The lifeblood of any organisation is in its membership. And finding new initiatives to attract more players onto the fairway is never easy. However, times are changing and golf clubs across the country, indeed across the world, have had to adapt their approaches to address a declining membership and find new players to fill those revenue-draining empty tee slots.
Which is where PlayMoreGolf come in.
This innovative company offer a flexible membership category to golfers, of all ages, who have limited time or opportunity to play or simply can’t justify an expensive traditional membership option. And the appealing membership category based on a points-to-play method giving members multiple golf courses to play on is proving immensely popular, with more than £2 million revenue has already been generated for PlayMoreGolf partner clubs.
Ann Rafferty, Secretary of Penn Golf Club in Wolverhampton (pictured) says: “The committee at Penn Golf Club took the decision to launch PlayMoreGolf in March 2018. The decision was very easy as it was almost a ‘no-brainer’ for us. We had lots of available tee times in the afternoons where we knew PlayMoreGolf would help fill with guaranteed membership revenue. Our biggest piece of feedback from golfers leaving the club, and not joining our club, was simply not playing enough golf to justify a full 7-day membership. The new PlayMoreGolf flexible membership allows golfers like this to still be a genuine member at Penn Golf Club and enjoy not only the amazing golf course, but the fantastic social element that comes with our club too.
“Our first 6 months results have been fantastic – our yield per round of golf is actually around £40 compared to our average green fee of around £25. The support from PlayMoreGolf has been great too with regular updates, product developments and monthly reviews. We are really looking forward to 2019 and growing our flexible membership category even more – I know the product is fantastic and we already have lots of golfers in the local area looking to join.”
Working together to expand their offering and improve golf membership uptake, over 115 clubs throughout the country have now chosen PlayMoreGolf to operate their flexible membership category. PlayMoreGolf have also made several product developments during 2018 making a partnership now even more flexible to the golf club. The most noticeable development allowing golf clubs to set their own membership selling price meaning more ‘premium’ golf clubs are now seeing the revenue benefits of choosing to work with PlayMoreGolf.
‘Golfers join the golf club with PlayMoreGolf online, choosing their preferred home club and receiving points to use for their rounds of golf with a number of the points not only able to be used at the members home club but across all of the other PlayMoreGolf courses in the UK. By joining as a flexible member, the member also receives many club benefits; including holding a handicap, competition access and members’ discount.’
It has been a hugely successful year for PlayMoreGolf and its partner clubs. Director, Jamie Carroll said: “It’s been a rewarding year for our team and we are delighted to see so many members and partner clubs join us in our mission to make golf accessible to all. We are currently inundated with enquiries and it’s clear that 2019 is going to be even more successful than this year; not just for our company, but for all the golf clubs we work with. We are also delighted to be have struck a relationship alongside England Golf, Wales Golf, GCMA and 59Club as we all work towards helping golf clubs grow their membership revenue, something we are all passionate about!”
Details about becoming a PlayMoreGolf partner club can be found at https://www.playmore.golf/become-a-partner/