Green Fees - Top Courses in Ireland

Scott Tenorman

ShivasIrons wrote: »

There's a couple of ways to look at it, in that club the sub is 1300 and generally an average member plays 40 times a year so on average they are paying 32.50 a round. A visitor should be paying more then a member.


Another way to look at it is to divide the cost of running a club by the number of rounds, so for example a club costs 750,000 to run and there's 600 rounds a week or 30,000 a year then it's 25 a round to run. There's not much ancillary income to be made so the 25 a round comes from subscriptions or green fees. Charging an infrequent customer less than a frequent customer is customer service suicide.

Another way to look at it is that the costs to keep the course are fixed and that open days help keep the costs DOWN for members by providing extra income.

I would say they are mutually beneficial to members and visitors and don't really get why people get so arsey about open days TBH

ShivasIrons

moycullen14 wrote: »

Get 2 accountants and you will have 3 methods to 'calculate' the cost of a round.

I suspect most clubs - especially those that are struggling financially - calculate the marginal cost of a round at pretty much zero. Most costs are fixed and the others are not affected overmuch by an extra few rounds. If they were then we would all be paying per round and there would be no annual membership.

Anyway the cost is irrelevant - it's all about supply and demand.

The cost is far from irrelevant, if the costs aren't being covered the business i.e. golf club will close.


Also extra rounds mean extra wear which means more maintenance costs.

ShivasIrons

Scott Tenorman wrote: »

Another way to look at it is that the costs to keep the course are fixed and that open days help keep the costs DOWN for members by providing extra income.

I would say they are mutually beneficial to members and visitors and don't really get why people get so arsey about open days TBH

Yes exactly, revenue from visitor rounds should be used to bring down the price of membership for members. The issue is if visitor rounds are too cheap it makes membership look like bad value and a number of golfers switch to a distance membership. This is not beneficial for clubs and in the long run not beneficial for golfers.



The issue with open days is not open days, it's the price that is charged. If there is too many of them and the price is too low it's an unsustainable business model.

mike12

Most open days are on a courses quite day of the week.
We get over 100 lots of Tuesday's but lots of those are members who like having a midweek comp to play in.
If there was no comp then the course would be empty, the pro shop wouldn't sell 50 cokes and mars bars and the restaurant would get those extra 10 or 15 meals.

Empty tee times are just a waste of space the costs are almost the same if the course is empty or full.
The 20 odd quid that most charge for a open is about right for a midweek green fee on most courses.

moycullen14

ShivasIrons wrote: »

The cost is far from irrelevant, if the costs aren't being covered the business i.e. golf club will close.


Also extra rounds mean extra wear which means more maintenance costs.

Take the figures above: 30,000 rounds over the course of a year. If that was to increase to, say 31,000, would it increase the costs for the club? Probably not by much. At 10-15-20 euro a round, it could make a huge difference to the financial stability of a club.

Within reason, I'm not sure that people do the number of rounds by cost per round calculation when deciding to join/renew membership.

To me, the big advantage of membership is that I play MORE golf - I can roll up at the weekend and play in a competition, I play 4-9 holes 2 or 3 times a week on summer evenings. None of this would I do if not a member. What I would be reduced to is the away days with the lads - I do that anyway.

My membership allows me to play as much golf as I like, when I like. I don't look on it as costing me X euro per round. Obviously if I was paying 000's and only paying a few times a year, it would make no sense.

ShivasIrons

moycullen14 wrote: »

Take the figures above: 30,000 rounds over the course of a year. If that was to increase to, say 31,000, would it increase the costs for the club? Probably not by much. At 10-15-20 euro a round, it could make a huge difference to the financial stability of a club.

Within reason, I'm not sure that people do the number of rounds by cost per round calculation when deciding to join/renew membership.

To me, the big advantage of membership is that I play MORE golf - I can roll up at the weekend and play in a competition, I play 4-9 holes 2 or 3 times a week on summer evenings. None of this would I do if not a member. What I would be reduced to is the away days with the lads - I do that anyway.

My membership allows me to play as much golf as I like, when I like. I don't look on it as costing me X euro per round. Obviously if I was paying 000's and only paying a few times a year, it would make no sense.

Can you name a club that has made more money by reducing prices?