Clubs in crisis: New EGU initiative
Cornwall leads with ideas to stave off the credit crunch
Posted: 19 February 2009
by Bob Warters
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View of the spectacular Mullion Golf Club - the most southerly in England
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THE ENGLISH Golf Union (EGU) has announced a series of initiatives designed to help golf clubs deal with the current economic climate and the increased risk of golfers moving away from club membership in preference to pay-and-play.
The ‘Are You Ready?’ campaign launches to golf clubs later this month when over 1,800 golf courses will receive detailed information on the business and marketing opportunities available to clubs and how to sign up.
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The campaign, currently been revealed to golf clubs attending the EGU’s “…at the Heart of Golf” roadshows, aims to support golf clubs in an increasingly challenging environment and relaunches
www.egugolfcentral.co.uk as a dedicated marketing hub for golf club managers and proprietors.
John Petrie, EGU Chief Executive, said: “The EGU is committed to creating a sustainable, cost effective marketing solution to help clubs to reach the two million plus non-member golfers who are choosing not to join a club.
“We need to start directly communicating with this important market, firstly to win visitors and society business and also to begin promoting the benefits of golf club membership so that they will consider to become the members of the future.”
Meanwhile golf clubs in Cornwall, a county which relies heavily on holiday visitors for its revenues, is getting together with a raft of initiatives in the light of an EGU survey, which found that almost half of England's golf clubs have falling memberships; nine out of 10 have vacancies, the majority are seeking new members and waiting lists have virtually disappeared.
Here are just a few examples of joined up thinking from Cornish clubs, which golf clubs elsewhere could well consider:
*Mullion, Tehidy Park, Perranporth, West Cornwall and Newquay are discussing a scheme whereby members of each club would be allowed use of each other's courses free of charge at limited set tee times in a reciprocal arrangement, generating extra revenue from guests and bar-takings.
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Falmouth Golf Club
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*Tehidy Park pro Jonathan Lamb is building connections with six local schools and members are being invited to take advantage of a monthly payment scheme to spread costs.
*Perranporth business development officer, James Marsh, has recently been appointed to maximise income for the club from 12 on-site caravans.
*Truro is hoping to take advantage of an exchange rate against the euro, encouraging more golfers who have been used to playing abroad to stay and play in the UK
*Falmouth is offering corporate deals for local companies and long term memberships of five, 10 and 20 years for individuals, saving roughly a year's subscription.
Newquay is offering 100 days membership for £100, including two lessons and promoted the game as a healthy option. The club's joining fee has been dropped as "hard to justify at the moment".
Lelant provides free coaching to potential new members with six lessons and 15 rounds for £350, offset against the annual membership fee if a player decides to join the club.
Tell us on the forum about initiatives your club is introducing.
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Discuss this story
I think Tehidy Park has the best idea going to local schools. Golf should be available to the masses at junior level and this will get more players who may not have been introduced to the game by their parents. The offer from Newquay looks very good as well.
Posted: 19/02/2009 23:26
Many of these private members clubs have not treated visitor as an important part of their income. They have not made no members welcome and charged to much for a green fee,now they are in are short of money,they need to get in the 21st century and offer golf at good value and let green payers on the course at weekends etc. In the current economical climate golfers are not going to join clubs and pay membership fees.
Posted: 21/02/2009 08:05
I agree with you Creosote,but in their defence most of their funding comes from private members clubs.£4.25 per member is the current payment the clubs pay to the EGU I think. And they don't get much for their £2500/£3000 !!! But the history of their other efforts to promote golf have just waisted loads of cash,so these new ideas probably will do the same.
Posted: 21/02/2009 08:46
Not sure you're right nessie - almost every golf club in England is affiliated to the EGU and every member pays their EGU subs, it's not optional. Surely there are far more proprietary and municipal courses than there are private members clubs? Either way I've belonged to both sorts for 20 years and paid my EGU subs every one of those years. Not once have I felt that the EGU is doing anything for me - in fact I want to know why it costs so much to play on a course that, allegedly, I (and every other person who pays EGU subs) own - Woodhall Spa. I reckon we should all be entitled to at least one free round per year.
Posted: 21/02/2009 10:14
Tim there are about 2500 courses in the England,of which approx 600 are proprietary/municipal these clubs tend to have small memberships 200 to 300 members so the majority for the EGU funding comes from 1900 members clubs which generally have over 500 members. When the EGU brought Woodhall Spa the cranked up the subs to pay for i,what some people don't know is that about another £5.00 of their subs goes to the county union. I understand that the EGU is going to try and get into green fee selling(and I bet they will want some more cash from the clubs to do this as well).
Posted: 21/02/2009 13:45
I agree with you Creosote,but in their defence most of their funding comes from private members clubs.£4.25 per member is the current payment the clubs pay to the EGU I think. And they don't get much for their £2500/£3000 !!! But the history of their other efforts to promote golf have just waisted loads of cash,so these new ideas probably will do the same.
Exactly. The EGU's stance has always been that a golfer who is not a member of a golf club is an inferior species.
Posted: 21/02/2009 15:12
Its blackmail that the sports governing body solicits a fee from every golfer at a club to have a handicap. There is no choice in the matter. Yet they dont allow golfers to pay that fee as individuals. Then they have a system that purports to make the handicap system universal, yet they dont do the nessecary step of rating each course so handicaps are only viable at ones home club. Now if its such a great system why is every single Open handicap comp won by bandits off false handicaps? Handicapping in the UK is a total farce. The EGU do nothing to promote and widen the game, just jobs for the boys from the extorted fees they get from golfers with no choice in the matter. It also annoys me that the EGU stance to people like me is we are scum because we arent at a members club. Yet I am paying them their pound of flesh as the public course I play is affiliated. They are taking my/our fees and then treating public course members as second class citizens, its a disgrace. Lastly (while I am in full rant mode) I played an EGU championship a couple of years ago. Without exception every EGU official I had dealings with was curt, snooty and unhelpful.
Posted: 21/02/2009 16:00
why dont they just make every single golfer under 16 can play for free  on laods of courses ?
Posted: 21/02/2009 19:07
If clubs are in really in crisis and this is the best the EGU can come up with in terms of innovation there's no hope. Let's have some imagination. Unstead of concentrating so much on juniors, what about trying to attract competitive sportsmen (and ladies) from other sports that may be coming to the end of their careers? Almost every cricket, rugby and football club I know has a loose golf affiliation whether it's just a couple of players or they have an annual golf day. Tap into that, actively promote your golf club to those other sports clubs. Create links with the local sports leagues. Similarly many pubs and WMC around me have golf societies but I've never seen any golf club promote themselves to them.
Posted: 22/02/2009 23:01
thats so true prov1 i work for the biggest night club company in europe, and i know abosolutly loads of people in it that play golf. but we dont have any societys or any thing
Posted: 22/02/2009 23:33
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