A survey of UK golf club members has found a significant number might not renew in 2026, while an industry expert warns that more clubs will close because costs are too high.
Golfshake has surveyed over 2,500 members of UK golf clubs and found that just 77.9 percent of them will definitely renew their membership in 2026. While only 3.8 percent said they will definitely not renew, 18.3 percent said they are undecided.
The data shows that older golfers are more likely to stay committed to their clubs while younger golfers are a little less certain about their long-term membership.
The results found that there are five key factors for why members might not renew: rising costs, tee time access, not playing year-round, desire for variety and health issues.
Something that stood out was that for golfers who don’t play every week, the cost of living crisis has meant that justifying paying more to be a member of a golf club is proving to be difficult.
This comes as Phil Grice, the head of venues at consultancy firm Custodian Golf, says that despite record participation in golf, the cost of running golf operations and employing staff is now so high that some clubs will go under in 2026. He believes that several clubs have, for example, opted against investing in a modern irrigation system as they don’t want to increase the price of memberships and green fees anymore than they feel they have to, but this is causing them long-term harm.
Phil Grice
“From utilities to insurance, to pesticides, to compliance, absolutely everything is on the rise,” he said. “So, operating a golf club is only going one way.“It’s not just the everyday costs of running the club that are going up. There is a huge amount of clubs that are trailing behind because they just have not invested in so long.
“We’re not a million miles away from the Environment Agency (EA) changing the laws and saying you can’t just turn the tap on and irrigate your golf course. So, those clubs should be looking to invest.
“If you’re not tapped into progressive membership styles and digital marketing and using social media and driving new business in, you are slowly dying off.
“Some clubs are constantly cutting services and constantly cutting staff and constantly relying on volunteers, pure and simply because the cost of employing somebody is fairly significant now. Over the next three or four years, it’ll really expose the clubs at the bottom because they’re not replacing members with younger people who have got that little bit more disposable income.”
