Darren Redwood

Your Saturday competition fills quickly. Members expect reasonable access throughout the week. Yet other parts of the tee sheet regularly remain empty. For golf club managers, that creates a difficult question: how much additional golf can you sell without making membership less attractive? Too much caution leaves income unrealised. Too much access risks putting new …

“We want another 50 members next year.” It sounds like a clear target. But does it mean recruiting 50 golfers, or finishing the year with 50 more members after replacing those who leave? That distinction can leave a golf club well short of its membership budget, even when the team delivers the recruitment target it …

Take this year’s membership income, add the proposed subscription increase and carry the total into next year’s budget. It is a straightforward calculation. But it assumes the members, categories and payment patterns behind that income will stay broadly the same. As golf clubs across the UK and Ireland prepare their 2027 membership budgets, those assumptions …

Your club could be ahead of budget and still be heading into a difficult winter. Strong visitor income might be covering a membership shortfall. Busy Saturday mornings might disguise quiet weekdays. And a healthy enquiry list means little if few golfers actually join. As September closes, golf club managers need to understand what sits behind …

When a committee asks what a flexible member is worth, the first figure usually available is their annual fee. It is easy to report and compare with other membership categories. But it tells you very little about what that golfer might contribute over several years. A member may renew, bring paying guests, spend in the …

The committee has approved the category. The points matrix is agreed. Flexible membership is now on the club website. That is an important start, but the results depend on what happens next. As clubs review this summer and prepare for 2027, it is worth looking at what happened after golfers showed an interest. Were enquiries …

Many golf clubs already hold much of the information needed to start planning next year’s membership revenue. This summer’s membership usage, visitor bookings, enquiries and tee-sheet patterns provide real evidence of how golfers are engaging with the club. Clubs can see which categories are performing, which members are playing less and where potential joiners are …

A tee time may have a price attached to it, but that does not necessarily reflect what it is worth to the golf club. Many clubs still set green fees by looking at nearby competitors, applying an annual increase to historic rates or deciding what feels reasonable for the quality of the course. Those comparisons …

One of the most common concerns golf club committees raise when discussing flexible membership is understandable: What happens if our existing full members decide to downgrade? It is a question every club should consider before introducing another membership category. No club wants to reduce the value of its core subscription or give regular golfers a …

When golf clubs compare flexible membership with visitor golf, the conversation often begins with the value of an individual round. In the example used within our latest financial white paper, a flexible member’s home points equate to £32 per round, compared with a £40 visitor green fee. Viewed in isolation, the £40 green fee appears …

This summer, golf clubs across the UK and Ireland will welcome golfers with a wide range of playing habits. Some will play almost every week. Others may visit once during a holiday or society day. Between them is a valuable group that plays regularly, enjoys the club environment and wants golf to remain part of …

For years, golf clubs across the UK and Ireland have asked the same question: how do we attract younger golfers? It is an understandable concern. Clubs are thinking about succession planning, sustainable membership numbers, future volunteers and what their membership base will look like in ten or twenty years. But perhaps the challenge is not …

Summer brings golf clubs into contact with a much wider audience. Longer days, better playing conditions, society bookings, golf breaks and greater demand for visitor tee times all create opportunities to welcome golfers who may not ordinarily play at the club. As July moves into August, many clubs across the UK and Ireland will have …

Visitor golf is an important part of the revenue mix for clubs across the UK and Ireland. Green fees help fill available tee times, introduce new golfers to the club and generate additional spend across the bar, catering and professional shop. At the right times and the right price, visitor golf can deliver strong returns. …

Quiet Afternoons Are Where Value Quietly Leaks Golf clubs naturally spend a great deal of time focusing on peak-time demand. Saturday mornings are monitored carefully. Prime tee times are protected. Visitor pricing is regularly reviewed. Yet one of the biggest commercial opportunities on the tee sheet can receive far less attention: The quieter afternoon tee …

A busy tee sheet is easy to celebrate. More visitor rounds, a growing membership base and a full car park can all look like signs of progress. Yet volume alone does not show whether a club is generating the right return from its available capacity. The fuller picture depends on who is playing, when they …

The halfway point of the year provides a useful opportunity for golf clubs to pause and look at how visitor and membership revenue is developing. By July, there is usually enough information to identify clear patterns. Visitor bookings have been coming in for several months, membership renewals and resignations are better understood, and the main …

Golf is in a strong position. Participation remains high, new formats are introducing people to the game and millions of adults and juniors are engaging with golf around the world. The latest R&A Global Golf Participation Report found that 108 million adults and juniors now play golf in some form outside the USA and Mexico. …

Flexible membership is often a strong fit for golfers who like the idea of joining a golf club, but are not quite ready for the cost, commitment or regular usage required from a traditional full membership. That makes the sales journey different. A full membership enquiry is often more straightforward. The golfer may already know …

Flexible membership should never be a “set it and forget it” category. For golf clubs across the UK and Ireland, the first half of the year often provides enough insight to understand whether a flexible membership proposition is working as intended. By mid-year, clubs can start to see patterns in enquiries, sign-ups, usage, booking behaviour, …

Flexible membership can be one of the most effective ways for golf clubs to attract new golfers, monetise underused tee sheet periods and create a pathway into fuller membership categories. However, the success of a flexible category depends heavily on how it is structured from the start. The issue is rarely the concept of flexible …

Flexible membership can be a powerful category for golf clubs. It can attract golfers who are not ready for full membership, create a stronger pathway from green fee play, support quieter tee sheet periods and generate more predictable revenue. But only if it is measured properly. One of the biggest mistakes clubs can make is …

Flexible membership can be a very effective category for golf clubs. It can help attract golfers who are not ready for full membership, support quieter tee sheet periods, create a stronger pathway from visitor golf, and generate additional contracted revenue. But before any of that can happen, the club needs to understand what it is …

For many golf clubs, green fee revenue and membership strategy are treated as two separate conversations. Visitor golf sits under tee sheet utilisation. Membership sits under subscriptions, renewals and long-term income. Both are important, but they are often managed in isolation. That can be a missed opportunity. Green fee golfers are not just one-off transactions. …

Flexible membership can be a very effective category for golf clubs with the right target audience. It can attract new golfers, retain those who might otherwise drift away, fill quieter tee times and create a stronger pathway between green fee play and full membership. One of the common mistakes clubs make is marketing flexible membership …

A golf club can have a well-designed flexible membership product, sensible pricing and a clear commercial purpose, yet still struggle to generate the right level of enquiries. Often, the problem is not the product itself. It is the way the product is explained online. This is where many clubs come unstuck. Traditional membership categories are …

Saturday mornings may already look healthy. Certain summer afternoons may fill themselves. But across the rest of the tee sheet, there are often quieter periods that are harder to monetise consistently. That is where many clubs start to explore flexible membership. The challenge is not whether flexible membership can increase play. It can. The real …

Flexible membership can be a highly effective way for golf clubs to grow participation, improve off-peak utilisation and create a pathway into long-term membership. But pricing it correctly is where the commercial discipline matters most. We often see clubs focus heavily on making a flexible category look affordable to the golfer, without spending enough time …

Flexible membership can be a powerful growth category for golf clubs. It can attract golfers who are not ready for full membership, create a stronger pathway from green fee play, and help clubs monetise demand that might otherwise be lost. But not every flexible membership product is commercially viable. Some clubs launch a model that …

For many golf clubs, flexible membership still carries a certain stigma. It is often seen as a discount product, a compromise option, or even a threat to traditional membership categories. That perception is understandable, especially for clubs that have spent years building a model around full membership as the core offer. But in today’s market, …

Winter can be a valuable time for golf clubs to attract new players through green fees and casual rounds. But too often, those visitors play once or twice and are never spoken to again. For clubs looking to grow revenue and increase membership numbers, the real opportunity is to turn green fee visitors into members. …

Golf clubs are not simply competing with the club down the road anymore. In 2026, they are competing with busy diaries, hybrid working patterns, family commitments, rising household costs and a growing number of ways people can spend their leisure time and money. More than a quarter of working adults in Great Britain were hybrid …

Many golf clubs across the UK are starting to ask the same question: how to grow golf club membership in a way that strengthens the club long term, without undermining existing full categories. It is a valid concern. No club wants to introduce a new membership option that simply encourages full members to downgrade. But …

In 2026, golf clubs aren’t just competing with the club down the road. They’re competing with every other way people can spend their free time. Padel, pickleball, indoor golf, boutique gyms, HYROX, and social fitness are booming. They are flexible, social, and designed around busy schedules. Golf still has an unbeatable product. But modern members …

Golf clubs often view member loss as a simple gap in subscription income. In reality, it’s closer to a slow leak across multiple revenue lines — plus a time and capability drain that most teams don’t have capacity to absorb. At PlayMoreGolf, we work with 200 partner golf courses and support 12,000 members across the …

Golf Club Talk UK is back with the third session of its panel series, and this episode tackles one of the biggest issues facing clubs right now: capital investment and keeping facilities fresh. The panel explores why some clubs consistently improve while others stand still. A key theme is governance and planning. Too many clubs …

PlayMoreGolf, the UK’s leading flexible golf membership platform, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary – marking a decade of growth, innovation, and partnership with golf clubs across the UK and Ireland. Founded in 2016, PlayMoreGolf was created to solve a simple but increasingly common challenge: how modern golfers can enjoy the benefits of club membership while …

From April, many English golf clubs will face a sharp increase in business rates following the latest revaluation. In some cases, rateable values are expected to double or more. What makes this particularly challenging is why these increases are happening. Business rates are calculated using estimated open-market rental values, which take into account location, facilities, …

A strong golf membership pathway helps clubs grow without constant discounting. It also protects long-term retention. Many clubs still offer two choices only. Golfers can either pay green fees or commit to full membership. That model worked when lifestyles were stable. It is less effective today. Modern golfers want flexibility, clarity, and value. Their circumstances …

Discounting golf membership can feel like the quickest way to generate joiners. Offers such as “no joining fee” or “15 months for 12” create urgency. They also create a spike in enquiries. But the bigger question is what happens next. From our experience working with clubs, discounting rarely fixes the real issue. It often masks …

Fairwood Park Golf Club is one of Wales’ standout venues. Set among rolling countryside, the par-73 layout stretches 6,644 yards and is known for strong conditioning, a welcoming feel, and a great test of golf. Like many clubs, Fairwood Park recognised something important a couple of years ago. Golfers were still keen to play, but …

Retention is rarely lost at renewal. It is usually lost in the quiet months before it. We’ve worked in golf club environments where the course was excellent, yet churn was stubborn. The issue was not always price. It was often communication. Members did not feel connected, noticed, or guided. Good communication fixes that. It keeps …

If you manage a golf club, you will know this pattern. Membership numbers look healthy. Weekend mornings are busy. Then renewal season arrives and a familiar group starts to wobble. They are not unhappy golfers. They are often your “good” members. They like the course. They like the club. They just do not have the …

Membership renewal season can feel like a second winter. Not on the course. In the office. You might have a healthy waiting list. You might even feel “full”. Then a handful of resignations land at once. And suddenly you’re asking the same question again: “Why are we losing members now?“ This article breaks down the …

The culture of golf is evolving. From shifting member expectations to new approaches in hospitality, operations, and technology, golf clubs across the UK are working hard to adapt. To explore these changes, Golf Club Talk UK host Leighton Walker has launched the first episode of a three-part podcast series focused on the modern culture of …

Many golf clubs across the UK proudly report that their golf club membership is full, often supported by waiting lists and strong demand. But being at “full membership capacity” doesn’t always mean a club has reached true capacity. In many cases, it simply means weekend mornings are busy or that the club is working within …

When golf clubs talk about the success of flexible membership, the conversation often focuses on numbers — joiners, revenue, yield, or utilisation. But at Wirral Golf Club, the real story runs deeper. Their success is driven not just by the category itself, but by a strategic philosophy: flexible members are treated as part of the …

In an ever-changing golf landscape, clubs across the UK are learning that flexibility isn’t just a modern convenience — it’s a commercial necessity. While full membership will always be the cornerstone of a successful golf club, introducing a flexible membership category can act as the safety net that protects your core business, attracts new players, …

Across the UK, many clubs are already planning their next round of golf membership price increases. Rising staffing costs, supplier price rises, utilities volatility, national insurance changes and the ongoing effects of inflation have placed significant pressure on club finances. When costs rise everywhere, it’s logical to consider how membership revenue can keep pace. However, …

A Flexible Membership Review by Ravensworth Golf Club “As we looked to the future of our golf club, and the golf world as a whole, we recognised that many modern-day golfers look at the game differently from the traditional ways of having a club membership and playing in club competitions every week. If the club …

How to Grow Golf Club Membership with Flexible Membership this Black Friday  For many clubs across the UK, full membership remains healthy. Waiting lists are common, and demand has stayed strong. But as every manager knows, golf runs in cycles — and today’s success doesn’t always guarantee tomorrow’s stability.  If you’re wondering how to grow …

How to Entice Different Golfers to your Golf Club Golf in the UK continues to enjoy healthy participation — memberships are strong, tee sheets are busy, and many clubs are thriving. But even in good times, it’s worth asking an important question: Are you doing enough to attract the next generation of golfers? As lifestyles …

Making Your Your Golf Membership Categories More Sustainable and Attractive Across England, many golf clubs are enjoying buoyant demand. Full membership remains strong, yet some clubs are still turning to full membership offers in an attempt to stand out. Discounts, “no joining fee” deals, and limited-time promotions can generate a short-term spike in new members …

Operational Efficiency vs. Typical Flexible Membership Operators  Flexible golf memberships are everywhere now and becoming an essential part of a golf clubs’ strategy to welcome new golfer into their club. Members want choice, clubs want more members, and venues jockey to turn spare tee-times into revenue.   But not all flexible operators are built the same. …

Over the past decade, the landscape of golf club membership in the UK has been transforming. Traditional annual memberships, where golfers pay a fixed fee regardless of how often they play, are no longer the only option out there. Increasingly, points-based membership, or flexible membership categories are becoming a popular choice, especially among golfers who …

From Tee Sheets to Points Management — Simplifying Golf Club Operations Running a golf club is a balancing act. Between managing tee sheets, handling flexible memberships, and ensuring members feel valued, the admin workload can feel never-ending. While the game is played on the fairways, much of the effort happens behind the counter and in …