Much Ado About Membership

A view of Mount Wolseley's 4th hole.

The level of doom and gloom in Irish golf is fluctuating. The hard hit, small courses - particularly those in the country - remain a bit down-trodden while the bigger courses, the resort courses and the links are seeing far rosier horizons. For those small clubs the decline in membership is a significant factor. They don't enjoy the same level of green fee visitors or corporate outings as the their bigger siblings, leaving it to golf societies to provide much needed additional income. At least the popularity of society outings is once again on the rise providing an important fillip for those clubs where membership has tumbled by 20-30%.

The membership dilemma is a tricky one. There are Pros and Cons to the argument... and I wrote a piece for the Irish Examiner earlier this week which lists 12 Pros and 5 Cons. There were actually 6 Cons, but one had to be removed as I do tend to waffle on! I've added this below. A link to the article is here (please click).

Bearna Golf Club, just west of Galway city.

Con 6. Lifestyle. Because of lifestyle and family/work commitments some golfers never know where their next round is coming from and that can make membership hard to justify. Similarly golfers in the 20-40 age bracket may find that their career takes them to different locations around the country (or world) so basing themselves at one club is not worthwhile.   

And if you are interested in membership... may I direct you to the mygolfmembership.ie website where you can get an initial grasp of what just about every club is asking for.

I have yet to see any 'summer membership specials' so if you know of any, please let me know.