Worrying times ahead for golf clubs

[Banchory Buddha]

Plenty of options available for all, I'd prefer a March to October membership they could shut it down for 4 months save the extra costs for me #MartinLewis

Today's interest rate hike perfect for the extra spends required if you have savings to work with.

And then every year you have to recruit new staff, good in theory, terrible idea in practice

 

[2blue]

I can see a lot of clubs just simply shutting the clubhouse down when they come off fixed rates and there is no government cap in place. They won't be able to justify a 4 or 6 fold increase in energy prices.

Not so easy at some, where there is a Pro-shop, Driving Range & swing studios for lessons as well as a Bar that's Franchised

 

[Neilds]

My club has just released its fees for next year which have gone up 10ish %, they are also now welcoming new joiners immediately, so the waiting list appears to have vanished

Vanished or is the club just letting all those on the list join immediately? If the latter is the case, this will lead to the possibility of established members leaving when the new members take all the tee slots and they can't play when they want to. The club should be very careful about how many members they can properly accommodate.

 

[Orikoru]

I saw a list of next year's fees, assuming it stays accurate, my subs go up from £1320 to £1425 for the year. ? So about 8%? Guess it could be worse.

 

[Blue in Munich]

Seem to remember ours are capped at 5% unless agreed at a higher rate at an EGM.

 

[hovis]

My club has just released its fees for next year which have gone up 10ish %, they are also now welcoming new joiners immediately, so the waiting list appears to have vanished

The club I've just left where boasting a large waiting list. It turns out that the majority of people put their name down during the pandemic and today are not so keen to put their hand in their pocket. There is no longer a waiting list.

Another local and more exclusive club told me there was a 3 year anticipated waiting list when I enquired during the summer. I asked last week and they said "maybe 1 year but we're looking at reintroducing a 5 day membership"

 

[2blue]

OnTour said:
Plenty of options available for all, I'd prefer a March to October membership they could shut it down for 4 months save the extra costs for me #MartinLewis

Today's interest rate hike perfect for the extra spends required if you have savings to work with.

And then every year you have to recruit new staff, good in theory, terrible idea in practice

Yeah, we've seen this brand of economic thinking lately.

 

[Oddsocks]

My club has just released its fees for next year which have gone up 10ish %, they are also now welcoming new joiners immediately, so the waiting list appears to have vanished

this is forward thinking as they are clearly expecting to lose a few at renewal. Fair play to them.

 

[Oddsocks]

Plenty of options available for all, I'd prefer a March to October membership they could shut it down for 4 months save the extra costs for me #MartinLewis

Today's interest rate hike perfect for the extra spends required if you have savings to work with.

I’ve always thought a 9 month membership would be a more attractive offering for a lot of players who don’t play in winter months.
couple that with a huge increase in costs to operate an empty clubhouse during quieter periods and it would t surprise me if this popped up on a few courses.

 

[Biggleswade Blue]

I’ve always thought a 9 month membership would be a more attractive offering for a lot of players who don’t play in winter months.
couple that with a huge increase in costs to operate an empty clubhouse during quieter periods and it would t surprise me if this popped up on a few courses.

But what is the club going to do in the 3 "quiet" months? Course still needs to be maintained, staff retained and so on. Subscriptions for the 9 months would have to increase so that the work can continue all year round, as you can't just have three months with no costs.

 

[Blue in Munich]

I’ve always thought a 9 month membership would be a more attractive offering for a lot of players who don’t play in winter months.
couple that with a huge increase in costs to operate an empty clubhouse during quieter periods and it would t surprise me if this popped up on a few courses.

I believe we operate this at my club; you pay exactly the same as an annual membership but just don’t bother to turn up and play when the weather is ?. ?

 

[D-S]

A club near here offered a summer (6 or 7 month) membership. 12 month members went ballistic as they were paying a lot more for longer but worse golf), a lot switched to this new membership. They got a few extra members but the net result was a massive loss of revenue (due to switching) so it was scrapped the following year, they then lost all the new joiners and many of the switchers so had to increase subs - total catastrophe.

 

[Albo]

Vanished or is the club just letting all those on the list join immediately? If the latter is the case, this will lead to the possibility of established members leaving when the new members take all the tee slots and they can't play when they want to. The club should be very careful about how many members they can properly accommodate.

That’s a good question, I had assumed vanished but they may well just be taking on my players

 

[Albo]

this is forward thinking as they are clearly expecting to lose a few at renewal. Fair play to them.

Possibly but if they don’t lose people at renewal that could lead to being over subscribed

 

[hovis]

But what is the club going to do in the 3 "quiet" months? Course still needs to be maintained, staff retained and so on. Subscriptions for the 9 months would have to increase so that the work can continue all year round, as you can't just have three months with no costs.

What do they do in Scotland ?

 

[OnTour]

But what is the club going to do in the 3 "quiet" months? Course still needs to be maintained, staff retained and so on. Subscriptions for the 9 months would have to increase so that the work can continue all year round, as you can't just have three months with no costs.

we have an honesty bar so no bar staff to worry about, catering is outside company and more of a takeaway tbh. fairways are shot so no need to cut them till April (actually they don't so no stress there) just get somebody on the greens and the leaf collector and bingo (reduced costs) tbf it's not ideal to have 9 months memberships but I'll happily find a membership with a 50 mile radius option like Cleeve hill £250 + egu or a points based system for £400 all in. sadly got to luck after no1 nobody else will.

 

[GB72]

A club near here offered a summer (6 or 7 month) membership. 12 month members went ballistic as they were paying a lot more for longer but worse golf), a lot switched to this new membership. They got a few extra members but the net result was a massive loss of revenue (due to switching) so it was scrapped the following year, they then lost all the new joiners and many of the switchers so had to increase subs - total catastrophe.

This is the thing with a lot of golf memberships. The standard full membership does not suit a significant number of golfers with it often being the case that those who can play the least pay the most. As soon as a club puts forward a plan that allows peak (weekend all day) access in Summer at a cheaper cost, a large number are going to switch and the club loses money.

 

[Imurg]

It must be workable to only be open for a set number of months per year
Places like Canada, Switzerland etc have snow coverage for a few months every year..everything closes down and reopens in the Spring.
Obviously we don't have the guarantee of snow or even enough rain to warrant it but 2having a plan for these months must be a good idea.

 

[Blue in Munich]

With regard to the reduced time memberships, clubs may need to keep an eye on members operating their own scheme. Let me explain.

Our subs used to run on a calendar year and we were fairly relaxed about changing categories. A trend was then noted amongst certain members of suffering ailments that would prevent them playing in the worse weather, and switching to social membership in January 1st; said ailments were normally miraculously cured when the sun came out, and they switched back to full membership.

The club’s response was to move the subs due date to May and tighten up the rules on switching categories which has stopped it dead. Unfortunately they’ve done it so tightly that people with genuine injuries will think twice about changing categories because they may not get back in the following year under the current arrangements. Still, as one that is affected by that, rather that option than other members taking the proverbial out of us.

 

[GB72]

With regard to the reduced time memberships, clubs may need to keep an eye on members operating their own scheme. Let me explain.

Our subs used to run on a calendar year and we were fairly relaxed about changing categories. A trend was then noted amongst certain members of suffering ailments that would prevent them playing in the worse weather, and switching to social membership in January 1st; said ailments were normally miraculously cured when the sun came out, and they switched back to full membership.

The club’s response was to move the subs due date to May and tighten up the rules on switching categories which has stopped it dead. Unfortunately they’ve done it so tightly that people with genuine injuries will think twice about changing categories because they may not get back in the following year under the current arrangements. Still, as one that is affected by that, rather that option than other members taking the proverbial out of us.

We had a bad case of that at my old club. Because there was nothing stopping them as you could leave mid year at no cost, some did not even need an excuse and just resigned their membership in October and signed back up in April.. That has been stopped now at least.