Visitors outrank members among concerns in Scottish golf

The Herald Scotland

a day ago

Those with waiting lists and larger memberships have tended to fare better throughout, but there are a sprinkling of high-profile clubs and facilities in well-heeled areas who say their finances are not as strong as what many outsiders might have guessed.
Conducted between April 14 and May 11, the survey includes responses from more than 90 captains, secretaries and managers of golf courses ranging from small rural clubs through to some of the biggest names in the game.
All submissions were on the condition of anonymity, with 18 who were willing to be quoted publicly.
More than three quarters of those questioned were representatives of a private member's club, while 16% described theirs as a proprietary pay and play facility. The remainder were council-run golf courses or were attached to a hotel or other recreational amenities.
Of those with members, 31 reported having between 201 and 400 people paying full playing membership fees. This was followed by those with up to 200 members (18), between 401 and 600 members (16), between 801 and 1,000 members (10), between 601 and 800 members (8), and those with more than 1,000 members (6).
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Only two of those who responded reported that all of their income is generated by visitors, while a further 22 said more than half of their income is from visitors. Of the 67 majority that generate less than half of their income from visitors, 27 said this accounts for 15% or less of their annual revenue.
When asked to list the four greatest challenges facing their club or facility, 68 said the higher cost of utilities, equipment and supplies was among their biggest concerns. This was followed by an ageing membership (57), rising wage costs (56), and bringing in more visitor income (44). Attracting new members was listed as a top concern by 40 respondents.
Kevin Fish runs the Contemporary Club Leadership (CCL) consultancy based in North Berwick and has been polling his clients for the past seven years about their financial management. He maintains there is very little sense in 'playing around the edges' with visitor fees if they only make up 20% of all income.
'In every one of those seven years the respondents have always put the fee for visitors up at a higher rate than they've put up the fee for members,' he said. 'So what they want is for someone else to cover the operating costs of the club, rather than have to ask the members.'
Christopher Spencer, who heads up the Scottish arm of the Club Management Association of Europe, says ageing membership is a conundrum for some because many of those who are retired are 'playing three, four or five times per week', including the weekends.
'I think there are a lot of new people, younger people, who are time-poor and who because of work or maybe family commitments they are doing well if they can get out to play a game of golf,' he said. 'They want to try to play as early as possible but they are not able to get a tee time because it's fully booked because all the retired guys are playing on a Saturday morning as they have always done, even though they have already played three or four times that week.
'Everybody wants to play between 9am and noon, and as a result these younger people don't renew their membership because they can't gain access. So I think the older members, while they have been loyal and supported a club over the years, could in some cases actually be a blockage to new members coming in.'
All taking part in The Herald Scottish Golf Survey were asked to rank their current financial strength on a scale of zero to 10, with 10 being the best. This produced an overall average of 6.4, with some considerable variations among different sub-groups.
Clubs with more than 600 members came in at an average of 7.9, while those with less scored 6.0. Clubs and facilities with 18 or more holes of golf scored 6.6, while those with less scored 6.5.
The 14 clubs and facilities that either have a waiting list or have closed their waiting list ranked their collective financial strength at 8.3, the highest of any sub-sector. Hotel and proprietary pay and play courses ranked an average of 6.5, but this was heavily weighed down by extremely weak responses from two small rural facilities.
There were outliers across a number of sub-sectors, including a few well-known and highly regarded destinations with large memberships that ranked their financial strength at 5.0 or less.
'That doesn't surprise me at all,' Mr Spencer said. 'There have been a number of clubs over the years who have not managed their finances to the extent that they can cover their costs, with their fees going up to reflect that, meaning they can't generate surpluses that can be re-invested into their facilities.
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"We did a survey this year and asked our members how much they were putting their subscriptions up by, and they averaged out at about 5.5% but some were as low as 2.5% and others as high as 10%.'
Asked about their club or facility's finances between 2000 and 2020, 36% said their financial situation improved during that period and 31% said it remained much the same. Less than a third, 30%, said their financial situation deteriorated.
This fails as a neat fit with the received wisdom that golf clubs and facilities were in a general state of decline before the pandemic, with membership levels falling by an estimated 20% since the turn of the century. The narrative thereafter is that of the 'Covid bounce' when golf was among the first activities allowed during the lockdown period, rekindling the game's popularity and reviving financial fortunes.
'For us there wasn't much to be gained because of the loss of the income we had with the clubhouse not being open – we were relying solely on the course,' a representative of Insch Golf Club in Aberdeenshire told The Herald.
'So although there was a boost in golfers, the finances weren't matched with the use of the course.'
The clubhouse at Insch was officially opened by Paul Lawrie in 2004 and includes a bar, dining facilities and an entertainment area catering to visitors and social members that make up approximately two-thirds of the 700-strong membership roll at the club, which was awarded back-to-back accolades for its hospitality in 2023 and 2024.
'We are quite well-known for our hospitality around here, so it was a huge loss for us during the pandemic,' the representative added.
Asked how they have fared since lockdown restrictions began to ease, 52% of those taking part in The Herald Scottish Golf Survey said their financial situation has improved while 29% said it has remained much the same. However, a significant number in the latter category had already indicated they were on a downward slide prior to Covid. Furthermore, 19% reported a deterioration in their finances since the pandemic.
Mr Fish at CCL says the sector is now back to where it was in 2019 when club membership resignations were running at approximately 6.5% and 'the fire was waiting to take hold'.
'Covid came along and drenched clubs with interest, some of whom have used that to make really good progress,' he said. 'For others, it just gave them a stay of execution.
'For some it wasn't enough for them to swim to shore but others have taken that injection, cleared their debts, set about a strategic approach to their clubs and started to change what they needed to change to keep the club attractive to the next generation. For others there was too much to do and they're just having to say they're in trouble.'
More than a third of those surveyed, 36%, said the World Handicap System (WHS) has not been an improvement on the previous system maintained by CONGU up to November 2020; 29% said it has been an improvement, with 35% saying it is neither better nor worse.
'I don't have a problem with WHS, but I think it's more difficult to understand for the average golfer,' said Graeme Jolly, immediate past captain and committee member at Milngavie Golf Club in East Dunbartonshire.
'It used to be that if you stood on the first tee and you were in second class you knew if you went two [strokes] above your handicap net, then you were going to go up 0.1, and if you came down you were going to come down 0.2 all the way – you knew where you stood on the first tee.
'Now unless you have your 20 [latest WHS] results in front of you and your eight counters – and even at that you don't know what's going to come off because you've got to add up the eight and divide them – it's just a lot more complicated, but is it fairer? Probably.'
Among the other challenges facing golf course custodians is the upkeep of infrastructure. One manager in greater Glasgow who rated his club's financial strength at 4.0 and wished to be anonymous said 'maintenance of an ageing clubhouse' has been a particular concern.
'The big explosion in golf came about 110 to 115 years ago, and a lot of clubs are still living in those original clubhouses that have been bolted on and bolted on and bolted on,' Mr Fish said. 'Those clubs are now at that age where someone on the board is going to have to say it's time to stop adding bits on to the rabbit warren of a clubhouse and actually knock it down and start again.'
The same principle extends to other fundamentals such as irrigation systems, the necessity of which was highlighted during this past spring's unusually warm and dry weather.
Mr Fish notes that many clubs last made such major investments about 25 years ago, when golf was financially rosy.
'That equipment usually only lasts about 20 years, and what used to cost £100,000 now costs £1 million,' he said. 'Can you imagine being on a board that is living a hand to mouth existence and the irrigation system is starting to rattle?'
Of those surveyed 37 reported difficulties with getting members to come forward and volunteer for the management and committee duties that most private member clubs rely upon for day-to-day operations.
John Stirling, match secretary at Clydebank & District near Glasgow Airport, said his club is currently looking for both a house and social convenor.
'There are 750 members here and nobody has come forward to help us with that,' he said.
'In the days and years ago we had 12 to 15 people on the council, and there would be people waiting to get on the council. We are left now with the bare bones, which is the president, the captain, the vice-captain, myself the match secretary, a treasurer and the junior convenor, and that's really about it.
'I think it's the same with a lot of golf clubs – they just can't get anybody to help out with anything at all for some reason that I do not know.'
Going back to their views on their financial situation, clubs with large junior sections of 70 or more rated their strength the highest at 7.8 versus 6.1 or less for all others. However, Mr Fish cautions against reading too much into this as 'very, very few juniors step up to being a full adult member'.
'There are some, but I have never seen juniors as the saviours of golf,' he said.
'Clubs have gotten better over the years at giving them what I would call a conveyor belt to adult membership, so from paying 30% [of an adult membership fee] when they are a junior at 18 you might bump that up to 50% between 18 and 21, and so forth.
'But they typical age at which an adult male will take up a membership and commit to a monogamous relationship with one club is 42, so unless you are going to extend the conveyor belt from 18 to 42, then you are basically saying at some point before [someone] is ready to commit to a golf club membership that you are going to charge them full price. If the Dragons' Den were listening to this conversation, they would say just stop wasting time trying to persuade people at 18 to pay for a club membership that they don't want.'