How much is your annual sub?

€1175 and €100 bar credit

27 hole Parkland course in the south east so you can get out for a few holes at any time really.

Three golf clubs within 5 minutes of me

One not open to members - probably need to be a Mason

Second is 3.5k annual sub

Third is a more reasonable 1.5 annual sub but 10k joining fee

After those it's at least 25 minutes drive to the next nearest club

Is deer park only that ? IO guess you have to pay too ?

Tramore?

Are joining fees normal?

Bellewstown Golf Club have increased their annual sub price from €699 to €799. Apparently it's only their second increase in 15 years but it stings a bit all the same.

That said, from what I can tell, it'll be north if €1200 for memberships to the likes of Seapoint or Ardee (incl joining fee) so might have to take this one on the chin.

TBF though, Ardee and Bellewstown are lightyears apart in terms of quality. Worth every penny of the additional fee.

From my experience with Bellewstown, they'll open it in any condition and let buggys out in all weather, tearing up the place. It might seem great to some people that you can get out to play at pretty much any time but not at the expense of course conditions. I'd rather deal with the course being closed at times throughout the year if that means having a decent track to play on when it's open.

Portmarnock Links is €3600, 10% Discount if you had paid before December 31st

5k joining there too?

I often wonder in this day and age is there any benefit to having a bar/restaurant in a club.Cahir have 100 euro added to members subs this year to subsidise it for the few that use it.tho you can use sub for food and comp. fees.

Seems very few people hang around in clubs after a game for food and who would drink drive now.

Bar credit is needed to keep the bar/food running in lots of clubs. It's also some more income for the club. In general the idea being that you might bring family and friends for lunch. In turn bringing more income and attracting more non members to visit. You can also host parties for example.

If your club has societies visiting then you'll understand how much money they bring in. After a round with their mates, a big feed and a few pints is the order of the day. The group will want to give out their prizes in the clubhouse rather than the car park. Otherwise they move on to the next club which does have a bar.

Bar levies and sub increases are the norm at the moment. Machinery, maintenance, utilities etc all going in the wrong direction price wise.

But 8 quid for a coffee is just price gouging!

This is a problem. You are in a club and should realise that. Just because the old people use it that doesn’t mean the young people shouldn’t, but let’s get one thing straight, nobody is forcing anyone!

the club can to survive and asking their members to spend €4 a week in the bar is not a lot to ask. I mean, bring the Mrs up for a meal and a bottle of wine even just the once and you’ll probably make a hefty dint in it if you really don’t like socialising with your fellow club members.

I find the bar is a great way to get to know a few people in the club though.

As someone who only took back up the game a few years ago after a long time not playing regularly I think this points to a general shift in how people think of the sport. Theres a certain group(generally older but not always) where a round is always followed by a pint/coffee/food and where hanging around the clubhouse is part of the appeal of the membership. But others, particularly anyone with young kids aren't looking for that. Giving up 4 hours of a weekend for a game of golf is a hard sell at the best of times, when theres kids involved it takes a very understanding partner to facilitate it. Taking the piss by going in for a drink or food afterwards and being gone for the best part of 5 hours just isn't going to fly these days with most couples. I've had those conversations before with playing partners and some of them just can't get their head around why I'd want to rush home to the family, a generational thing I think but I can see it becoming a problem for a lot of clubs over the next 20-30 years.

Yeah you are right, I was referring to my own situation where the club was less than 5 minutes drive but now I think of it, 4h30m was probably the minimum time i'd be gone for. I agree with you that members should support the club, particularly member owned clubs but if there is a good mix of members there should be a section that has the time to go in for a meal or a drink after a round and a section that has to fly off. As people get older and kids grow up that should naturally evolve where members who previously couldn't call in now have that time to do so. That said I do still think that younger golfers have a more transactional approach to membership than those of an older generation. Thats evident too in how a lot of the more prestigious courses treat green fees, look on the links thread here where many won't pay the green fees because they remember a time when there was GUI rate or whatever where as others see no issue with the high green fee given the quality of the course. Straying off topic a little here so i'll leave it at that.

On topic, subs for the course I moved to are €1200 though they haven't set the price for 2024 yet so I may owe a little more once thats done.