Does your golf club keep you properly informed?

I have a friend whose annual golf subscription has just risen by 10% to £1,500. That is bad enough but what is much, much worse is that he did not receive a word of explanation. Now I know that we are living in uncertain times, but a 10% hike? And no reason given for it? 

I have to say that I think that £1,500 is too much, that a 10% rise is way beyond the pale and that failing to justify it is just unforgivable. In my world, that is treating your membership with utter contempt. I know that if it were me I would be voting with my feet and looking for another golf club - and I would be telling my club in precise detail exactly why I was leaving.

Does Your Golf Club Communicate Properly?

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Perhaps it is because of my background in journalism that I place so much importance on communication. My preference is people talking to each other face to face. Like most of the rest of you, my inbox is inundated on a daily basis with emails that I do not even bother reading.

When I worked for The Sunday Times the office was redesigned and each of us ended up with two screens in front of us. It meant that you could not actually see the person sitting opposite you. 

And all of a sudden I became aware of the fact that my colleague, who was no more than 10 feet away from me, had started emailing me. I quickly put a stop to that by telling him that although I couldn’t see him I was still able to hear him perfectly well.

Anyway, you will probably be aware that I have been pretty critical of golf clubs who fail to keep their members in the picture. I simply don’t understand it.

Most clubs have between 600-800 members. Without them, those clubs would cease to exist. They are the very lifeblood of the game and they should be treated as such.

So what should we expect?

What You Should Expect Your Golf Club to Tell You

You will either have had your subscription demand for 2026 or already paid it. We are currently living in strange times so most of us will expect and accept that we are going to have to pay more.

That’s fair enough. But what is not acceptable is when your golf club fails to explain why your fees are being increased and what it plans to do with your hard-earned money. If I am giving somebody £1,000 then surely I have a right to know what’s being done with it.

I am lucky. My club communicates really well but I know for certain that many others still haven’t got the message and still don’t explain things. Many of my mates count themselves lucky if they receive an email from their golf club.

I may be regarded as an old fart but I subscribe to and follow Facebook, X, Instagram and TikTok. If so many of us are now social media savvy (and we are) why do so many clubs still seem to exist in the 20th century?

I get weekly newsletters and my club uses Facebook as a matter of course. It is NOT rocket science.

Let’s get something clear here and now. If your golf club is increasing your annual subscription then you have every right to be told why. You should know where the money is being spent. We all accept that there are going to be cost-of-living increases but for anything above that we should be told why and where the money is going.

All golf courses have ongoing maintenance programmes. It could be work on the greens, the tees or the bunkers. Does your club tell you when those maintenance schemes are being undertaken and what the impact is going to be on you as a golfer? If not, why not? Nobody wants to turn up for a round of golf and find that the greens are unplayable without having been warned in advance. If you know, then you can make the decision as to whether or not you want to play.

You will know that one of my real bugbears continues to be the quality and content of golf club websites. In the year 2026 there is simply no excuse for it.

As a member, the website should be your go-to location to find out everything you need to know about your course. Does that happen? You tell me, but my experience tells a different story. And a cursory trip through the internet continues to reveal a host of websites that are still not fit for purpose.

What sort of social scene does your clubhouse host? Do they tell you? I am not talking about posters stuck on dressing-room walls. Do they actually email you, notify you through social media platforms? So much of it smacks of hit and hope, much like a lot of the golf we play.

We want to be told about special deals in the pro’s shop. We want to know if there are any offers for the driving range. And we shouldn’t have to depend on having to actually have to visit the club to glean this information.

Lest our golf clubs have forgotten, this is 2026!