New Members

gypsy79 wrote: »

Elmgreen

Am a member there too.

Timesheet rammed alright.

50 for us this week, that’s us full now

I think it will be very difficult for member clubs to take in new members. Capacity is reduced by 45% so if your taken in new members what are you telling your loyal members that paid the subs during closure and now can’t get a tee time?

In our club every single member kept up payments during lockdown so I think you need to look after them first.

If any club can operate on 55% availability on timesheet with its current membership numbers, it probably isn’t viable club anyway. Remember also, some people are not breaking the 5km rule and over 70’s are cocooning so your not seeing all members out yet.

The clubs that do a lot of green fees and societies should have some capacity but they will still try to honor societies from next month onwards.

I think subs will go up next year in a lot of places, higher income from less will be the model instead of low and high numbers at the moment.

billy3sheets wrote: »

At what stage do clubs decide that members who have not signed up for the year or have cancelled standing orders are no longer club members?

Usually clubs have a payment due date, we are 28th February, we remove people around mid March after follow up phone calls to confirm they are leaving and we usually try to do a exit interview on the phone.

If someone payments doesn’t go through, they get a phone call the next day and payment arranged or removed or new payment plan agreed. Not every club as office staff so smaller clubs ran by members might be less efficient.

It’s not fair to members who do pay on time to allow others not to pay. Same rule for everyone.

I asked the question in pro shop today before I went out as I didn't recognise a lot of names on the timesheet and as it stands we have taken in 230 new members but may have lost a few..A lot are from City West but quite a few are newbies to golf as I spoke to a few new members in carpark before and after my round

20 in our small club (500 members)

mike12 wrote: »

Have been hearing that most clubs it's not much of a discount from full rates.

Its funny with all the doom and gloom about falling membership numbers to we have too many members even when we get back to full tee times.

Interested to get peoples opinions on the 14 minutes tee times and will clubs start to change from the GUI recommendation for the next phase to accommodate more members and golfers.

Just on the 14 min tee time gaps, it would be an idea to keep it that way going forward if your club does not have a huge membership as play is much quicker. This week Ive twice got around in 3 balls in 3hr 10 and the longest round was 3hr 25..That's heaven compared to the log jams you get in the normal times..Our club wouldn't be able to accommodate such a move but I'm sure there are other clubs who could.

Played 6 times this week, longest round was 3.15 quickest was 2.58 which is super.

Just think when we go to 10KM or clubs can take green fees it's just going to get worse for members trying to get tee times.

We are blessed with 2 18 hole courses so looks like we won't really be impacted, but sure how I would take being told I could only play twice a week after missing out for so long.

Golfhead65 wrote: »

Just on the 14 min tee time gaps, it would be an idea to keep it that way going forward if your club does not have a huge membership as play is much quicker. This week Ive twice got around in 3 balls in 3hr 10 and the longest round was 3hr 25..That's heaven compared to the log jams you get in the normal times..Our club wouldn't be able to accommodate such a move but I'm sure there are other clubs who could.

It gets reduced to 13 on 8/6 and then 12 at the end of the month.

Clubs can decide themselves if they want to reduce it faster.

Golfhead65 wrote: »

I wouldn't accept two day rule, if you are full member you are entitled to access timesheet for 7 days if you wish, 5 day members 5 days and so on.I would be asking for 5/7ths of my membership back, don't know what club it is but I'm sure there will be a membership backlash

Just looking at it from a pure numbers point of view, and I'll simplify the numbers, for my own benefit.

If you have 50 slots a day of 3 balls, that's 150 golfers per day, and 1050 slots for the week.

If you have an active membership of 700 members, and set the limit to 2 rounds a week, it means that half of your members can only play once a week on the basis that the other 350 get their 2 slots (assuming every member wants to play)

In normal circumstances, most members are working 5 days a week, so lots of gaps on the sheet for the remainder.

In current circumstances, you have people furloughed, people out of work, people on short hours plus people working from home, so maybe closer to their course, with no commute.

That spikes demand that wouldn't normally be there, so if timesheets are suddenly much busier, I don't see a major issue with limits.

Youre saying it's not fair to you to limit your rounds, but what if you playing 4 times a week is depriving another members of their right to play at all?

I know I'm over-simplifying here, but, im just trying to illustrate a point. I doubt any club is putting in a restriction on rounds, if there is no issue with availability. But if there is enough demand, I would have said a limit is a fair approach to cover the needs of the many over the few.

spacecoyote wrote: »

Just looking at it from a pure numbers point of view, and I'll simplify the numbers, for my own benefit.

If you have 50 slots a day of 3 balls, that's 150 golfers per day, and 1050 slots for the week.

If you have an active membership of 700 members, and set the limit to 2 rounds a week, it means that half of your members can only play once a week on the basis that the other 350 get their 2 slots (assuming every member wants to play)

In normal circumstances, most members are working 5 days a week, so lots of gaps on the sheet for the remainder.

In current circumstances, you have people furloughed, people out of work, people on short hours plus people working from home, so maybe closer to their course, with no commute.

That spikes demand that wouldn't normally be there, so if timesheets are suddenly much busier, I don't see a major issue with limits.

Youre saying it's not fair to you to limit your rounds, but what if you playing 4 times a week is depriving another members of their right to play at all?

I know I'm over-simplifying here, but, im just trying to illustrate a point. I doubt any club is putting in a restriction on rounds, if there is no issue with availability. But if there is enough demand, I would have said a limit is a fair approach to cover the needs of the many over the few.

Some good points but far to simple view.

Most clubs have the perfect member, only plays a few times a year. A lot of people like me play only 35 times on average a year. Then some others play 2 to 3 times. Nobody plays 7 days a week.

But if your sold a product of 7 day membership and I honor my sub during closure ten I expect the club to honor the agreement.

If the club sell more membership on reopening and I now have to suffer after showing loyalty, then that’s bad form and I’ll take my business elsewhere next year.

I said this a long time ago, I expect membership to go up decent amount next year and clubs to bring back entrance fees very quickly to sort out the demand issues.

I know 14 minutes makes for a quick round but I don't think its the only contribution factor. A lot of skins being played which is much quicker also not qualifying helps a lot.

Ollieboy wrote: »

Compared to this time last year you don’t have the same amount of tee times available, it’s actually 1.1 of last years 2 courses.

So if your club sold a lot of membership and I believe Swords part is already at full membership, you don’t really have much capacity to play with.

Timesheet restrictions will mean less members allowed to join clubs in the long run.

It will be very interesting to see how it develops

Neither course was full any day last week so plenty of room.
Both have limited membership so are full at a much lower number that your normal club.

CalamariFritti wrote: »

I know 14 minutes makes for a quick round but I don't think its the only contribution factor. A lot of skins being played which is much quicker also not qualifying helps a lot.

Another factor is not touching the flag. Prior to covid, the messing around with the flag in, flag out, flag in nonsense. Just leave the damn thing in.

I think 3 balls, 12 mins apart and no touching flags is the way to go in future. Sub 4 hour rounds will become the norm then.

Having said that, yesterday when my group arrived at the 9th, there was a group (3 ball) just finished teeing off and another (2 ball) waiting. Thats piss poor in all fairness for a 28 minute gap to be gone in 9 holes.

about the restricted times. i am not bothered about being asked to only play 3 days or 2 days or whatever.... sure id normally never play more than twice a week anyway as i am sure would be the case for the vast majority

i do realise though that lots of people have lots of time on their hands at the moment so times are a bit different and people want to try and get out. i know... i'm one of them, but 3 times a week is plenty

some clubs seem to be full to the rafters and don't care about their existing members and only have eyes on a big pot of subs from new members and don't know when to say we are full. this is just bad form.

i know that tee times are reduced, but i would hazard guess that in the 2 clubs im a member of, for the last 8 days and the next week or 2, despite less times being available to the same weeks last year....... there will be a hell of a lot more people playing. not a bit of daylight to be seen on either sheet. and thats for casual golf! on a normal week in may, i could play more or less at any time i fancied during the week over multiple comps as there is always availability, saturday gets busy as it is the main comp, but you will nearly always get a game

i think for the moment golf has become a sort of a novelty for many people (new members moreso), an excuse to get out of the house in a way. i just wonder will all these new members renew their subs next year or the year after when life gets back to normal. some maybe, but for the majority....... i doubt it

gypsy79 wrote: »

Hey guys, any idea of how many new members your golf club has got due to covid 19. I know ours stopped counting at 100. Think it may be over 200.

Would that not completely overwhelm the timesheet with the current gaps (and even when back to normal gaps?)