It seems Country Club’s around the world are starting to mutiny the good ship ‘Denial’ they have been floating in for a few years. They finally realize the economy does not reward the lavish anymore. Now that common sense has prevailed the question they starting asking is..
What will it take to get golfers to join a private country club?
The quick answer unfortunately could require them to invest in themselves to get golfers to join.
I have written on this issue a number times in my blogs What Private Country Clubs Will Have to Do to Survive and Why Are Country Club Giving the Baby Boomer Golfers the Shaft? along with touching clearly on the subject in Do Young Executive Memberships Really Help Country Clubs Survive? Seems the answer to the question is the same..modernize or close down.
Has Anything Changed?
Recently I did check of the vital signs of the country club atmosphere by visiting with a few of the new members of my club. Fortunately, things have changed for the better with more golfers now starting to join the country clubs. Unfortunately, most are still only joining for the valuable offers being made.
This temporariness of commitment of many of the new country club members is a reality many country clubs will soon be reacting to if they do no quickly provide the new members with what they want and/or need. These new county club members base their staying with the club on the club’s ability to maintains its image or overcoming the weaknesses the new members find with the club’s facilities.
Plus, these clubs who are backed by investment groups will need create newer fresher facilities on their own dime if they expect the new members to anchor their personal and professional lives’ at the club for a long time.
“I did not join this club for the rate I joined for to be gouged with an huge increase or assessment to cover the cost of something that should have been invested in many years ago. There are far too many other clubs offering more with new facilities who would want my monthly dues for twenty or twenty five years.”
One of the major weaknesses of my club is it antiquated clubhouse. It seems the new members here, like many country club members, expect more from the club than a cheap round of golf. Golfers joining a country club are drawn first to a country club’s quality of golf and the facilities second.
That interest of how the facility looks, feels and operates now has been placed before the golf primarily due to the large number of golfers using all of the country club’s facilities. To them, golf is seasonal but the clubhouse and areas for social/business gathering are something that can be used when the golf cannot be played. Clubhouses are now becoming very important with the new members who have families. If the clubhouse does not accommodate the member’s interest then they move on to a club that is “managed to the future instead of the past”.
What gets golfers to join a country clubs is not just the golf, but the entire package of clubhouse amenities. Dining is coming back as something the golfer’s family can do together at the club. The business meetings are a natural for the clubhouse setting. However, if the facility is rundown in appearance on the outside then it is…
“usually something I keep my friends and relatives away from seeing when I take them to the club”.
Seems change is slow to be made for many private country clubs. Hope the mutiny of the “Denial” continues before there is a munity of the members of the clubs. Let me know how I can help.
