I am not sure why folks are bucking against cost transparency or accurate fee labels. Transparency helps a membership make decisions. And. I for one don’t really know what a trail fee is. The term makes no sense as a golf term…which makes me want more transparency about the finances.
Ciao
I think “trail fee“ is a newer concept thus it’s a new term.
Logically, we assume walking and carrying is included in an annual membership. But what if it isn’t actually included. See Joe T’s post re: Pinehurst 2. There are other examples.
Charging a trail fee IS transparent because the club is telling you upfront - Folks may object to it, but you can’t claim it isn’t transparent if they are announcing it upfront.
I would also say that it’s not arbitrary either. It may be new and objectionable to 90% of golfers, but it’s not arbitrary. It’s NEW.
I’m also not sure why the actual cost to the club is a factor. Businesses charge for all sorts of things that may not cost them very much. I mean if this was actually a thing, I should go back to my car dealer and ask them to write me a check for $8500 which is the portion above actual costs that they charged for the car I bought last month.
This may be to the point of “leverage.“ Golf club owners are in the driver seat right now, and if they can get away with charging for something without creating a member revolt, then they might. At this point, however, threatening to leave a club over a trail fee would probably not work because you would have no other place to go.
I personally don’t like a trail fee. It’s counter to everything that I’ve always understood about golf fees
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