One that immediately springs to my mind goes back to green fees. What if the member's guest rate was available to all members of other official golf clubs, whether or not they were accompanied? 2-4-1 deals would no longer be accepted. If this policy was adopted universally club membership would gain perceived value, and nomadic golf become more expensive. Clubs generally would benefit as more occasional golfers saw that joining a club made financial sense.
Of course the market place would then decide the winners and losers. Good clubs with good courses would thrive. Mediocre clubs with mediocre courses would fail and close. This is exactly how it should be.
Sorry Duncan, I like what you are suggesting but defining an 'official' golf club that means something here is impossible. The predecessor to Crown golf had me as a member for £30 a year with 10% off greenfees on my ‘home’ course, an ‘official’ handicap with discounted rates on their other courses. You’d just be playing further into the hands of discount merchants.
It seems to me Adrian has a sound understanding of golf club financing. Sadly many clubs don’t and hence the mess will get worse. The race to the bottom as another club has it.
Hainault Forrest GC was the first municipal golf course in the London area. When I started in 2000 you still had to get there before 5 am Saturday to get a game before 8, and Today’s Golfer proclaimed it the busiest facility in Europe (there are 36 holes).. They brought in computerised booking but a no of alternative venues have opened within 10 miles and you can walk on. IN about 2008 it was part of a group that went bust. The lease has been taken on by a textile multimillionaire who has recently taken up golf. His vision was to make the local John Deere agent happy by providing the capital to renew all machinery, and to cut greenstaff back to reduce running costs. It will take him years to reverse the local word that greens are now cut just once a week and the place is going to hell. I’ve posted on here before how much I love the two courses but I can’t bring myself to go check out if it’s really become a train wreck even with the promise of a £9 twilight fee.
As with any industry today, predicting the future is extremely difficult. Safe to say undercutting the market unless you have some special way of reducing costs is a proven way to fail. Most members clubs don’t have a mortgage on their property so additional income must look like free money but they are destroying their brand.