Golf forum

Hi all,

I have been playing for around 18 months now and spending a fortune travelling around playing different courses. I am hoping to join a local course in the South Yorkshire area. As you are all well aware the fees on joining courses (especially the joining fee for the first year can be crazy). 

I also have a little problem . . . I can only play 6 months of the year (Winter) as i play cricket in the summer (Full weekends and training in the week). I dont want to pay for a full year when i'm not going to use it. 

Can anyone recommend a course that does a 6 month membership or is something like this available at all? Any comment would be appreciated.

Matt 

It sounds like you will need to pay a joining fee at a club, or find one that will waive it, then pay annual membership, but only play 6 months of the year. Golf clubs don't offer 6 month memberships, or should I say that I know of none nor have I ever seen one advertise it. If you can only play winter, then join one that drains well and offers year round golf.

Simon, you cannot read, can you, or understand what I said to make the comment you just have. A comment of course you are entitled to. The humour obviously passed you by.

Proper golf clubs do not have this problem, it is only the last twenty years of corporate courses which have all gone bust at some time or other, costing the inaugural members an awful lot of money, in debentures etc who are struggling for members.

They have not yet learned the rules of supply and demand.

In todays game more clubs should move towards what my club does. Instead of paying a huge membership up front each year, which to be fair most people never probably get their moneys worth from. We have a reduced membership fee (No Green Fees Included) and then the Members pay a Green Fee when they come and play.

Therefore its cheap for pretty much anyone to join as Membership for normal adults is only £144 for the year. Then each time you come and play you pay a £3 Green Fee. The more you play the more you pay or vice versa.

We find it works very well as obviously people with commitments that prevent them playing a lot of golf can be members of a club and receive all the benefits that entails, but they don't suffer from having to pay when they don't play.

John, no need to be rude. I won't start listing my degrees to prove I can read, thankfully for all of us. Ironic comments can read as plain statements sometimes on forums and vice versa.

 I think the amount of "proper" clubs which have now dropped joining fees, or are trying out various "loyalty card" schemes (certainly in my local area anyway) shows that times are changing. People are time poor these days and the expense and time required to play golf can put many off. Every club in my local area seems to be struggling for members as the adverts posted at driving ranges seem to attest.

You were the first to pick me up on something that was not addressed to you, so please stop crying. I am also not interested in how many degrees you have, as they do not really mean anything to me, having been educated in a time long forgotten.

Too many courses, too few people willing to pay the large sums of money being asked for courses that, quite honestly, are just not worth it.

I am a member at a 'Crown Golf' course and no way can any of them be called a club, that is the difference I am trying to make.

Jeez. Why the aggression?

John, from all the posts I've read you come across as a well-meaning guy. However, this is a public forum in which people will chip in on comments made - indeed that's rather the point. Anything private is for email/PM surely! If you can't stand the heat....

 ANYWAY, I think we agree really! This is one of those forum clashes that would actually be just an interesting conversation given the nuances of speech, facial expression etc, so I won't be taking any of it personally....

Don't worry, be happy. I certainly would be happy if I could play off 13!

Not aggression, Simon, just standing my corner.

Life is too short to hold grudges so anything said to me passes straight through.

I can certainly stand the heat, I love a good argument.

I am not even considering this a clash, as you have just said, it is a public forum and we have to accept whatever anyone says about us. I certainly do not bother one bit when I am called an a**hole or some other derogatory term.

I should imagine that the fees to join clubs in your area are less than down here in the South.

You may be happy to play off 13 but I can assure you that I am not enjoying it one bit, possibly because having attained scratch, everything else is just not the same.

It really amazes me that anyone (Not you particularly) who has been to university and obtained so many degrees, showing an ability to absorb a lot of material, cannot apply the same degree of learning to golf and play to a single figure handicap standard. After all is said and done, the game is relatively simple, it is just us that make it difficult.

Wouldn't dream of calling anyone that John.

 I'm hoping to get there should time and hand-to-eye allow. I think we all think things that we are good at are simple - that's how I see languages, for example! Sport and academic study are quite different fields even if the learning processes are similar. Where I am concerned other interests have come in to take my attention away. I have really started going for it with my golf though since joining my first club this summer.

 I have come to realise lately that all of this is relative anyway. I have low expectations and high hopes, and try to accept my mistakes and enjoy my good shots. I'm not Tiger and never will be - imperfect but trying like everyone else. I shot 93 today, and really enjoyed it. The highlight was a flushed 3 wood to a long Par 4, the lowlight a self-posessed young girl (representing Cheshire v Yorkshire) being rude to my playing partner about slow play. We finished the round 4 holes ahead of them!!

 Do you think you can get back to scratch, John? If not, do you think you will be able to enjoy the game again?

 On that previous note, why do people at golf clubs have to be so rude? Is there a secret rule I dont know about? maybe it's just people - the members we met today were lovely.But I have been shocked since joining a cub how incredibly snotty some people can be. I've met some great people too, so maybe it's just life....

I will never be a scratch player again, Simon, as I am now 71 and do not have the body requirement for me to do so. I struggle off the tee, why I don't know, as I am a very good iron player and have a short game that is the envy of most of those whom I play with. I am still hoping to get back into single figures after my lay off with heart problems, but so far, it is not working out how I thought it would. I will always enjoy the game and the company, thats for sure.

It is always nice when you catch a ball as you intended and the result reflects this. I can still remember shots that I made forty years ago, where they were made, what club, how it flighted and what was the competition I was in at the time.

I wish you all the best in your endeavours to master this game.

Matthew,

Keep looking around.  The municipal where I was a member in Nottingham did a winter membership last year and the course I have now joined had an offer of a half year membership over this summer and waived the joining fee (membership runs from October to October for some reason) so I am sure you will find something. It might be worth ringing a few courses and explaining what you want.  One of them might do you an individual deal.