Independent Golfer Ireland

The "participation" numbers used by GI and others are supposedly not inflated. We all agree there's quite a stretch in the numbers. My cousin pays €10 on holidays for 9 holes at a par 3 course on two occasions. I assume he's being counted as a casual golfer, which is boosting the numbers. Clubs could never be swamped, they simply reduce slots on the tee sheet. Losing members is a legit concern to consider but it's a red herring if Scotland data is taken at face value.

It's one thing… A pathway for many golfers to participate more. Those who've played previously and circumstances don't permit make sense to pay for membership. Society golfers who want to dabble in a "real" comp and keep a handicap. Plus those who want to try the game but don't want to lump for entrance fees/subs. In one of the Scotland reviews it said there was a 4% conversion rate to membership from OpenPlay. That's only double-digit numbers. Not even 1 golfer per club on average. The organic drop of members and uptake is probably not much different tbf than previously. Personally, I feel you're more likely to see a boon in memberships if something like Netflix's Full Swing became a cultural sensation. That or an influx of new juniors with Rory/Shane/Seamus/Tom going on a tear winning a major(s).

Actually, I'd love it if GI could have arranged the big guns to do a mini tour around the provinces to meet only juniors in person every couple of years. Schedules and sponsors would probably not allow it. Although a big corporate sponsor would have enough weight to influence.

isn't he tied in with Golfbidder too ..

Its funny, A few years ago the members of certain distance golf clubs were being vilified for the exact same things potential igolf members are. These distance members were all bandits likely to hack up open days and it shouldn't be allowed. Unfair on the rest of the golfers

For what it's worth I don't think many (if any) clubs will bother charging more so I don't think it'll be relevant. We'll see I suppise

That's interesting that 500 people have already signed up, generally without much information about the scheme. Good numbers to be fair.

This is epic small mindedness right here, absolutely tragic mentality. People who run these clubs obviously can't see the wood from the trees. If I was in the GUI I'd ban them all from inter golf comps until this stopped.

iGolf is for people who cannot/will not or don't want to join a golf club full-time, for whatever reason. Nobody else - if I want to play golf regularly then I'll join my local club, so will everyone else. If I want to play occasionally then I'll join iGolf or Slievenamon Distance if iGolf doesn't exist, so will everyone else. There is nothing new here.

I was a member of my local club for a number of years until life got in the way and had to give it up. I'm now a distance member of Slievenamon so I can have a handicap to play in the odd open over the summer and in a local society - I actually played no open this summer due to not having the time. The irony here is I only joined Slievenamon this year after 4 years with no golf and and have now eliminated myself from joining iGolf for another three years!!

The club closest to me has an entrance fee of €10K and juniors can't join unless a parent is a member. This is dinosaur stuff - every child in the area should be encouraged to join and grow them as members. I'll join again when the kids are grown up and gone but until then it's Slievenamon or iGolf.

The vast majority of iGolf golfers will be like this, it's not going to affect club membership one jot, if anything it will get non playing people back to golf and towards golf membership again in the future. Honestly, any clubs that see this as a threat would want their head examined.

I guess the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, and we'll all have to see how it plays out in real time.

I doubt Golf Ireland will be banning anyone anytime soon, as the clubs ultimately dictate to Golf Ireland, not the other way round. It'll be interesting to see if clubs split into two camps though, those happy to take iGolfers' money and those who can happily get by without it and don't need extra members, or if there's a common approach. Personally I think there will be split approaches, you can't compare a so called high end club able to charge €10k entrance and €2k sub, with a small club barely getting by charging €1k annual sub, its apples and oranges IMHO. They'll have completely different agendas.

I think ultimately the clubs are taking a selfish self preservation view, maybe they're misguided, maybe their fears are justified, but you can hardly blame them. I haven't spoken to anyone, but I'd imagine the big fear is that existing members find a way round the 3 year rule and downgrade to iGolf to save themselves a good chunk of change for the year. I know my own club just about gets by on around 350-400 members, we couldn't deal with 50 leaving, if that were to come to pass. Then again, maybe its selfish of people, when life gets in the way of their golf, to expect competition golf to still be available to them anyway.

My gut feeling is that it will turn out to be much adoo about nothing, iGolf will have whatever number they have, and they'll be the new Slievenamon. Some clubs will accept them, some won't and life will go on. If the 3 year rule is enforced I think the clubs will be safe, but I can't really see iGolf being a feeder system, I think it'll broadly end up being the 15 rounds a year gang.

Individual clubs will just have to make their own call on it I guess. If some clubs wish to charge an extra premium that's their choice however I'm sure there will be plenty of clubs happy to fill an Open timesheet with these golfers. These clubs too should advertise their willingness to accept iGolfers just as much as the clubs in the south east are stating their preferences for putting a levy on them.

The distinction is quite obvious I would have though. iGolfers and iGolf have no club of their own which they can offer other golfers to play on. Or to play on themselves even.

It's 100% based on the expectation to use someone else's facilities and logistics like comp management, BRS golf, Howdidido etc. And the expectation to do so at a discounted rate. Under the assumption that clubs need their fee so much that it outweighs their risk of losing members to iGolf or pissing some of their members off or both. One could argue in that sense it's a business model somewhat aggressive towards the clubs. Justified or not clearly some clubs see it that way.

Yes I know some of those distance membership schemes are effectively operating on the same basis; I reckon no one ever went to Slievenamon to play in open there. And some of the bigger clubs only sporadically offer opens and some of them never do. And so I get it when iGolf advocates say whats the difference?

However even with that in mind there is still a distinction. The iGolf business model doesnt even theoretically offer anything to other golfers. It's kinda like the gig economy version of golf and in that sense a little bit parasitic. Justified or not clearly some people see it that way.

Like I said before I dont think it will play out that way. I dont think anyone will be 'filling up their timesheets' with iGolfers anytime soon and most likely never. But surely even iGolfers must see that there is more to it than clubs needing to be grateful for that €20 or €50 they're waving at them.

If igolfers pay a green fee and an open competition fee, clubs should be satisfied and not prevent them playing.

It would be a reasonable deal for the clubs and a cheap option for igolfer to be competitive.

Should/would the same price structure apply to members of clubs that don't run open competitions or have a Golf Ireland rate for visitors?