Latest news with #ChristopherSpencer
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Visitors outrank members among concerns in Scottish golf
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). Read more: 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. Read more: "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.'
The Herald Scotland
5 days ago
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
Survey reveals mixed bag for Scotland's golf courses
The received wisdom is golf, and golf clubs in particular, were in a general state of decline before the pandemic with a 20% reduction in membership levels during the 20 years prior. Then along came the 'Covid bounce' when golf was among the first activities allowed during the lockdown period, rekindling the game's popularity and reviving financial fortunes. Our survey shows, while this has undoubtedly been the case for some, the broader situation is not as clearcut as that narrative suggests. Some report they were managing well up to 2020 but have since been undone by the inflationary surge of the cost-of-living crisis, which has outweighed any gain in membership numbers. Others that were previously struggling are, unsurprisingly, continuing to have a tough time. Those with waiting lists and larger memberships have tended to fare better throughout, but there is a sprinkling of high-profile facilities and clubs in wellheeled areas who say their finances are not as strong as many outsiders might have guessed. Read more: Today's big read in Business HQ Monthly delves into the numbers. We also speak to the secretary of a small community club about the challenges it is up against and what has been done to try and overcome those difficulties. It marks the start of a three-day series that will be followed tomorrow by the findings from the survey on clubs' opinions of governing body Scottish Golf, and the potential financial impact of implementing a 'one player, one fee' system in the collection of affiliation payments to Scottish Golf. OpenPlay, the flexible subscription for non-club members to obtain an official handicap, comes under the microscope on Saturday and we also speak to some clubs that are working together to improve their financial fortunes. Read more: Buoyed by unseasonably warm and sunny weather, there was a boom this past spring in the number of people playing golf across the country. Christopher Spencer, who heads up the Scottish arm of the Club Management Association of Europe, believes this could translate into a boost for the entire sector in 2025. 'More and more people are out playing golf because the weather has been great, which is fabulous for golf clubs because hopefully they will then use the facilities as well, rather than just turning up to play golf,' he said. 'So let's hope we have a really good summer – not too dry, we could do with a little rain to encourage growth – but fingers crossed it will be a really good year all around.'
Yahoo
27-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Mini ice age was final death blow to Roman Empire, unusual rocks in Iceland suggest
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A sixth-century "mini" ice age may have been "the straw that broke the camel's back" that led to the final disintegration of the Western Roman Empire, a new study claims. Between A.D. 536 and 547, three separate volcanic eruptions generated enough ash to block out the sun for between 200 and 300 years, cooling the Earth's surface by several degrees. Now, newfound evidence of this mini ice age has been found in Iceland. By studying rocks carried by icebergs from Greenland all the way to Iceland's west coast, a team of researchers has uncovered what they believe is more evidence for the severity of this mini ice age. Their findings, published April 8 in the journal Geology, point to the prolonged cooling being a key factor in the eventual decline of the Western Roman Empire — although not all historians agree. The exact date for the Western Roman Empire's fall is up for debate, with some saying it happened in A.D. 410 with the Sack of Rome by the Visigoths, and others putting it at A.D. 476, with the abdication of Roman emperor Romulus Augustulus. But the cooler climate brought on by the mini ice age could have further strained the unstable region in the aftermath of its fall, fueling the mass migrations that happened at the time, the study's authors said. "The significant environmental and climatic shifts could have influenced migrations, particularly in areas vulnerable to crop failures and famines," study lead author Christopher Spencer, an associate professor of tectonochemistry at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, told Live Science. "The combination of these stressors could have exacerbated the social pressures already present during this period, contributing to the empire's eventual disintegration." Related: Why did Rome fall? Economic crisis, government corruption, pandemic, civil war, invasion — the causes behind the Roman Empire's fall are complex, intertwined and innumerable enough to cause a major headache. In fact, in 1984 the German historian Alexander Demandt compiled a tongue-in-cheek list of 210 reasons behind the empire's decline. Yet the intractability of the debate hasn't stopped scholars and scientists from coming up with new suggestions. In 2016, a paper published in Nature Geoscience used data gathered from tree rings to suggest a shift in climate as a key factor in Rome's demise, namely a "Late Antique Little Ice Age" caused by volcanic activity. The theory is ostensibly supported by historical records. Byzantine historian Procopius of Caesarea reported a sunless sky occurring as "a portent of great terror" in the year 536, preceded by complaints of unusual cold and crop failures such that "neither war nor plague nor anything bringing death was lacking among men." This climate shift was felt around the world, having been linked to historical events that include the collapse of China's Northern Wei dynasty; the decline of Teotihuacan in Mexico; and the Eastern Roman Empire's Plague of Justinian. The new study's connection to those tumultuous years began tangentially, after the scientists behind it used satellite images to discover that a raised beach terrace on Iceland's west coast was unusually white in color compared to its basalt black neighbors. The team explored the beach on foot and found a number of unusual granite rocks on a layer of the beach dated between A.D. 500 and 700. After crushing a sample of the rocks and subjecting the zircon crystals found within to chemical analysis, the researchers pinpointed the rocks' origins to Greenland, roughly 177 miles (285 kilometers) away at its shortest distance. "The movement of rock fragments from Greenland to Iceland is primarily due to ice-rafting, a process in which icebergs, laden with debris from glaciers, are carried across the ocean by currents," Spencer said. If large numbers of Greenland icebergs were drifting to Iceland when this layer of the beach was formed, the scientists suggest it could add to evidence of a Late Antique Little Ice Age, and particularly one that was severe enough to have had an impact on the dwindling Western Roman Empire. "As the glaciers in Greenland expanded during the Late Antique Little Ice Age, large quantities of debris were entrained in the ice," Spencer said. "Icebergs calved off the Greenland Ice Sheet and were transported by the East Greenland and East Iceland currents, ultimately depositing these rock fragments on Iceland's coast when the icebergs melted." However, the researchers emphasized that this mini ice age occurred when the Western Roman Empire was already in decay. The event postdates much of the empire's fall — the last Western Roman Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed 60 years before the cold spell, and Rome was sacked by Goths and Vandals and its army defeated at Adrianople many years before this. That said, it's possible that the mini ice age stopped Rome from recovering, as it had before, said Shane Bobrycki, an assistant professor of history at the University of Iowa. "Rome had faced near-existential crises in the third century, and came back from it in the fourth," Bobrycki told Live Science. "So you could say that the decisive role of the Late Antique Little Ice Age (and maybe plague) was in detoothing Justinian's comeback." RELATED STORIES —Ancient garbage heaps show fading Byzantine Empire was 'plagued' by disease and climate change —Why did the Roman Empire split in two? —Roman Empire grew after catastrophic volcanic eruption, study finds Bobrycki said that while he suspects a changing climate played "a major role" in shaping shifts between the Roman and early medieval periods in Western Europe, the causal relationship is far from clear. And migration then — much like today — "is always multifactorial" and split between complex push and pull factors. Even so, understanding the mini ice age's effects on the Western Roman Empire may shed some light on how anthropogenic climate change will affect our globalized world, "making it crucial to understand how these events unfolded in the past," Spencer said. "The impact of climate change, really a huge complex of phenomena, operating on a scale that the human mind struggles to comprehend, is likely to be both large and unpredictable," Bobrycki said. "I think the story of the Late Antique Little Ice Age warns us not to underestimate the ability of climate change to reshape history."
CBS News
17-04-2025
- CBS News
Why was Crestwood, Illinois police officer with troubled history allowed to resign after DUI?
A Crestwood, Illinois police officer recently charged with his second DUI has a troubled history in many other respects. CBS News Chicago obtained personnel files for Crestwood police Officer Christopher Spencer, who has since resigned from his department. The files show issues involving the mistreatment of women and a state fraud investigation — as well as the two drunken driving incidents. Spencer, 49, was arrested by Midlothian police Monday, March 31, after allegedly being involved in two incidents less than an hour apart. Midlothian police said he was first involved in a hit-and-run crash in the parking lot of a White Castle on South Cicero Avenue. Then, about 40 minutes later, police said he crashed his car into a home's garage in the 15100 block of South Kostner Avenue. Police said the homeowner told officers the driver was drinking from a bottle of liquor as he sat in the car. Midlothian police were confused when they caught up to Spencer at the second crash site. They said Spencer appeared impaired and refused a breathalyzer, and video shows him claiming a bottle of blackberry Crown Royal in the car was not his. But Spencer's personnel file outlines some concerns about other conduct beyond that, and also about why he was allowed to resign when the file shows he should have been terminated. The drunken driving arrest last month was Spencer's second. On Jan. 12, 2022, his blood alcohol was three times the legal limit when he drove his red Ford through someone's lawn. An empty bottle of Fireball whiskey in the cab of the Ford. Spencer spent a year under court supervision for that arrest. The 2022 DUI was listed as the top reason for a Last Chance Agreement filed in Spencer's personnel file with the Crestwood Police Department. But the disciplinary form outlines other allegations. They included: The form required a 15-day suspension from Crestwood PD and workplace sensitivity training, adding any future violations would result in immediate termination. But Spencer instead resigned from the department following his recent arrest. Spencer's case file also includes multiple commendations from a drunk driving prevention organization.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Ancient rocks tie Roman Empire's collapse to a mini ice age
Exactly what caused the collapse of the mighty Roman Empire has been hotly debated practically since the fall itself. Was economic stagnation primarily to blame, or was it societal decay? Did political conflicts mortally weaken Rome's power, or is its decline owed mostly to a series of invasions from abroad? Was it lead? In reality, the fall of the empire almost certainly occurred through a complex interplay of socio-political factors—but recent research suggests a brief climate crisis may have contributed more than we thought. The new findings were published on April 11 in the journal Geology by a collaborative team from Queen's University Canada, the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. Previous analysis indicates that Earth endured a roughly 200–300 year long ice age starting around 540 CE. Scientists believe that powerful volcanic eruptions that hurled massive amounts of ash and debris into the planet's atmosphere lowered global temperatures and reduced sunlight. While it was not as intense as other major ice ages, some researchers have argued that this geologic era helped usher in the final days of Rome. Others, meanwhile, contend that the Late Antique Little Ice Age simply coincided with imperial decline. New evidence supporting the former argument comes from oddly out-of-place rocks collected not from modern areas of the ancient Roman empire, but from Iceland. Although the region is known primarily for its basalt, researchers recently determined certain samples contained miniscule crystals of the mineral zircon. 'Zircons are essentially time capsules that preserve vital information including when they crystallised as well as their compositional characteristics,' said Christopher Spencer, an associate professor at Queen's University and study's lead author. 'The combination of age and chemical composition allows us to fingerprint currently exposed regions of the Earth's surface, much like is done in forensics.' After crushing the rocks and separating out the zircon crystals, Spencer and colleagues determined the minerals spanned three billion years of geologic history that trace specifically back to Greenland. 'The fact that the rocks come from nearly all geological regions of Greenland provides evidence of their glacial origins,' said Tom Gernon, a study co-author and a professor of Earth Science at the University of Southampton. 'As glaciers move, they erode the landscape, breaking up rocks from different areas and carrying them along, creating a chaotic and diverse mixture—some of which ends up stuck inside the ice.' The team argues that the zircon-rich ice could only have formed and drifted hundreds of miles away due to the Late Antique Little Ice Age. According to Gernon, this timing also lines up with a known period of ice-rafting, in which large slabs of ice break off glaciers, drift across the ocean, and subsequently melt to scatter its debris on foreign shores. Although the team obviously can't tie zircon minerals to the Roman Empire's collapse, their lengthy migration inside frozen chunks of glacier further underscore the 6th century ice age's severity. Knowing this, it's easy to see how the chillier era's effects on crops, civil unrest, and mass migrations could further weaken an already shaky Rome. 'When it comes to the fall of the Roman Empire, this climate shift may have been the straw that broke the camel's back,' said Gernon.
