The Altonwood Group are to launch a brand new style of club membership card aimed at attracting time poor golfers to their clubs. ‘The Altonwood Season Ticket’ will provide golfers in the region and in the core catchment of London an ‘oyster card’ type membership whereby members will be able to enjoy all the benefit of club membership but without the commitment to a 12 month annual membership.
‘The Season Ticket’ will provide a number of core benefits, including access to ALL five golf clubs in the Altonwood Group with the groups’ flagship course The Addington (A Golf World Top 100 Course in GB & Ireland) also part of the offering. New card holders will be able to buy the card for only £299*(or £25 a month), which will provide golfers with a CONGU affiliated Handicap Certificate, up to 50% off standard green fee costs, a free golf lesson, early booking rights, as well as the opportunity to play in a number of club competitions.
In addition, new ‘Season Ticket’ holders will gain financial benefits by receiving additional discounts on range balls, buggy hire and food & beverages. Once this ‘credit’ has been used up, golfers will be able to ‘Top Up’ the card and maintain their access to the Westerham, Woldingham, Surrey National, Godstone and The Addington.
Whilst the number of those participating in golf is holding up, new research showing that nearly two thirds of golfers in the UK, DO NOT belong to a golf club. According to SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS Inc, the number of golfers in Great Britain is still about 4 million, where it has been since 2000, however, among regular golfers, 566k play once a week or more, a number that has been gradually declining over the last few years.
MeanwhileDrivingRange usage has steadily increased since 2002, and there are now more than 3 million golfers visit a range each year. Fewer than 28 percent of all golfers (1.1 million) are members of a club, a decrease of 4 percent since 2006. The Altonwood Group are clear that in order to fight the decline in club membership, it is the responsibility of the clubs and industry as a whole to look at new ways of attracting new members to the ‘club’ game.
In order to back this launch initiative, The Altonwood Group have appointed the services of Media Consultant – Ian Mullins to manage and implement a highly targeted ‘above the line’ Media and PR campaign. Ian has worked with a number of global brands in his 20 years of agency life including Emirates Airlines, Hitachi and M&C Saatchi and boasts The London & Manchester Golf Show, The Trilby Tour, TheSocialGolfer.com amongst his current portfolio of brands. The campaign is scheduled to kick off in June and will use a combination of Radio, Press and Online and will also be promoted via Social Media and through media owner partnerships.
Simon Hodsdon – Altonwood Group Managing Director of Golf said: “The Season Ticket has been part of our plans for quite a while now but we feel the time is now right to invite those hard working, time poor occasional and corporate golfers back into the fold. We can’t ignore the austere times we are currently living in and we are very excited at providing golfers in the area with opportunity to enjoy the Altonwood experience without asking them to commit to a 12 month 7-day membership or without alienating our core full members. We are very excited about the launch and look forward to welcoming new golfers to our courses in the near future.”
*Subject to T&C’s
Altonwood Group www.altonwood-group.co.uk