How a change in attitude could benefit golf club membership

By Peter Owen

THE past couple of years have been great for golf in Australia. Participation levels have never been higher, club membership is strong with long waiting lists at some golf clubs, and there is a genuine, and very welcome, interest in the game from young players.

Some say it’s because of Covid, and the fact golf was one of the few activities we were allowed to enjoy, even during the dark days of lockdowns and restrictions. Many clubs also benefited financially from Covid-related grants and handouts.

But, already, some clubs are reporting a cooling of interest from prospective members, and only the most naïve of golf administrators would believe the path into the future was permanently paved with gold.

It’s not fanciful to suggest that, before too long, golf clubs are going to again be faced with balancing budgets, attracting social golfers and appealing to potential members. Now is the time we should be considering those kinds of challenges.

Even with the recent increased level of interest from younger players, the membership of most Australian golf clubs remains dominated by older men and women. Average ages of 60-plus is normal, and it’s not unusual for clubs to lose 10 percent of their membership each year – usually because members become too old, ill, or incapacitated to play the game any longer.

But, Covid aside, I suspect the trend is accelerating, and I know it’s not just old age that is motivating an increasing number of members to cut their ties with their clubs. 

I was discussing the issue recently with a group of my son’s friends, young adults who had played golf regularly as teenagers, represented their club in junior pennant competition and became seven-day members because, as long-standing juniors, they were given discounts on their nomination fees.

These are talented golfers, with strong ties to their club and are among those I would have considered the least likely to drop their membership. Until you talk to them.

While they have good friends among the membership, they also have lots of interests outside of golf, and can no longer justify the cost of membership.

They told me that with work, family and social commitments, and maintaining relationships with friends outside of golf, they could play golf only occasionally – perhaps 10 or 20 times a year.

They’ve done the sums and worked out they were paying more than $100 a round – sometimes more. And, to them, it was an unreasonable expense – particularly with rising interest rates and a higher cost of living eating into their disposable income.

Plus, they know it’s now possible to join golf clubs, some of them online, for a fraction of the cost of being a member of their local club, memberships which allow them to keep an GA handicap and play wherever they choose, simply by paying green and comp fees.

Since I joined my club more than 30 years ago, I’ve seen hundreds of golfers reluctantly give club membership away – not because it was too expensive, but because they couldn’t justify the cost.

I think that is something we can change. I believe that every person who has any interest whatsoever in golf should be able to see value in becoming a member of a club.

That would happen if our clubs were flexible enough to offer customised memberships to every person who wanted one.

Say a person came into the office of a club manager and explained that, in their present situation, they’d be able to play no more than 12 games of golf a year. Why couldn’t they be offered a membership that cost, say, $500 a year? If circumstances allowed them to play more, they could do so by paying a reduced green fee for those additional rounds. Or upgrade their membership.

If they could play only six times a year, the membership fee might be, say, $300 a year, with the same provision for additional rounds. If they nominated 20 rounds a year the fee might be, say, $950 – and so on. It wouldn’t be hard to settle on a sliding scale of fees.

The thing is these people would be golf club members, with a real chance that they would use the club’s bar, restaurant and other services regularly, bringing friends with them, and generating additional income.

I’ve raised this concept with club officials and board members, who responded with a range of excuses why it couldn’t happen – nobody had ever done it before (as if that was ever a reason for a new notion to be rejected outright), current members would feel disadvantaged, more new members would put pressure on spots on the time sheet, and so on.

It was also suggested that if such a system was introduced, some current members would take up one of the customised memberships, leading to a drop in membership revenue.

Of course they would – that’s the point. They’d be swapping a rigid, take-it-or-leave-it membership structure for one they believed was reasonably priced for their needs, and which presented value.

And, if I’m right, membership revenue wouldn’t decrease at all. It would surge, as hundreds – even thousands – of new members signed up to enjoy club golf that represented value to them. And because they were playing golf only sparingly they wouldn’t be affecting timesheet pressure at all.

As it is, the only people who see real value in being golf club members are retirees, with the time to play whenever they like.

But they’re all getting older and, for many, their golfing days are numbered.

They’re also savvy enough to know that declining membership numbers will lead to higher fees in the future until, inevitably, the cost will become too much for even them.