The latest Thistle is asking for your thoughts on the fees we should be paying for next year’s membership. Your chance to voice an opinion before the committee makes a recommendation to the AGM in February.
See latest comments from Brian Alford, Vic Furber, Bill Whatley and Les Trute by scrolling down.
September 28, 2009 at 11:17 am
There was a great buzz yesterday during Club Finals Day! A perfect opportunity for those who played throughout summer to mix with the other finalists and enjoy the spirit of competition and the chance to celebrate on the day. Is this going to become a regular fixture on our Club calendar?
September 28, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Hi Jenny,
Yes, I was there for the presentations (not good enough to be participating) and there was a great atmosphere in the clubhouse. Everyone seemed to be on a high – the weather was great, the course was great, the ladies were celebrating their league championship … ah, you know about that!
Credit to the golf sub-committee and Neil Patch, they had put in a lot of effort to make it more of an occasion. Rest assured it will be at least as good next year!
PC Slog
October 5, 2009 at 9:23 am
Hi folks,
I find the website somewhat clunky to negotiate. Are there any plans for developing the site further? Of course it is probably my inability to cope with technology causing my difficulties, but I usually manage with other sites OK.
Cheers
October 5, 2009 at 11:17 am
Hi Chris,
Although the site is a quantum leap forward from what we had before, I have to agree with you that it has its limitations. Using it can be a frustrating experience.
We are looking at ways to improve it at the moment so I would be interested to hear other members’ views.
What ideally would we like to be able to do on the website? What new/improved features would members appreciate? Views, please!
October 5, 2009 at 10:21 am
Hello Slog
Why aren’t the matches more popular you ask. A snippet of information to curtail this popular myth is that a total of 70 members have played in Men’s club friendly matches this year, which I believe to be a good representation of the clubs support from within. There were 25 matches played during the season and whilst we are changing some for next year the opportunity is there for all to be part of the fun. Hopefully a full list of all the matches, and those who played, will be posted on the noticeboard during the quieter winter months.
October 5, 2009 at 11:08 am
Hi Vice,
I suppose I am amazed that everybody doesn’t want to take part! We only pay for the meal so the golf is free even for away matches – what a bargain!
PC Slog
October 26, 2009 at 10:07 pm
Hi Slog
Just to say that I thought the Juniors, at the Quadrilateral, looked so good in their new Club sweaters and shirts – they were a pleasure to play with and a great credit to the Club.
Maybe we will get the Mens League players into Club colours soon!!
Isobel
October 26, 2009 at 10:19 pm
Hi Isobel,
Sorry I missed the Quad – who won?
I hear the Juniors were setting the standard for team kit. Maybe the Seniors and Men’s teams will try to compete next year as well as our league boys.
PC Slog
October 29, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Interesting to note the annual subs at nearby golf clubs, ranging from £745 to £1100, all above our £730.
Perhaps these should also be noted – Upavon £579, Tidworth £645, N. Wilts. £694, Newbury & Crookham £970. All joining Fees suspended except N. Wilts. a hefty £650.
November 2, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Annual Fees, are we still looking for new members? is there a cap on the membership.
What can we do to attract new members, most golfers in the surrounding area know how good MGC. is, so the only restraint is the total cost of your golf, could we cope with a membership increase of say 100 players the revenue would be very welcome, the big question is would a £50.00 reduction in the annual subscription result in attracting 100 new members.
November 2, 2009 at 3:14 pm
Hi Vic,
We are just about at the limit on 7-day membership. Some weekends recently, with shorter daylight hours and no tee booking system, have resulted in some very slow rounds and some frustrated golfers! Five-day membership is still OK – we could take more. Maybe we need to widen the price difference between 7 and 5 day membership fees.
PC Slog
November 4, 2009 at 1:33 pm
PCSlog, re-conversation yesterday about
TeeTimes.co.uk it seems that the pre-booked times on the MGC website for the rest of the month are not reflected on the afore mentioned website’s booking slots, this could result in possible conflict on the tee.
The above site also has provision for weekend bookings, with regard to your answer to my proposals on annual subscriptions, play would be even slower, let alone furore on the first tee when these golfers who pre-booked their tee slot.
November 4, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Hi Vic,
So as not to confuse the two issues, I am going to ask Les Trute to reply to your comments about pre-booking of tees.
Regarding the annual subs, yes, if we were to allow more people to play at weekends, members or visitors, we would be in danger of overloading the course, particularly at this time of year when daylight hours are restricted.
I don’t think we can rely on allowing more and more new 7-day members to join
in order to boost our income. There has to be a better way.
PC Slog
November 4, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Hi Slog.
I’d like to ask which way the club committee is leaning because from the question I’d be worried that they are looking at an increase in Subs. I’d agree with Brian that we are on the high side. From what I understand Ogbourne will be freezing theirs this year. Is it that our income is down this year as a result of a decrease in green fee-ers ? If so perhaps we ought to be a little more pro-active like Ogbourne and encourage more green fees with suitable offers. I believe that although some of our members have made disparaging remarks about their offers, that they in fact have done extremely well from it. One might not like the idea of ‘ giving ‘ golf away but it gets punters through the doors and into the bar after. Whether one likes it or not cheap golf is here to stay. Go on the direct tee times website and next week you can play at the Kendleshire for £6.00, the Park for £5.00 and Ferndown Forest for £4.00. Why would punters want to spend £750 on membership ?
November 5, 2009 at 12:19 am
Hi Bill,
I think the danger of selling rounds for a fiver is precisely that members do ask themselves “Why be a member?” Some of the members we have attracting this year left their old club for that reason.
Unless we decide to go ‘Pay and Play’ – which incidentally I believe is the intention of at least one of our neighbours – I believe we should aim to keep our friendly club atmosphere which is about more that cheap golf.
Having said that, we are selling our quiet midweek afternoons for about £20 and I believe we have done good business at that price.
There is, as yet, no committee view on next year’s subs which is why we want to hear from you.
Slog
November 5, 2009 at 11:44 am
Well – what a minefield!
As you would expect wrestling with the number of members we have, how much they pay, when we should take visitors, how much they should pay etc etc is taking up a great deal of committee time at present. What I can say is that all options are being considered but, as you would expect, there is unlikely to be a solution that will please everybody. On membership fees, we are not the cheapest but I do believe we are excellent value for money as verified by the recent survey. Also, we still have a healthy stream of new members who are chosing to join us after looking at these other clubs and wanting to join here because they consider it a much better course and club. This also contradicts the argument that cheap golf is the way to go. We have no shortage in people wanting to join and my intelligence is that there is likely to be more for this club in the future, not less. Cost is just component as is comparisons with local clubs. Otherwise the Mercedes showroom would be selling cars for £6000 because they have a Skoda showroom next door.
My personal opinion is also that while the total number of members we have makes us just about full, we have probably got some work to do it getting the right ratios across the various membership categories.
On Tee Times. We have run an experiment selling short batches of tee times on-line at quiet times on quiet days. We will not be selling these at weekends. I think the sites are confusing. They list tee times for the entire day, every day. THESE TIMES ARE NOT AVAILABLE. The available times are a different colour which should match the entries in the MGC website diary. If you try to book one the weekend times it should not let you.
Current experience of these sites is not good but we will review it when the current batch have finished at the end of November.
November 5, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Thanks, Les.
Slog
November 5, 2009 at 6:54 pm
I’m interested in your ‘intelligence’ Les. Did you use to work for MI5 ? I take all the above comments and did’nt mean that we should go down the cheap route but merely to illustrate that they are about and whether we like it or not are becoming more commonplace. I do believe though that the demographics of golf are changing. I’ve spoken to younger golfers and there are many who are going the itinerant way and won’t be joining any club. I know this isn’t the case for all – witness many of our younger members. But as the average age of our members is at a guess 55 + then will there be enough replacements in 25 – 30 years time.
November 5, 2009 at 7:21 pm
Hi Bill,
Point taken. You are certainly correct to say that the pool of potential members is diminishing as younger golfers can now choose to play in societies or with friends on ‘two for one’ deals and so on.
Thankfully, we still seem to be doing something right at MGC as evidenced by being just about full, as Les says. I don’t recall seeing MI5 on his cv, by the way.
Slog