An exciting new digital platform has been launched with the aim of creating Scotland’s biggest golfing clubhouse community.
The new Scottish Golf Members Clubhouse, part of www.scottishgolf.org, goes live this week giving the opportunity for club members across Scotland to compete against each other on a national basis for a Player of the Week prize at both handicap and scratch levels.
The national leaderboard is one of many features contained within the virtual clubhouse, which also includes preferential green fee rates at courses throughout the country, rewards from sponsors and exclusive member competitions.
With an average of 30,000 players taking part in competitive golf at their club on a weekly basis, the new platform will be fed by every single counting score and the player with the best score in Scotland that week will receive a weekly prize.
Up for grabs in the first week will be an exclusive TaylorMade Masters Staff Bag, only available to their players who competed at Augusta National last month, which will be awarded to the leading handicap player, while the country’s leading scratch player will win a pair of tickets for The Open Championship at Royal Troon.
Current preferential offers for club members include a saving of £91 on a round at Castle Stuart Golf Links, home of this year’s Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, 50% discount on green fees at Crail’s stunning Balcomie and Craighead Links, the chance to play The Duke’s at St Andrews from as little as £25 per round or £72 for a four-ball at Hilton Park on the outskirts of Glasgow.
More than 50,000 club members have already registered for the Members Clubhouse and the governing body is hoping that more golfers will follow.
Andy Salmon, Deputy Chief Executive of Scottish Golf, is excited about the launch and said: “The Members Clubhouse is an exciting new development for us as we continue our focus on building stronger clubs and engaging with more golfers.
“The number of people playing competitive golf in Scotland at their local club or in open competitions remains very strong and we want to support this by rewarding those who have played well, beaten their handicap and posted a good score. The handicap system gives every golfer the opportunity to have their moment in the sun and we are looking forward to hearing the stories for the Players of the Week throughout the season.
“We also want to reward those golfers who are members of clubs by adding value to their membership and the Clubhouse will act as an extension to what we’ve achieved with the Scottish Golf Membership Card, allowing us to engage better digitally with members. We see this as a great asset commercially and hope we can grow sponsorship revenue through this, having already secured a number of partners whose support has been reinvested back in the game.
“It also gives our clubs a great marketing tool to promote their special offers to fellow members, while also using it as one of their many membership benefits.”
The Members Clubhouse is exclusively available to golf club members who have registered their Scottish Golf Membership Card, which can be done by visiting scottishgolf.org/player-registration. The Player of the Week leaderboard will be featured on the home page of the Members Clubhouse, calculated on scores against the competition standard scratch score. There were 390 qualifying competitions across Scotland last week, with 9% of golfers achieving a handicap reduction and 34% playing to their handicap.
Scottish Golf scottishgolf.org