As usual, Adrian, it's beyond ridiculous that you think all under-40 golfers fit in a neat little stereotypical box that a club can market itself to.
We are actually quite a diverse lot.
Private courses survive on having members that don't play a lot and keep their memberships. If you aim for a transient membership that doesn't invest in golf club culture, all you get is a membership dominated by members who see membership as a discount ticket for the volume of golf they play. You get a crowded course and low revenue per round.
This quote is the biggest indicator of the problem. There are not enough of this type of member to keep UK golf courses afloat. Too many people do the sums and in the UK you have to operate under a mode of the cheapest way to play to golf is by being a member. You have to operate with your golf course somewhere in the line that the membership is 20 or 30 (absolutely no more) the standard weekend green fee. Ie if your club charges £40 to play the membership should be £800 to £1200. If you allow third party operators or schemes to play for £20 then you will lose members. You will have some members that play 6 or 7 times a year but not enough. Successful golf courses are crowded golf courses. They might not be what GCA people want.
Mark- We do have one up market club in the area and it struggles, sometimes they do 2-4-1s or deals and then they piss the members they have off. I know members there but they still have the 'must be value' mode in their heads.
Traditions are killing the traditional UK golf club, but I do think that the vast majority of clubs have realised they need to re set their stall and have altered things. The new breed do want different things and many cant be more than 18 inches from their phone at any time, I think dress rules have been altered at many clubs already, I dont advocate jeans, butI think long socks up to the knee is too strict and if clubs are still in that mode then maybe the writing is on the wall for them. There is a balance in their somewhere and people wear uniforms when they play most sports, golf should be the same I think people will accept a reasonable level of dress.
The reason clubs will fold are more demographics, location and subsequently footflow. So its more location, location, location, rather than width, redan and F & F. Other reasons like ...where your friends play is more important that which course is the better one. Plenty of pubs do well that are minging inside and plenty of tidy pubs go bust, that is because of the interesting people that go the minging pub. A pub is all about the people and whilst a golf course is not the same, if you moved to Bristol and your friends played at The Players Club, thats where you would join.
There are a lot of patterns in this business and a lot of people come on to committees with the same views as many of you have and make the same mistakes.
I am quite certain what works and does not work in my area (South-west) is going to be very similar. I deal with big golf groups from all over the country and the patterns are the same. I do not mean that every single under 40 person thinks this way, I am referring to the majority.
I am a lot more on the side of the GCA view than you may think, but I try and be realistic of the position. I am horrified how many nice people take their electric trollies across tees and how many good players dont repair their pitchmarks. There is nothing wrong with a minority opinion as long as you can realise it is one, but if you want to make money the majority route is best. I also agree there are places for niche situations. I don't think a niche situation would work in many UK cities though because 'the 20 minutes from the golf club' is a very strong point in a descson to join.