Independent Golfer Ireland

The OP didn't say the green fee rate for the day was €25.

They said they were charged €60 for the open, and "visitors were €25". I would take it that €25 was the visitors rate for the open. Most opens have a members rate and a visitors rate... The green fee for the day usually being higher than the open visitors rate.

We don't know if the €60 they were charged was higher than the green fee rate though. It could be the case that the club is taking their green fee rate and adding something onto it as an admin fee for the open.

In essence what it amounts to is:

OP gets iGolf membership

OP expects that they should be getting the same discounted rate that other GI club members get for Open comps

Clubs say, we don't recognise iGolf as being a club. So we're going to charge a standard green fee plus a competition fee for iGolfers to enter our open competitions.

So for a GI club member it's maybe a breakdown of: 25 = 15 green fee + 10 comp fee

For iGolfer it's maybe a breakdown of: 60 = 50 green fee + 10 comp fee.

Whether you claim it's a money-spinner or agreeing reciprocal rates for opens between clubs is kind of irrelevant.

For right or wrong, ultimately, the clubs want people joining clubs, not taking independent membership and expecting discounted green fees

You have this in reverse. The comp fee was €25. Igolfers got charged the greenfee of €35 on top which is fair enough. Staff wages and upkeep costs don't pay for themselves and unless igolfers get charged the greenfee on top of the comp fee then they won't be contributing to these costs either. Why should a member of a club shoulder these costs while an igolfer just gives Golf Ireland €65 and gets to play that same member's club for just the comp fee?

Edited to say why didn't this igolfer confirm the rate before travelling to the course?

Have run into this now this weekend where we'd booked into a team comp, no mention of anything and our group included a full member of another club who'd booked and asked us to play. Came back saying comp fee of 30 which we'd paid plus green fee of 55.

Now I don't think any of the iGolfers would have minded paying a premium on top of the comp fee but nearly 3 times the initial cost has made us ask for a refund so everyone has lost out.

I'd imagine if they were tempted, they won't be joining this particular club!

Was County Meath GC. Yeah would have been happy enough with the 55 tbh and everyone wins from it.

I don't think I play enough to justify even a distance membership this year (don't have a car so at the whims of others) but have been playing and wanting to play more so would potentially join a club in the future as was a member of Deer Park years ago when I'd have been regularly playing.

Bit of a kick in the teeth as iGolf has been pretty good so far.

It's the real test isn't it? An igolf handicap isn't doing what they hoped. Are they now tempted to join a club or abandon / postpone taking golf more seriously?

As an aside, when there's an open on (particularly a weekly open, maybe not a scratch cup or the like) I know heaps of clubs would allow non-GUI golfers play for the open rate, just not in the competition. This was certainly the case in Mount Juliet and Baltray when I played them, MJ since the igolf handicaps. Now it seems that if you're igolf that option is possibly not available to you. It's full green fees plus an igolf fee.

This post should be sent to every club in the country.

Far too many "change resistors" who only look at the negatives of something new and then convince themselves and others that everything is bad.

I have 3 members of a small golf society that have taken iGolf membership. They are at or near retirement. They are starting off in golf or getting back to it after many years out of it and would be very much fair weather players - at the moment.

The excessive fee for iGolf member in opens is a two finger salute to potential new members. Maybe a small extra fee, but this lark of €25 for a club member and €60 for an iGolf member that I've seen will do the game more harm than good and reinforce the "Elite" rhetoric some would see in golf clubs.

If you have a visiting group of 4 and one is an iGolfer and you see he/she will be charged €30-€40 extra, you'll tend to look elsewhere. (we already did)

Pity some golf clubs don't understand the concept and choose to punish those potential customers. If such an policy was brought into a commercial business, it would fail.

Mic drop. Amen brother.

It's expensive and yet they are happy to throw away potential business both in the short term and the long term. It's 3 years without a club to be eligible for iGolf. These are not lapsed members of clubs but people who never were members most likely.

As I said above, a maintenance premium is fair and a reasonable one would be accepted. Charge a full green fee to play the comp, everyone wins.

They are entitled to do what they want. I'm also entitled to think charging a full green fee and comp fee is an attempted gouge to potentially inexperienced players learning the game. If these people are in societies or even just looking for a round on a random day off during the week they're now less likely to contact your club so everyone loses out from a level of pettiness.

Either you want to grow the game or you want to gatekeep. Golf Ireland are clearly focussed on the former. Some clubs seemingly the latter.

Golf Ireland won't be lining their pockets with iGolf money. They'll get some extra subs in, but it will be offset significantly with costs. There's extra cloud/IT system costs to run it, and I'm sure they pay the software provider handsomely. Someone in GI has to oversee it, and surely someone on a salary rather than all volunteers.

The benefit to GI is that it boosts participation numbers and positions the program with sense of inclusivity with less elitism. This is also good optics for grants and government or EU programs - read annual reports from any of the golf unions. Ultimately, it came from the governing body (R&A), they've passed the buck to the regional union (GI) to figure it out. The R&A aren't concerned with how Co Meath or MJ price their open days.

Personally, I just hope clubs see sense and don't shoot themselves in the foot. Most of them need the green fee income. You'll only attract new members if they feel the door is open. Slamming the door and putting up a sign that says iGolf pay 3x isn't going to help clubs, members or the curious future golfer. It paints a simple message of "you're not wanted here". Most iGolfers won't have a clue about the GI-club arguments over the last months or club member concerns.

I think almost everyone accepts iGolfers will pay a bit more, including iGolfers. I just hate to see people's first experience of member/club golf as excessively exclusionary with jacked-up fantasy rates. A few tweaks to prizes/comp rules and green free pricing are not too difficult to accomplish.

But the solution named is that you get a distance membership to some club in a place that will never see your shadow.

So I don't see how iGolf should be treated too differently to that? As has been suggested if it leads to better funding and potential government grants would have more benefits.