Golf green fees understandably continue to rise.
I don’t love it but everything in life is getting more expensive and golf clubs are facing real challenges with rising costs for staffing, food and drink, sand, seed, fertiliser, equipment, taxes and probably many other things.
But it is the sharp rise in member’s guest rates that is starting to trouble me, especially at my own club.
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A guest rate should be a real benefit of being a member, in the sense that you can take your friends and family for a hospitable day at your club for a significantly reduced price. In the UK, I think a fair rate is around £25-£35.
My club now costs in excess of £50 to play as a member’s guest on a Saturday, which I think is far too high and has genuinely put me off bringing my partner and my friends.
The argument will be that our visitor rate now exceeds £100 so our guests are still saving a significant amount, but that is an inflated price that, I would imagine, is being used to ensure that fewer visitors actually book a tee time and that member’s enjoy a quieter course with plenty of availability.
I certainly don’t see many out-and-out visitors at my club and I would imagine that this is a strategy being employed at many private member’s clubs around the country.
An England Top 100 course near me now charges £150 to play at weekends, which I cannot imagine many golfers are paying and I’m sure that the club and its members are absolutely fine with that.
‘Sure, if you want to play as a visitor you can but at this very expensive price, otherwise we’re absolutely fine without you as we’re thriving anyway’ is an outlook that I would think some clubs have had since golf boomed post-pandemic.
Again, I don’t love that but I guess these clubs, which now have full memberships and waiting lists, are doing absolutely fine. Let the members still bring their guests on for great prices, though.
What makes things even more confusing to me is that just a couple of years ago I played as a member’s guest at Royal Troon, Western Gailes and Prestwick – all UK and Ireland Top 100 courses – and it cost just £20. Apparently the guest rate at Troon had only just switched from £15 up to £20 as well.
These courses charge in excess of £200 to visitors yet are able to reward their members with very attractive pricing to bring guests. I wish mine could be like that.
How can I pay £20 as a member’s guest to play Royal Troon and then expect my guest to pay £50 at a course that hasn’t hosted multiple Opens and isn’t in the UK & Ireland Top 100?
My situation may be unique, as my real grumble is that my partner is still a fairly new golfer. Her handicap would be something like 30-36 and she isn’t truly in love with golf, so asking her to pay around £50 to play each time just isn’t feasible.
Our only other option to play together is by her either paying a large joining fee and a pricey monthly membership (she won’t) or for us to play at busy, public facilities.
It’s a tricky one and I’d love to hear your views on whether member’s guests rates have started to get out of hand at your course, too, or whether you think I’m completely wrong.
Our X audience were fairly split, with almost half of respondents saying that their club’s member’s guest rate was a fair price while 42% said they were too high.
(Image credit: Future/X)
Let me know your view in the comments section below
