Sunday Business Post - Annual Review of Membership Fees

copacetic

Is in todays paper. Not sure if it is on their site yet.
Worth buying, although it looks like some clubs have not put their 'special super duper' offers in. Possibly to keep the prices up? They also missed out a few clubs altogether.

They give a good review of the course projects that have been stalled in the last year or so and ones that have had big reductions. The examples they point out have mostly been mentioned on here:


Macreddin - 30k down to 8k to join
Moyvalley - 30k down to 10k
New Forest - 17.5k down to 7.5k

slumped

I predict that in 5 years time the vast majority of golf clubs will have no entrance fees.

Clubs are struggling.

copacetic

Possibly, but 5 years is a bit far off to call you on it!

Certainly I wouldn't pay any kind of joining fee at the moment, it's a time to wait and see what happens.

stockdam

I think more and more clubs will drop the idea of entrance fees.

Maybe they will also have ways of transferring for those who move house and are looking for a new course.

N1977

It all depends on the location of the golf club. For example, an established club in or near a city won't have to do this because there will always be a stready list of people wanting to join as it's near their home, work, etc. I agree that clubs that are situated well outside towns will struggle.

Bromavinci

I was plannig on waiting until the new year to join..good idea?

03mcgs0

I can’t read that article online can I??

It would be very interesting reading indeed, golf in Ireland will definitely tail off in a couple of years, well it has to. Far too many courses are opening and not enough golfers are joining them, it has hit its saturation point and the only way is down. I’m happy because the thought of even paying €10,000 to join a course is ridiculous to young men or women who has had to move to a new area in order to get a job and have to pay that to join a half decent club……

milltown

I hope you guys are right!

Didn't realise Moyvalley had been looking for €30k :eek:
Had the pleasure of playing there twice in the past week and it's a very, very impressive setup. Flyers and posters all over the clubhouse for the limited offer of €10k membership, 1st come 1st serve, first 50 only, ends march '08.
Asked the guy ine pro shop how the membership drive is going..."very well, we've 44 members now". Place is open since April '07 btw. I'd love to know if any of the 44 paid the original asking price.

Annual sub. of €1250, in case anyone's curious.

Fulton Crown

stockdam wrote: »

I think more and more clubs will drop the idea of entrance fees.

Maybe they will also have ways of transferring for those who move house and are looking for a new course.

Agree that this is a problem area - however entrance fees are a way of recompensing the existing membership of a club for various improvements / additional land purchase etc over the preceeding years.

It is hardly logical that a club who have upgraded facilities, course etc - funded by borrowings and member levies would be in a position to allow someone to join when all these things are in place and not expect them to make SOME contribution via entrance fee ?

Admiral

Lads,
Made a bit of an inquiry to some course's around West Dublin/Kildare. Results below.

If you have any other course membership details maybe you can post them below???


South County Golf Club
Shareholding: Annual sub E1,600, Bar Prepayment E300, Insurance E20, GUI E19, Total E1,939. Entry fee is E17,500.
7 Day: Same as above, Entry Fee E12,500
5 Day: Annual sub E850, Bar Prepayment E150, Insurance E20, GUI E19, Total 1,039
Annual: Annual sub: E2,100, Bar Prepayment E300, Insurance E20, GUI E19, Total E2,439.

Castleknock
Full private membership requires an investment of €30,000 in a redeemable preference share. This entitles you to become a full member of the club for an annual fee which is currently €1,500 per annum.Another option would be to become a individual corporate member. This entitles you to become a full member of the club with GUI handicap and the ability to enter club competitions. The annual cost per corporate member is €4,000.


Castlewarden Golf & County Club
We have some spaces available for full membership.
The entrance fee is €10,000.00.
The annual sub is €1,208.50, this includes the Gui and vouchers for the bar & restaurant.

Forest Little
We are open at the moment for Full Membership at a reduced cost of €8950. For the first year it will cost you €9,119 which includes all your levies, per year after that it costs you roughly €1,200.

Killeen
At the moment membership at killeen is obtained through a share option. We launched 700 shares back in 2003 to the general public, all original shares were sold however I do have some shareholders who are looking to sell their share. The price of a share is around 15'500euro, there are a certain few on the list that will accept less.


Hope this is help to someone.

Admiral

copacetic

thanks for that Admiral, have merged it with the other thread on membership prices to keep them all together.

Admiral

Indeed.
BTW has anyone found out on the Sunday Business Post website where the membership details are?

Thanks

copacetic

Couldn't find it online, it doesn't appear in the full listing for the 15th and doesn't come up in a search. Possibly because it was a stand alone supplement. Let me know if there is a particular course you are interested in and will look it up.

Admiral

copacetic wrote: »

Couldn't find it online, it doesn't appear in the full listing for the 15th and doesn't come up in a search. Possibly because it was a stand alone supplement. Let me know if there is a particular course you are interested in and will look it up.

wasnt looking for any one course, just wanted to have a nice browse.
thanks for the offer anyway

03mcgs0

ELM GREEN GOLF COURSE

€475 per year, all this entitles you to is a handicap and cheaper rates before 11am, not sure about Sundays... Its €32 on Saturdays.


HOLLYSTOWN

€1375 per year 7 day membership
€975 per year 5 day membership

jdivision

Admiral wrote: »

wasnt looking for any one course, just wanted to have a nice browse.
thanks for the offer anyway

They'll post it out to you, about €2.75, or you can call into 80 Harcourt St and buy a copy.

To the OP who said they missed out on some courses, I used to work there and was involved in it many moons ago and can tell you that basically it comes down to the club just not ringing back. Some of them are just too lazy.

Mister Sifter

03mcgs0 wrote: »

ELM GREEN GOLF COURSE

€475 per year, all this entitles you to is a handicap and cheaper rates before 11am, not sure about Sundays... Its €32 on Saturdays.

Elmgreen is 475 for new members, 450 for existing. Cheaper rates available to members before 1pm and all day Sunday.

copacetic

jdivision wrote: »

They'll post it out to you, about €2.75, or you can call into 80 Harcourt St and buy a copy.

To the OP who said they missed out on some courses, I used to work there and was involved in it many moons ago and can tell you that basically it comes down to the club just not ringing back. Some of them are just too lazy.

Understand that, I'm really just saying that it is far from a complete review of courses and appears also to be inaccurate, i.e clubs responded with costs that are more than the actually charge. Really the sbp should put a warning that this is just information from clubs rather than results of independent investigation or a survey of new members.