Golf Ireland - the benefits

I've spoken to many people over from the States over the last 20 years, friends, colleagues and people I've ended up playing with. I used to try and tell them you could play really good courses over here for €50 or so (at least years ago you could), but I gave up. In general they consistently disregarded anything below, say €100 (probably more now). A lot of them booked the courses themselves and did to a large extent use the price of green fees as a guideline.

Last time I played Carne (about 8 years ago I think) it was €55 for gui members and €110 for non-gui members. This was the first time I'd seen reduced rates for GUI members for casual golf, so I asked why this was. The pro said something along the lines of "Otherwise we'd get no Yanks here". Rosapenna was €210 for the 3 courses when I played the earlier in the year, €495 for non-gui.

So while I take your point that some may use it as an excuse to justify increasing fees (I don't know), I certainly do know from experience that a lot of people will assume a course is better if the green fees are higher, ignoring others below a certain price. I've done it myself in the past.

Maybe like you say, that the people on commission, ie selling the green fees, influence this by pushing people towards the more expensive courses and not pushing the cheaper ones. But whatever the reason, it seems to work.

Who is it with?

100% on the first sentence. Costs are astronomically higher today compared to three years ago. Most clubs would be pulling in largely the same income and previously breaking even… plus/minus a bit. Memberships and green fees should be increasing to match this too whether we like it or not

I agree that 50 members would sink plenty of clubs. However, you're not going to lose 50 members out of a club unless it has lives on distance membership or there is some sort of shenanigans going on.

GI fumbled the ball here massively on communication no doubt. They already have schemes for growing the game, which many clubs do already participate in. It wouldn't have been too hard to put working groups together amongst clubs/regions that is separate to their own committee rather than just put the hands up and shrug shoulders.

If what GI said is taken as genuine about the R&A enforcing the independent golf program, this should have been the first message to clubs on day dot. A private entity running it could have been a disaster no doubt. GI need to take feedback on the chin. Their main work aside from communications should be to limit damage to distance clubs.

I think the days of a bargain standard green fee are gone. Most clubs tend to be members owned but take whatever extra income they can get provided member tee times aren't impacted. Outside of opens and the odd golfnow deal, €50/60 seems to be the standard green fee on any decently maintained course. Paying upwards of €100 is not unheard of and that's before you consider GI rates.

@ExPaddy when I played abroad (Spain) last year I couldn't get a green fee under €100 (buggy extra). Nice courses no doubt but not better than what I could get for the same price at home. Plus it was guaranteed to be 5hrs+ in a buggy due to tourists and shambolic rangering. Food/drink/hotel are clearly miles dearer in Ireland that's obvious. Any premium course over there was aligned with the comparable Irish prices…

Ireland plus our neighbours across the water are blessed in terms of golf. We have courses everywhere and can pay an affordable green fee for decent tracks(€50/£50) in so many places. The elite/premium courses will always be in a different bracket and have freedom do do as they please for their green fees.

An element of gouging is present but that's no different than going to temple bar and paying €10 a pint, it's your choice. You can't throw the toys out of the pram just because you can't play the top 20 courses in the country for peanuts. It's the same everywhere.

Guess there's worse gouging going on elsewhere to be fair. Guess you shouldn't expect any different from a Trump owned course

Any sporting body or non-profit will a certain point in their journey will align itself with standard industry practice. Be it other orgs abroad or looking at GAA/IRFU/FAI whatever. They are academic courses in sports development, management and so on. They're just following the playbook but that's not a get out of jail card either.

Like anything in life, it takes people, time and money (crucially) to change things. If you think volunteers are going to come in and do full-time jobs in a large sporting body you'll be happy to have the government pay off their mortgages too. I'd suggest reading their annual report and looking at the financials, then comparing it with another sports body. 100% they rely on volunteers all over the country in clubs as does the GAA/IRFU/FAI and without them, we'd have no sports clubs. The government gives them something like €1.5m a year to distribute. If you've no sporting body in place with appropriate structure/governance you'll get a pittance. Someone has to lobby for and administrate the grants. That's the way the system works. Of your golf cost for the year they get €28 per adult and €7 per junior. Pocket money only and I'm discounting grants/sponsorship tie-ins. Independent golfer is not yet launched, they fumbled the comms and are regrouping. Remains to be seen how it plays out tbf.

Just one example

There is one course I heard of..Hogs Head I think..where there are only 2 Irish members..well known names.The rest are wealthy yanks.

Course has something like 25 full time green staff..closes October to April..yet staff are busy making sure it is perfect when members jet in.

They aint too worried about green fees I reckon.

Lucky b%#&ards😁😁