Time to Join, or not.

FixdePitchmark

Have been holding off joining a club for about five years as in my view the price has been off the wall.

Am enjoying the good value on Tee Times , sometimes think it is the way to go. As in would i get bored of the one course, have never been a member of a club.

But am looking at clubs now , love the idea of playing very close to were I'm living Killester / Raheny . Nine after work and home in two hours.

Am Thinking:

1 St Annes , love it very close , but 5000 euro , long term investment.
2 The lynx Portmarnock, 2500, have not played , next week testing it.
3 Castleknock, get this out of the system, a step , very cheap about 1200 euro, but very busy ? a bit far.
4 Clontarf, too expensive for a short course.


Any views or other ideas, play off about 10 to 12.

BTW , very suprised at the level of pitch marks on greens , they let anybody on golf courses these days, an ironic joke;) , there were years when some of the places on tee times, would not let anybody in the gate , now they are letting anybody in for the euro. The great golf ball turns.

golfwallah

For roundup of memberships as at June 2011, see: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056124293&page=14.
If boardsies could update the list of comparative rates (they have fallen but my guess is there's better to come), that would be great!

MrTrebus

why not Deer Park in Howth ?
A fairly tough test when the wind is howling (usually is on a Sunday Morning )
and from what I remember very very reasonable membership !

would be worth checking out methinks !!

nocal

MrTrebus wrote: »

why not Deer Park in Howth ?
A fairly tough test when the wind is howling (usually is on a Sunday Morning )
and from what I remember very very reasonable membership !

would be worth checking out methinks !!

The only time Deer Park is a test is when the wind is really howling. A Very forgiving course imo.

Howth itself is another matter - not for everyone but if you do not mind the hills then it always provides a challenge. It has plenty of members from D3 and D5 and has plenty of competitions. It also has to have the best views available from a golf course on the north side.

FixdePitchmark

nocal wrote: »

The only time Deer Park is a test is when the wind is really howling. A Very forgiving course imo.

Howth itself is another matter - not for everyone but if you do not mind the hills then it always provides a challenge. It has plenty of members from D3 and D5 and has plenty of competitions. It also has to have the best views available from a golf course on the north side.

Thanks, will have a look at Howth.

Deer Park, I played to death as a teen. I've moved on and Golf courses have moved on from Deer Park, is a great Public course great views, but have played 5.5 hour rounds there.

Barnhill

What about somewhere like Sillogue. Its a public course just off the Ballymun exit of the M50. I used it a few years ago just to get a handicap and was pleasantly surprised how good it was. Membership is €250.00.

MrTrebus

nocal wrote: »

The only time Deer Park is a test is when the wind is really howling. A Very forgiving course imo.

Howth itself is another matter - not for everyone but if you do not mind the hills then it always provides a challenge. It has plenty of members from D3 and D5 and has plenty of competitions. It also has to have the best views available from a golf course on the north side.

well since they removed a LOT of the ridiculous "spinneys" from the 18hole course, its become an awful lot tougher.
The first 3 holes are awful tought to start out with, and the last 3 are pretty tough going too !!
As for the views .......:):)

FixdePitchmark

Must hit Deer Park for a bit of nostaliga , it did improve a bit over the years, but when the sun came out every skanger in Dublin went there, the idea of it, waiting 2 hours for a game , number "45" , no number "36" for the 9 or 18. Anyway it was the home of the homeless for so long. But now the homeless are needed elsewhere . Anybody remeber driving the first on the old nine , when you could not get on the 18 due to 90 Tourist with rented clubs, the memories are flooding back, five balls for a pound. What views.

Jimdagym

You are out by €700 on your price for castleknock. It's 1750 plus 150 in the bar.

FixdePitchmark

Jimdagym wrote: »

You are out by €700 on your price for castleknock. It's 1750 plus 150 in the bar.

Yes , was looking at the 5 day options , at 600 euro for Castleknock, I'd say the place could be overrun at that, know little about the place, but turned up with a tee times (tee time), and looks like the place is flying with all sources of income , but is this to the detriment of the members and the course? Again just my casual observations, but I'd say there is an income / member enjoyment balance issue at the heart of club golf in the Dublin area.

starsinmyeyes

the idea of it, waiting 2 hours for a game , number "45" , no number "36" for the 9 or 18.
They have an online booking system in place now

FixdePitchmark

starsinmyeyes wrote: »

the idea of it, waiting 2 hours for a game , number "45" , no number "36" for the 9 or 18.
They have an online booking system in place now

No way, the world has moved on, even D Park is online

slave1

Interesting thread, I've come out of golf retirement a few weeks back (growing family/bad back) after 4 years out.
I used to be a member and was just the other day looking at the membership fees to rejoin.
I'll never rejoin now.
Why?
Because for the price of annual membership to a single club equates to about 38 separate green fees in the midlands.
I can play two courses a week, mid-week after work for the entire summer period and that is worth a lot more to my game than being tied to one club, because I'm not a member I've been going all around (4 different courses over the last two weeks and two new ones next week lined up) and taking advantage of open days with circa €15 max green fees (New Forest, Roscommon, Moate, Athlone, Ballinasloe to name a few).
PS No official handicap has never a problem

Sir Shankalot

I can play two courses a week, mid-week after work for the entire summer period and that is worth a lot more to my game than being tied to one club, because I'm not a member I've been going all around (4 different courses over the last two weeks and two new ones next week lined up) and taking advantage of open days with circa €15 max green fees (New Forest, Roscommon, Moate, Athlone, Ballinasloe to name a few).
PS No official handicap has never a problem[/QUOTE]

I know this has been touched on before on other threads as well but do you have no problem playing Open comps with no handicap? I don't mean are you able to get away with it, I mean do you have no issue with doing it?

i think it is really bad form that the clubs you list above allow you to play Open comps there without a handicap and would imagine that the GUI are looking at it - these clubs are affiliated to GUI and the memebers of all these clubs pay an annual levy to GUI for it. It seems very sneaky to playing Opens without a handicap

mike12

slave1 wrote: »

Interesting thread, I've come out of golf retirement a few weeks back (growing family/bad back) after 4 years out.
I used to be a member and was just the other day looking at the membership fees to rejoin.
I'll never rejoin now.
Why?
Because for the price of annual membership to a single club equates to about 38 separate green fees in the midlands.
I can play two courses a week, mid-week after work for the entire summer period and that is worth a lot more to my game than being tied to one club, because I'm not a member I've been going all around (4 different courses over the last two weeks and two new ones next week lined up) and taking advantage of open days with circa €15 max green fees (New Forest, Roscommon, Moate, Athlone, Ballinasloe to name a few).
PS No official handicap has never a problem

Thought in most clubs you had to sign in with a offical handicap to play in opens. Who do you play with and do you sign there card? Opens are for members of GUI clubs to play comps in other club at a reduced fee they are not ment for reduced Green fees.
Mike

Tones69

Could be getting some clubs in trouble there by saying they let you play open comps without an official gui handicap dude. Im guessing they do it these days because theyre prob in financial difficulty and cant say no to the money, kinda defeats the purpose for us who pay for that privilidge though

Sandwlch

Tones69 wrote: »

Could be getting some clubs in trouble there by saying they let you play open comps without an official gui handicap dude. Im guessing they do it these days because theyre prob in financial difficulty and cant say no to the money, kinda defeats the purpose for us who pay for that privilidge though

No trouble for clubs at all. Call it an Open Day, call it a Reduced Green Fee Day. Its all the same thing - clubs just want punters paying to use the course.
The race to the bottom continues apace and there is really cheap golf to be had these days for the casual non-handicapped golfer. In effect, having an official GUI handicap has become an increasingly expensive thing. The member-golfer is the one who has not seen the drop in subs to a level experienced by the greenfee/society golfer. And there is something wrong in that, that the GUI and clubs as a group are not addressing.

slave1 wrote: »

Interesting thread, I've come out of golf retirement a few weeks back (growing family/bad back) after 4 years out. I used to be a member and was just the other day looking at the membership fees to rejoin.
I'll never rejoin now. Why?
Because for the price of annual membership to a single club equates to about 38 separate green fees in the midlands.
I can play two courses a week, mid-week after work for the entire summer period and that is worth a lot more to my game than being tied to one club, because I'm not a member I've been going all around (4 different courses over the last two weeks and two new ones next week lined up) and taking advantage of open days with circa €15 max green fees (New Forest, Roscommon, Moate, Athlone, Ballinasloe to name a few). PS No official handicap has never a problem

Sums up the current situation well. People used to join clubs because that offered the best value way of playing golf for any reasonable amount of games per year. The pendulum has swung. Now the best value (for the typical 20-30 rounds/year golfer) is by not joining. Have an official handicap, or play a variety of courses is the only option to weigh up. Many are going for the non member option, also giving pay-as-you-play flexibility which is nice in economically challening times.

FixdePitchmark

Sandwlch wrote: »

No trouble for clubs at all. Call it an Open Day, call it a Reduced Green Fee Day. Its all the same thing - clubs just want punters paying to use the course.
The race to the bottom continues apace and there is really cheap golf to be had these days for the casual non-handicapped golfer. In effect, having an official GUI handicap has become an increasingly expensive thing. The member-golfer is the one who has not seen the drop in subs to a level experienced by the greenfee/society golfer. And there is something wrong in that, that the GUI and clubs as a group are not addressing.



Sums up the current situation well. People used to join clubs because that offered the best value way of playing golf for any reasonable amount of games per year. The pendulum has swung. Now the best value (for the typical 20-30 rounds/year golfer) is by not joining. Have an official handicap, or play a variety of courses is the only option to weigh up. Many are going for the non member option, also giving pay-as-you-play flexibility which is nice in economically challening times.

GOOD POINT.

Hence, my dilemma, I've played six different courses in three weeks using tee times, great fun . In between I play corballis links (7 great opening holes), I think I'd get bored knowing exactly what club to hit without even looking at yards, playing the one course thirty times a year.

But still no GUI, at the end of the day.

I've never been a member , so don't understand or have experienced the additional benefits, of comunity, competition, camaraderie ? What are they members ?

I've never had the cheek to play an open competition without a GUI, but as the point has been made , great golf to be played in Socs. Actually, lads I know who are members of clubs, end up doing more stuff with their socs.

Look this could be due to my ignorance of clubs, but perhaps a good soc has more craic, different golf, more societal variation (i.e no snobbery).

Thanks for the views given, I think it has helped me not go for the dearer options, get my GUI in a cheap way and play open competitions. A bit of Soc. golf in the local pub.

Will allways have a lingering doubt, about should I have just gone for it and signed up to some of the more prestigous north east links, not for prestige, they more than likley have the best golf in the city all year round.

But the walls of golf continue to tumble down.

Perhaps when these links are on the rise again (15,000, 20,000 euro) and the boat has sailed , I'll have regrets, but regrets can be overcome with a peach of a six iron six goot from the pin by the sound of the Irish sea.

The world will turn, irrespectivly.

golfwallah

FixdePitchmark wrote: »

GOOD POINT.

I've never been a member , so don't understand or have experienced the additional benefits, of comunity, competition, camaraderie ? What are they members ?
.........
The world will turn, irrespectivly.

Tried to find something pre-canned about benefits of golf club membership and found the following:
Irish based sites:
Couldn’t find much on GUI site, other than links to club sites.
Couldn’t find a single list of benefits on Boards.ie golf forum, although you will find bits and pieces on various posts.
Found some stuff on benefits offered by individual Irish golf sites by googling “golf club membership dublin” and “why join a golf club” or words to the same effect.

UK based sites:
Not much on English Golfing Union site but some info on:
http://www.getintogolf.org/page.asp?section=0001000100060001

US based sites:
http://www.articlealley.com/article_819943_32.html

As regards getting more people to participate in golf, in a recent Opinion Poll conducted by KPMG’s Golf Business Community:
“What is the most important in your opinion for growing golf participation in a country?”

Top response was “More affordable golf courses”.

For more info see: http://www.golfbusinesscommunity.com/in-focus/golf_participation

mike12

The Benifits of joining a club for a social golfer are not that great. If you want to see how good you can get handicap wise then you need to join a club, play a comp every week in your club and play in as many opens as you want.
You need to be playing 40 plus times a year to justify a €1000 a year membership if you take a mid week green fee of 20 and weekend of 30 both on the cheap end of the scale. Plus you can't get out on a lot of courses on a Sunday.
I pay €690 a year so easily get the 30 rounds in to justify that.

mags1962

Have to say, played soceities and Open Fairways before I joined an inexpensive club, less snobbery that way, and found that the difference was vast. Cliques exist in soceities just as much as in clubs. Playing competive golf every week and also the chance of playing with better players works wonders. Allied to come and go as you please and inter club competitions in GUI competitions gives you the chance to play in other courses. Play different formats to sharpen your game, singles strokes/stableford/V Par/3 clubs/Matchplay, fourballs mostly the same but with a partner, 3 man and 4 man teams, mixed with the ladies, if you can avoid embarrising yourself in front of them then you are on the way to improving.
Also have you noticed that the snobby clubs have less Open Comp's and are mostly full of old men that don't play much and only with each other.

slave1

Appreciate some of the sentiments since my post, I used to play 3 times a week and was a full member and got down to 14.1, then life presented home and family as well as bad back, found myself playing 3 times a month and then 3 times a year.
I'll never be 50+rounds a year again, I prefer time with family so I have no problems with open days, I ask beforehand is there any issue and as folk have pointed out they just want green fees and I am not going to pay circa€700 for annual membership just for the sole purpose of an official handicap, what matters to me is moving around and enjoying evening golf, first birdie since coming back last night along with 5 pars and 5 bogies.
Regarding do I feel bad? I remember the cowboys roving the country playing open weeks and cleaning up on prizes, they're bigger fish. As someone said earlier 'open' days is just a term now, loads of society and social golfers playing and having a good time, life is too short for all those begrudging "GUI fees" thoughts.