Course to Join (6months)

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 

I think you have your priorities wrong, Matthew, but I doubt very much whether you will be able to get a six month membership at any golf club.

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.

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.

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.

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.

getting back to the point of the forum, playing in winter only, lots of clubs in my area [north east] in order to attract new members offer a reduced membership fee as the year progresses, for the remainder of the year. perhaps this would solve Mathews problem if the same applies in his area.

Some courses in leeds offer a years membership with no joining fee, however the membership runs from april to april. so if you joined in october you would only pay 6 months membership. maybe some club near you has the same system.