What do societies look for when considering outing venues these days?

mygolfsociety

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to get the ball rolling on this one. Are societies or golfers in general looking for pure value these days (the lowest price possible) or are they looking for a combination of price, course quality, facilities, location, etc when considering their outing, weekend away venues or general golfing venues?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this.

GorHugh

mygolfsociety wrote: »

Hi everybody,

Just wanted to get the ball rolling on this one. Are societies or golfers in general looking for pure value these days (the lowest price possible) or are they looking for a combination of price, course quality, facilities, location, etc when considering their outing, weekend away venues or general golfing venues?

Would appreciate your thoughts on this.

I booked the courses for our society this year . We sat down at the AGM and agreed upon Quality courses over cheap courses ,Facilites and location came next on the list , Course toughness was taken into account also , We started out on a links due to kicking off the season at the end of feb , Our list ran Seapoint , Rathcore , Carton House (monty) , Concra Wood , Headfort old , Dunmurry Springs , Castleknock , Headfort (new) , Knightsbrook . only 1 of these courses cost E50 or More per head , carton House ( E55 ) and it was worth every penny ..

GreeBo

GorHugh wrote: »

I booked the courses for our society this year . We sat down at the AGM and agreed upon Quality courses over cheap courses ,Facilites and location came next on the list , Course toughness was taken into account also , We started out on a links due to kicking off the season at the end of feb , Our list ran Seapoint , Rathcore , Carton House (monty) , Concra Wood , Headfort old , Dunmurry Springs , Castleknock , Headfort (new) , Knightsbrook . only 1 of these courses cost E50 or More per head , carton House ( E55 ) and it was worth every penny ..

What did you think of Rathcore?
I played it in a gale and combined with the blind tee shots wasnt too impressed to be honest...

I think it depends a lot on the abilities of the society. If the handicaps are mixed then playing very long/tough courses wont be too enjoyable for lots of the group. You probably also dont want to be overnighting if you can help it.

Facilities are also important to me, I remember getting stuck in Castlewarden with no towel and none on offer.

/edit what he said !
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stockdam

Location is probably the most important.........most people don't like driving for an hour.

Price is also important.......although a few people would pay €50 for a round, the average person won't so unless you only want two fourballs then you have to keep it quite cheap.

The course needs to on the easy side otherwise some will get disheartened.

A nice mature course is better than a featureless one.

Good food is a bonus.

Trampas

Mail every course in dublin and surrounding counties.

Let the courses come to you

GorHugh

GreeBo wrote: »

What did you think of Rathcore?
I played it in a gale and combined with the blind tee shots wasnt too impressed to be honest...

It's a nice course , A couple of nice holes , but also a few fairly short par 4's , It can be a bit wet / soggy if played outside of the summer months though .

Outside of the society I tend to play it more in the summer to try and get it at it's best , It can be an enjoyable course played in decent weather .

GorHugh

stockdam wrote: »

Price is also important.......although a few people would pay €50 for a round, the average person won't so unless you only want two fourballs then you have to keep it quite cheap.

We play on Saturdays so the lads understand that we pay the higher rates , we never charge more then €50 for a course and have found that if the course is of high enough quality nobody minds paying the €50 . We have 35+ members and have no problems getting 25/30 lads an outing .

Trampas

Max prices we were getting back was around €60 - €65 and that was the like of druids glen

GorHugh

Trampas wrote: »

Max prices we were getting back was around €60 - €65 and that was the like of druids glen

Great value to be had if you push the Courses ...

redzerdrog

in our society they tried to mix and match by getting quailty courses and throwing in a couple of cheap ones to balance the books

This year our list runs concra wood, ardee, navan, royal tara, headfort old, seapoint(captains prize)

RGS

we mix and match courses to balance the books.

ipitydafool

Its funny but before the recession our society bar captains day didnt really go to the bigger courses but now with recession we tend to try and bargain some of the nicer courses down. We play on saturdays and the prices have been excellent.Our list for this year has ran heritage, tullamore, galway bay, glasson, new forest and portuma, we also have a christmas outing which we havent decided where yet, usually book it later in year.
Out of interest to OP do you have many societies that use your service? Surely they way things have gone, society organisers would be getting same sort of prices as you get simply because the golf courses need the green fees so badly.

mygolfsociety

Thanks for all the feedback, much appreciated!

To answer your question we have a few thousand societies registered on our website (hard to believe there are that many in Ireland based on the numbers affiliated to the GUI but every pub in the country probably has one) to receive our golf society magazine, newsletter service and to take advantage of the free society webpage within our website where they can post up fixtures, results, photos, etc. Of these about 500 societies book directly with us which more than trebled from last year which we are very happy with.

A lot of the rates we get are generally lower than the usual society rates, although I am sure there are long running societies out there that have arrangements with golf clubs for rates and more power to them! The main thing about our service is that it is FREE to societies and we take out all the hassle of putting the outings together, along with taking care of any logo clothing orders, prizes at discounted rates and also golf weekends and golf holidays.

If any of ye would be interested in us putting together an outing proposal for your 2011 outings drop us a line via info@mygolfsociety.ie and we will be delighted to help you organise your outings. Cheers!

RGS

Our society have used mygolfsocety since their inception and i recommend their services.
their free website to societies is a great idea.

mygolfsociety

Thanks for the feedback, good to hear you like the free society website - some societies make very good use of it and other societies just register so we can get in touch with them.

It's all good really!

Clareman

Society I'm in seems to concentrate on having all their outings on the course where the committee are members around the time of competitions in that course so they can play 1 round and submit to 2 compeititions.

Oops, I should have said society I'm in, was a former member of, but I won't be re-joining as it's being ruined by a few

mygolfsociety

It's a pity to hear that, I suppose the only solution would be to put your own society together. Do ye play mostly in the Clare/Limerick/Tipp area?

Clareman

Yeah, usually around the mid west region, Charleville has been played as well, oh yeah and courses in Galway. Same thing happened in the society as happens with a lot, a few people take over and ruin it. It's not unusual for players to walk in after 16 holes if they figure they aren't going to win to save their handicap, 1 guy recently had 40 points coming off the 16th, figured that wasn't enough so walked in, 48 won it. They also are very clique and try to ensure that they get to play with their own buddies the whole time.

IMVHO societies are supposed to be able to allow people not members of clubs access to the game, allow people play new courses that they wouldn't normally play and get to play with people they wouldn't normally play with.

mygolfsociety

We will be running a few society days later in the year so if you would like to register your society with us we will be in touch to invite 2 members of each society to attend - looking at breakfast, golf and dinner all on us!! Not sure of the exact venues or dates yet but probably looking at October at this stage.

mygolfsociety

Hi lads,

Thanks for contributing to this thread so far, very helpful feedback! The next edition of our Golf Society Magazine will be launched in mid September this year in advance of when you will be putting your outing schedule ready to hopefully give you some help by having all the latest and greatest deals to hand.

The Magazine is distributed free to all golf societies so if you would like a copy please register your society's details with us and we will make sure you receive copy in September. If you have already registered, fair play and we look forward to sending ye on a copy of the magazine in about a month's time.

Cheers!