Independent Golfer Ireland

I have no issues with igolfers playing in the open comps or even winning prizes. But they need to contribute more than a club member who is actually directly or indirectly providing that igolfer with an actual golf course to play on

For anyone playing once a fortnight or more igolf will be a more expensive option. And they won't be able to play Sundays or membership comps or play on inter club teams or have any say in how the club is run etc.

Will it though ? Like, if someone is a casual enough golfer and plays opens once a week from lets say April to September, 6 months. Call it 26 games for the sake of argument. Whats the average price of an open competition these days ? I don't really know tbh, would it be €30 at a weekend ? even if it was €40, thats only around €1k per year. I'd say a lot of people would gladly give up on having a say in how a club is run if it saved them €500/€600 a year in subs ?

Even at that, there's going to be weekends during that 6 months that you can't play with weather, work, life etc., so probably well less than a grand.

Our club has implemented an interim policy of charging them a full green fee plus the entry fee to play in an open competition. This will be kept under review.

Will this ban apply to 'igolfers' from England and Scotland also?

Apologies, will this pricing strategy apply to similar golfing categories from England and Scotland.

Like something written by a 12 year old

that reads as a disgruntled old fart who hates anything progressive - he should apply to the daily mail for a job - they apply the same BS negative style of whining.

Flexigolf is still available in Highfield GC (€195) and I believe they do very well out of it.

To prevent open competitions having bandits, simply impose a rule that all entrants who get into the prizes must be able to show a minimum of 6 registered scores in the previous 12 months or be a paid up member of a club

Let's compare with Scotland for a moment.

Scotland iGolf equivalent called OpenPlay is mentioned in their annual review.

LINK: https://static.clubhouse.scottishgolf.org/clubs/1000/uploads/files_and_docs/2023_scottish_golf_annual_review_rs.pdf

Key points from 2022 → 2023

1. Membership total was 210k for 2023 (small increase ~100 members since 2022, and was 207.9k in 2021 - nice post covid bump).
2. OpenPlay subscribers was 3039 in 2023 (38% up in 2022, and it was I believe ~1200 total for 2021).

They're running the scheme for 3 years. Overall emberships have NOT dropped at all but the scheme has grown massively. In 2023 OpenPlay lady participants doubled.

Clubs won't die but they need to be smart in terms of how they "protect" the club. There's potential revenue and new members from the iGolfer pool.

Ireland had 223.5k members registered for 2023 per the annual review. So it's largely comparable to Scotland. Golf Ireland should have put the Scotland figures front and centre in their comms to clubs to dampen concerns. The club committees dgaf about growing the game, they want their club to survive first and foremest. Then maybe growing the game.

If Ireland as expected ends up similar to Scotland we will be seeing memberships NOT dwindle while igolf numbers grow, you can surely apply logic that there's a market to tap into. If we had 1200 igolfers after year 1 like Scotland it's around 3 igolfers for each of the 400 odd clubs in the country. Even 3k igolfers is about 8 igolfers per club.

Think about the society golfers, there's more than 8 of them located near each club. Give them a real handicap and they may play more.

It's hard to lose a member to iGolf due to the stand down but surely you should grab the chance at extra green fee income. It's not mad money but income nonetheless and some members to recruit down the line.

Unless something outrageously wild happens, this all blows over until the next "crisis" for the 2026 GI AGM.

The death of clubs line is trotted out way too easily as hyperbole. There's no existential concern for Clubs, just get together to figure out your green fees and open day policies. We all know it's a surcharge.

Then move on and look at providing a better club to your members. There are bigger fish to fry in terms of day to day running costs.

After my initial reaction of mostly 'it just doesnt seem fair' I'd concur with @coillcam. It probably isnt quite fair but it's small fish and it'll work out.

Bit blown out of proportion here by people either this way or that way depending which side you lean on. It's not going to revolutionise the game and give lads tons of opens to play for half nothing and stubborn clubs will start crying over someone waving a €20 at them the fkn backward bastards blablabla. And it's also not going to be a club's war waged on the feckless freeloaders who are going to destroy the game.

There'll be a few golfers who it will suit, some will like it, some will find out its hassle, some will become full golfers. Most clubs will ignore and carry on, some will charge a little extra. Most likely no one will talk about it this time next year.

There will be some clubs who will not like it at all, the ones who thought they could attract a huge distance membership based on the same principle. Leaves their idea for dead a bit.