will pay for lots of opens at the higher quality courses in the country even when I take the additional fuel costs to play there into consideration

 

[stevek1969]

Even tho ive had a horrific season, i still get fantastic value for money. The way i look at it I'm £630 a year for my fees and the standard green fee is £65 a round, from February onwards I'm playing for nowt in my eyes. I'm lucky i work shifts and the weather during the winter wasn't to bad up here, i missed 1 week due to course closure so normally play 3 times a week.I love going out at night with a half set and just jumping around the course as its normally quiet at night and playing a few holes. So t answer your question I'm lucky that i do

 

[garyinderry]

City of Derry is poor in winter time. lovely course in the summer mind you.

 

[duncan mackie]

I've just lost the long version via crashed tab...

Don't know why you are there - nothing posted is positive about the membership experience.

Leave.

Join a municipal based club somewhere in the UK for about 50 Inc union fees, transfer current handicap and retain C status via Q open events in the future.

The end.

 

[palindromicbob]

City of Derry is poor in winter time. lovely course in the summer mind you.

That's not an issue since I'll probably make use of opens at the links courses for my winter golf fixes anyway. Tend to really drop down the amount I play from November to Jan anyway and the days get so short and work usually gets busy.

I've just lost the long version via crashed tab...

Don't know why you are there - nothing posted is positive about the membership experience.

Leave.

Join a municipal based club somewhere in the UK for about 50 Inc union fees, transfer current handicap and retain C status via Q open events in the future.

The end.

Don't mean to sound so negative about the club. Members are friendly and bar staff are great. I also enjoy the course.

Really got value when I worked shift patterns. Used to be able to go out for 18 after night duty or in the afternoon. Also got down during summer evenings when I worked days or just hit the practice area during a lunch break. Odd midweek comp and I'm pretty sure Sunday comps were more common last year.

Course is in great shape even with all the rain and the greens are usually in excellent condition even into the later part of the year.

Trouble is I now work Monday - Friday with 1 Saturday in 6. Same working hours per week but time is more stretched with it. There are no membership options it's either all or nothing. A points based system or a membership with pay as you play would be ideal. The weather this year has also been less than good and think that's getting to me and no club can prevent that.

Muni based isn't an option for me. Want to retain GUI status to have full access to the opens and also maintain my handicap. Don't want to be a ghost member somewhere, I know a few that did and it's not worked well for them.

Think I'm just loudly listing the cons to justify the inevitable move to myself.

 

[Green Bay Hacker]

Pay less than £400 per year and play between 45 - 50 comps a year, of which about 30 are qualifiers. Also play about 25 midweek 9 hole comps. Add in all the times I nip up to the club for a quick 9 holes practice or 18 holes if HID is working then I think it is extremely good value. There is a great social side as well but the only downside is that it is a 9 hole course.

 

[Smiffy]

I joined Cooden last November under their "flexible" membership scheme. For £495.00 I received 420 "credits" on my card, which worked out at £ per credit once bar subscription etc. and other things were taken out.
Seemed fine at first, but I soon ran out of credits.
Entry into any form of competition cost me 30 credits, irrespective of when it was played. A round of golf during the week cost 26 credits. Stupid thing was, if I took a guest down to play with me it cost them £21.00. So they were actually getting on the course cheaper than me!
By the time our Open week came around, I found myself 30 credits "overdrawn" and had to put another £200.00 into my credit pot.
I've now become a full member. It should (if I carry on playing the amount of golf I have been playing throughout the year) work out cheaper.
Full membership costs about £1,100.00.

 

[Toad]

I'm definitely getting good value from my membership thanks to flexible working hours.
We have two full championship courses and probably the best 9 hole course in Scotland and I'm £745 for the year, with a £50 green fee for visitors after approximately two months play I'm getting my golf for free.

 

[ScienceBoy]

If over the course of a season you pay about the same for a round vs non-members then you are up. You may even be up if you end up paying a touch more per round if you make use of free practice facilities or sneak in a couple of holes a few times. Certainly can't do either of those as a member!

The above said, clubs can do more to keep customers happy, a clear distinction in value over non-members should be demonstrated, be it financial, facility or freedom.

 

[duncan mackie]

Muni based isn't an option for me. Want to retain GUI status to have full access to the opens and also maintain my handicap.

Pay and play based clubs would still deliver all of this.

 

[JT77]

Bob, I think if I had the option to move I would. If your happy to drive then it would be worth it.
For the time being in going to stay at Galgorm but another pro event next year could certainly change that.

 

[needmoreclub]

Not wanting to hijack Bob's thread, but i notice that there is a few 'shift workers' commenting. I do shifts as well and a member of a small club with a low membership, so course is not great nick. plenty of bigger courses round about, but not sure how many comps i'd get in on a Saturday morning early doors when i'm back shift. Would it be worth the move or stick with the smaller, poor nick course but get 'millionaires golf' all week. How do you shift workers get on with comps? If this should be a separate thread feel free to move it MODs.