If your a member of a golf club do you still pay to play?

No, once you pay your fees that's it.

You need to make a distinction between green fees and competition fees.

You won't be charged a green fee, if you're a fully paid up member, but you will likely be charged a competition fee.

Some clubs offer pay&play membership that usually has a smaller annual sub but you pay a reduced green fee.

Then some clubs have now started to charge an administrative fee for general play rounds that are being input for handicap purposes (which I really don't agree with)

It can depend on the options a club offers. The one I was with a few years back had a few different tiers of membership. There was weekday membership which was a lower annual with no green fees Monday - Friday. If you wanted to play the weekend, it was a reduced green fee. Then there was a weekend only membership which was reversed but slightly higher annual. Then a full week membership with a reduced annual but lower green fees that you could use all week and then the complete full membership with no green fees. All memberships you had to pay for competitions. And all included a certain number of sessions in the driving range etc.

My sub is about €800 for the year. Except for competition entries, I can play any available slot without extra fees. Notable times that can be unavailable would be Wednesday for ladies' comps, Saturday usually blocked out late morning to afternoon for societies, Friday is open day and Sunday for men's branch comps.

For the competition and designated days listed before, there will be still options to play before or after those. Eg on Sunday you could get out in the afternoon as a casual round after comp finishes. Saturday you might get out before the society too. You're not 100% locked out of those days but you have fewer options.

I would say I spend around €150 on competition fees annually. The only caveat here is that I play a lot of them. Typically its €5 for Sundays. Majors or club matchplay are about €10/€15 iirc.

You also have as much use of the practice facilities as part of the membership. Short game/chipping/bunker area, large putting green and 50-80 yd wedge area. There's also a "mini" range with a handful of bays plus one spot for hitting off grass. I say mini because you need your own balls and the distance is only 160yds max.

Maybe my life circumstances could change but for now, the majority of my rounds are competitions or matches. If I wasn't free to play comps I'd consider pausing my sub and maybe just pay for the odd society golf day or green fee.

Then you should be fine to play at most times with no extra fees, providing you have a 7 day membership.

My club will give you a warning if you intentionally join a comp slot and don't play. No fee for taking the slot. There are other issues that can end up with warnings but 2 warnings mean you lose the right to book online and have to ring the pro shop.

If on the day of a comp, there are free tee times (all 4x lines open) you can ring the shop to convert it to casual. Ultimately the club wants to promote competitive golf and a better standard with inter-club teams etc. If someone could only play 8-10am during comp times and their options are gone because of people not entering the comps they would rightly complain. There are enough alternatives and ways to play casual golf as part of the membership but they might not suit everyone.

If comps are not your thing it's important to find out what the tee sheets typically look like before committing to a membership. In my club, there's probably zero value in a membership where your only free time is Sat-Sun and it overlaps with comps/societies.