Amidst huge speculation among the golf community as to the identity of our mystery General Manager, our secret agent behind the desk has found time to tap out some more thoughts on a timely and particularly thorny topic… Annual subs as we head into Annual General Meeting (AGM) season here in the UK!

Annual Subscriptions – The Elephant in the AGM.

Members & Consumers

Golf Club Committees and General Managers across the land will be in the process of drawing up their annual subscriptions for their respective clubs over the coming months, and will no doubt be painstakingly pouring over the proposals in preparation for the Annual General Meetings approval.

Annual subscriptions are always a spiky subject amongst any membership, and can often cause friction between those who see themselves as “members” and those that are “consumers”. 

The difference between “members” and “consumers” are easy to spot. Members have bought into the “Club”, its history and its raison d’être. They want to be part of something, and are willing to stick with it through thick and thin. Winter renewals prove this succinctly. As course closures due to weather become more and more prevalent, Golf Clubs are squeezed by their more transactional customers who want to know what they’re getting back when the course is closed. 

Golf Clubs are lumbering, money hungry titans which, whether playable or not, demand money is spent for survival. No one wants to close a course for any amount of time, and people taking up membership should consider what that fully entails before doing so. 

Course closures across the country are the times that Golf clubs need their members’ support and understanding the most. Choosing to be a member is more than merely being a user of the club and its facilities, it is joining a group of like minded individuals who are caretakers and supporters of something which has survived across decades in spite of the challenges presented to the Club, leaving it in better shape for the next generation to inherit.

Why do we have members?

British Culture, from Royalty to the working man, has a rich and diverse history of Members’ Clubs. Those clubs, their formation and operation are the foundations from which Golf clubs sprung forth. These clubs actively sought out individuals who wanted to be part of something, they wanted members who wished to join a circle of like minded individuals. 

Those “members” when called upon, were expected to support said club with financial dues paid. One year to the next, those fees could and would vary significantly , depending on what had occurred during the year previous. There are a small number of clubs of which this is still the case, however this practice of members picking up the entire tab is now the preserve of the exclusive clubs tucked away in the corners of the island.

Today’s Model

The modern golf club takes an egalitarian approach to membership, subscriptions, and covering its costs. In many cases, at the “average” golf club in the UK, members’ subscription fees alone do not fully cover the club’s running costs. This, in large part, is due to the restrictive price that would inevitably equal the natural revolt that would invoke should that be imposed.

Member subscriptions should – hopefully – strike a balance between helping a Golf Club’s continued progression whilst offering the membership good value for money. 

There are not many entertainment services, compared to what a golf club supplies to its members, a person can have almost unfettered access to whenever they want in the 21st century. Golf, as the madness of Covid proved, has a value to golfers which is more than a figure on a yearly invoice. 

That brings us to decision time. We are left with the political and financial hand ringing Club Committees and GM’s are hemmed into when considering the percentage increases on membership subscriptions and how best to balance member desires for keeping their costs down, all the while constantly improving the service they receive, on top of negating the soaring increases in the costs of running the business by generating additional revenue where possible. Not too many visitors though…not on swindle day!