Lack of New Members.

All,

Over the past couple of years there seems to have been a dwon turn in new members especially of the younger generation.

We have tried a number of insentives but non have seem to have down the trick. We have abolished our joining fee and offer a voucher scheme where new members would receive £50 (free) to sapend behind the bar.

Alot of money has been put back into the course and it is now starting to reap the rewards however it has not helped to stimulate new members or member joining from other local courses.

Is this just down to Golf not being a popular in the days of Nick Faldo being world number one or is there something cleverer which other clubs have done to generate new memberships?

Your views would be appreciated.

Regards

David.

I think youll find nomadic golf is taking over. I havnt found a course yet that i want to play week in week out. i would consider it though if the price was cheaper or at least saved me money over a years games. I played 25 games last year, 5 of these were well out of my local area so if i said that i played 20 games locally at avg of £20 each, the club joining fee couldnt be any more than £400 for me to break even.

I do understand what your trying to achieve but i think there might be an obvious answer, lower the price for weekend warriors like myself.

Am i missing the point though, if i have missed any of the benefits of joining a club please enlighten me. Are they worth the extra money?

There are too many courses now and all the new ones are fighting for members, the only problem being that these new courses will never become a golf club in the true sense of the word.

I recently checked the membership fees for two course that I was previously a member of and to my surprise both of them were only circa £700 for full 7 day membership.

My club will never be a golf club as it belongs to "Crown Golf" and will always be looking for pay and play golfers. We have no priorities whatsoever.

I think Colin gets it just about right with the nomadic thing,I have recently joined a club which does a kind of subsidised membership whereby I payed one hundred and eighty pounds and pay eight quid a round (points are awarded every round and acumulate for free rounds) but still enjoy all the benefits of a membership, h.c. and  comps.

I don't think youngsters today buy into the "entertainment" thing, I think they want to just play golf, maybe have a beer and then go....

Dont get me wrong, i would love to join a club that has an excellent course and has all the traditional jacket and tie dinners etc but i just doent play as much as i would like and it appears to me that my purchasing power is stonger as a nomadic golfer than as a club golfer. If i dont like something i can just go elsewhere. I just wish the places i could play were a bit more choosy about who else they let on the course. I would definately pay an extra nominal fee if they enfored dress codes, conduct on the course, but thats a whole other thread

I'm one of the nomadic weekend warriors that have been alluded to.  The reason that I haven't joined a club is not the money but I enjoy playing a variety of courses.  I played the same course five weekends on the trot last year and wanted a change by the end of it.  I didn't go back there for a month. 

I think that the number of courses and the ability to buy a day ticket at most of them without a handicap card is what is preventing many from joining.  If I could join a club that had three or four courses (and was within my price range!) so I could still mix up the game I would probably join.  Birmingham coucil run a scheme with their courses where you pay £600 and have unlimited golf for 12 months on any of their 7 courses (one is a 9 holer).  It gives you all the normal benefits of membership (comps, handicap, etc) without tying you to one course.  That is more tempting to me. 

Perhaps clubs located within a certain radius should get together and for a small additional fee allow each others members to play their course.  I'm sure if you were told "Right, it's £700 for a year's membership, but if you pay an extra £100 you can play these three courses as well as an 'associate member' " then it will encourage membership at all of them. 

Christopher W, You missed my point. I am a weeken warrior only by the fact that i work full time and cannot get a round in midweek. This does not make me disrespectfull to the game or members of a club in fact youll find me quite the opposite.

Youll also find that i also advocated the increase of green fees to maintain a standard on the course, for me this would just be as a consequence of less people (ie more being turned away for not having the right gear or attitude) as apposed to any belief that poor people are disrespectful and scruffy. that is not my meaning and i assume not yours?

As the Club I'm Secretary of is based at a Municipal course, that gives me a unique perspective.  I see us losing around 70 Members per year (from a base of just under 400), but also see a similar number joining each year - all age groups.  Many will use the facility to improve at the game, and we expect a lot to move on to play their golf at private Clubs.  Some who leave, however just decide to play 'society golf', for the reasons mentioned above. i.e. play lots of different courses.  Many more stick with us.

However, one of the benefits of Club Membership is that 'County Cards' are available to Club Members, enabling them to play at over 460 courses throughout the country, at half green fee or guest rates.  I understand that even more Counties will be joining this for the coming year (Cards run from 1/3 to 28/2  each year).  A County Card in Bedfordshire costs just £10, and being based on a municipal course, our Memberships fees are only £55 for men, with a £35 joining fee.  Players can then choose how they pay their green fees, with many just paying for each individual round, 5 day card or 7 day card.  As has been intimated, eveyone chooses depending on which method costs them the least for the number of games they play each year.

Just on getting in new Members, we have had a lot of success with attracting Junior Members, as we put on a lot more Junior Competitions than anywhere else in the County, and it seems they all want to compete.  One of our teaching Pros runs regular 5 week Junior Academies, and many who come along decide to join the Junior Section (at the massive cost of just £17 last year - no joining fee).  Our Juniors are coming on in leaps and bounds, and boys are allowed to enter the Men's Medals when they get down to 20 handicap.  Girls under 14 can join the ladies when they are down to 36 H.c, over 14's are considered to be "women" by the EWGA (previously ELGA), so can play Ladies Medals with a higher H/c, but must play off a maximum 36.  A real problem with Junior Members is the lack of a "Colts" green fee from the Council, so once they are 18 they have to pay the full green fees, whereas many Clubs offer Colt Membership, which interests those staying on for further education or in low paid jobs.

I do agree that there are many new courses, and certainly, the feeling at County level is that there are too many for them all to continue with any success.  The fugures for Membership generally have been dropping across the UK by 10% per year, and I for one don't see that trend changing, and would be happy to simply keep our levels where they are.  I wish you all the best in doing the same David!

It looks as though we are of similar opinions CW.