The Golf Club Manager: March 2018

THE GOLF CLUB

MANAGER ISSUE 12 | MARCH 2018

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION

GCMA

TEEING OFF FOR STRATEGY

THE GCMA’S FUTURE DIRECTION REVEALED EDUCATION

FLEXIBLE FRIENDS

HOW A DIFFERENT APPROACH CAN BOOST MEMBERSHIP

INTERVIEW

JAMES MACLEAN BOGNOR REGIS’ GENERAL MANAGER ON WHY AGE IS NO BARRIER

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE ‘

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GCMA customers only. At the end of your agreement you must return the vehicle. Excess mileage, vehicle condition and other charges may be payable. Hire available subject to status to UK residents aged 18 or over. Guarantees and indemnities may be required. Terms and conditions apply. Offer may be varied, withdrawn or extended at any time. Hire provided by BMW Financial Services (GB) Limited, Summit ONE, Summit Avenue, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 0FB. Park Lane Limited are part of BMW Group. Park Lane Ltd commonly introduce customers to a selected panel of lenders including BMW Financial Services. We may receive commission or other beneďŹ ts for introducing you to such lenders. This introduction does not amount to independent ďŹ nancial advice.

CONTENTS ISSUE 12 | MARCH 2018

GCMA

CAREERS

06

The latest from the chief executive

42

16

What the GCMA’s strategic review entails

The latest jobs for GCMA members

INDUSTRY

EDUCATION

22

44

How to....retain members

52

The case for flexible membership schemes

What will 54 handicaps mean for your club?

INTERVIEWS

REGIONAL

34

62

Meet the manager: Surbiton’s Clint Whittaker

64

My success story: Prince’s Rob McGuirk

Bognor Regis’ general manager James Maclean

16

34 64

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THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION GCMA Bristol & Clifton Golf Club, Beggar Bush Lane, Failand, Bristol, BS8 3TH Tel: 01275 391153 | hq@gcma.org.uk CHIEF EXECUTIVE Bob Williams - bob@gcma.org.uk COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Mike Hyde - mike@gcma.org.uk GOLF MANAGEMENT RESEARCHER Jim Cunning - jim@gcma.org.uk EDUCATION COORDINATOR Niki Hunter - niki@gcma.org.uk MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY Ann Jones - ann@gcma.org.uk EDUCATION AND MAGAZINE ADMINISTRATOR Debbie Mereweather - debbie@gcma.org.uk FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR Shirley Edmondson - shirley@gcma.org.uk BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Tash Johnson - tash@gcma.org.uk COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE Marie Taylor - marie@gcma.org.uk PRESIDENT JR (John) Jones 2017/18 CAPTAIN Howard Williams BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mike Hoare, Gary Steele, Phil Grice, Eddie Bullock THE GOLF CLUB MANAGER IS PUBLISHED BY: SPORTS PUBLICATIONS LTD 2 Arena Park, Tarn Lane, Scarcroft, West Yorkshire, LS17 9BF, UK Tel: 0113 289 3979 | info@sportspub.co.uk PUBLISHER Tom Irwin - t.irwin@sportspub.co.uk EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Dan Murphy - d.murphy@sportspub.co.uk OPS DIRECTOR Will Shucksmith - w.shucksmith@sportspub.co.uk EDITOR Steve Carroll - s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk CHIEF DESIGNER Andrew Kenworthy - a.kenworthy@sportspub.co.uk DESIGNERS Vicky Jones - v.jones@sportspub.co.uk Emmi Parry - e.parry@sportspub.co.uk Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for omissions and errors. All material in this publication is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved.The views expressed in The Golf Club Manager do not necessarily represent the views of the company or the editor. Every care is taken in compiling the contents but the publishers assume no responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from participation in any offer, competition or advertising contained within The Golf Club Manager.

THE GOLF CLUB

MANAGER ISSUE 12 | MARCH 2018

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION

GCMA

TEEING OFF FOR STRATEGY

THE GCMA’S FUTURE DIRECTION REVEALED EDUCATION

FLEXIBLE FRIENDS

HOW A DIFFERENT APPROACH CAN BOOST MEMBERSHIP

INTERVIEW

JAMES MACLEAN BOGNOR REGIS’ GENERAL MANAGER ON WHY AGE IS NO BARRIER

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE ‘

001 GCMA March 18 Cover.indd 3

27/02/2018 09:53

ON THE COVER: James Maclean Strategy images: Kate Jackson Photography

WELCOME

ISSUE 12 | MARCH 2018

A

year ago, I wrote my final article for the ‘Golf Club Management’ magazine, the predecessor of our new journal. I made reference to the previous 18 years of the magazine and how golf clubs were fearing the worst in 1999 when the Millennium bug was going to signal the end of the cyber world at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Well here we are with certainly no lasting effects of the Millennium bug, but looking to the next challenge that will come our way very shortly – GDPR. At HQ we are presently gathering as much information and sharing that with you as it becomes available but, as I am sure you are aware, the implementation day is May 25th.

The modern golf club manager has had to adapt over the years and overcome a number of issues in today’s world of golf. As we all have to keep one eye on the future, we are more than aware that, once GDPR has been sorted, we can then look to the World Handicap System and the incoming revised rules of golf. The positive side of this is that we can deal with these issues, whatever they throw at us.

The negative side of our business is the unknown.

As I write this, the ‘Beast from the East’ has just descended.

With sub-zero temperatures and snow falling over the majority of the country, how does the business of running a golf club deal with these issues?

Looking back over the last month,

I was fortunate enough to be invited to the England Golf awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, in London. These highlight the excellent work being undertaken by so many of the clubs around the country, much of which is instigated by you - the GCMA members. I was also encouraged by the number of industry suppliers who continue to sponsor the awards, they are an important part of our industry and should be applauded for their work.

Looking ahead to next month, I look forward to reporting on the development of the Women’s Golf Leadership group.

Bob Williams – chief executive

“The modern golf club manager has had to adapt over the years and overcome a number of issues in today’s world of golf“

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

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8 | GCMA.ORG.UK

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

What you

NEED TO KNOW Relevant news, opinion and expert insight from around the industry.

Plus what’s happening around the UK in the world of the GCMA

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

The month in

PICTURES

1

It was celebration time when players, volunteers, clubs, counties and coaches got together to recognise all that is great about golf in England. About 500 guests attended the England Golf Awards

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at the Royal Lancaster hotel in London, and applauded the achievements helping to grow the game. Among the big winners, many of whom are seen above, were Leeds Golf Centre, who were named Club of the Year.

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2

Kevin McAleer, from Helensburgh, is the first recipient of the Rain Bird & GCMA Professional Development Opportunity.

Kevin, who was chosen from a shortlist of five candidates, will

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receive a fully funded place on the ASQ level 5 Diploma in Golf Club Management, which is run by the GCMA in partnership with BIGGA and the PGA. He will also receive support from both Rain Bird and the GCMA.

3

Wessex region members enjoyed spectacular surroundings for their winter business meeting, at the Ageas Bowl in Southampton.

Attendees heard from Boundary Lakes GC, found next to the cricket ground, who discussed the challenges of building the course that opened in July 2017.

GCMA.ORG.UK | 11

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

Captain’s corner

HOWARD WILLIAMS

S

ome readers will remember the dominant credit card of the early 70s to late 90s. The marketing was easily remembered: ‘Access – your flexible friend’. The card was flexible and friendly unlike the golf club membership process.

In those days, obtaining membership was a waiting game and I experienced this in 1983 as I went through the daunting process of joining a private members’ club. The only other choice was to pay and play at a municipal, as the development of the proprietary sector was only in its infancy. So I chose to wait in the queue. Twenty years later, in 2003, when I became the secretary/ manager of my club, there was still only one membership interview session held each year.

How different things are in 2018. We are all aware that supply exceeds demand as far as golf courses are concerned. In addition, the rise of the nomadic golfer, who doesn’t want the status or the cost of full membership but is happy to play wherever and whenever the opportunity arises, has wiped out the membership queue in the majority of golf clubs.

Overall participation levels have dropped. The latest figures have indicated that only 14% of registered golfers in the United Kingdom are women and girls.

Many clubs struggle to increase their numbers in this segment.

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Clubs are waking up to the challenge of membership with new ideas and initiatives...

With Duncan Weir,The R&A’s executive director - golf development, at a North West meeting

My club manager, Garry Lacy at Ashton-in-Makerfield, in conjunction with our PGA professional Peter Allan, developed an initiative to increase the female membership during 2017. A series of local radio adverts, coupled with invitations from existing members, brought newcomers, relatives and friends to the club and this was linked to free coaching sessions.

From an initial group of over 30 who attended the first session, 16 signed up for the trial offer and a pathway to full membership was outlined with discounted fees for the first year and into year two.

Fourteen have now joined the club – a real success story!

The R&A will shortly introduce a ‘Women in Golf Charter’ and some County schemes are being linked

to this launch. Lancashire, my home county, will be pro-active in this field this month, with over 220 delegates attending a specifically linked conference.

Golf clubs have woken up to these challenges with many initiatives, to develop the game and encourage commitment to membership, being introduced.

The governing bodies have been pro-active in changing many of the traditional elements of the game as we move through the 21st century. Rules are being made simpler, formats shorter and pace of play quicker. A positive and committed implementation of such changes is necessary to ensure the future of the game, as we respond to changing lifestyles and diverse consumer demands.

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Are You Ready for the GDPR?

With just four months to go before the deadline of 25th May 2018, are you ready for the GDPR? This is the biggest shakeup to UK data protection legislation and it affects all organisations that hold personal information about UK Citizens. With fines of up to £20m or 4% of global turnover, you need to take ownership of the GDPR now!

At BC technologies we have a GDPR Readiness package to help your club achieve compliance before the deadline. Working closely with the GCMA, we are already working with many clubs to raise awareness and help them become compliant.

As a Certification Body for Cyber Essentials, which is a Government backed scheme that can help mitigate fines from the ICO, we are experienced in auditing and certifying businesses of all sizes against the UK regulator’s standards.

We can take you through the whole process; •

helping you create policies and processes to govern data processing.

•

working with your third party suppliers to ensure compliance.

•

advising on communication with your members.

•

guiding you to assess the risks in your business.

•

training your team to raise awareness.

•

guiding you through the complexity.

•

assessing your IT.

For further details on how we can help, contact Matthew Armsby: E: matthew@bc-group.co.uk Tel: 01369 706656

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

This GCMA club is famous for‌

ROYAL NORTH DEVON This venerable club, run by Mark Evans, can claim to be the oldest in England...

T

he honours board alone at Royal North Devon is older than some major cities and is a monument to some of the greats of

the game.

Harold Hilton, Herbert Fowler, Horace Hutchinson – all are stencilled into the wood for eternity.

Yes, Westward Ho! can claim to be the birthplace of English golf.

Founded way back in 1864, it is the oldest golf course in the country and is thought to be the oldest links course anywhere outside of Scotland.

To put that into context, when it opened, cricketer WG Grace was a mere stripling at 15, the American Civil War was still raging and the Football Association was only a few months old.

That kind of wisdom gives the course a certain character and it is largely unchanged in a century.

JH Taylor, the five-time Open champion, learned his craft here among the reeds, rushes and farm animals.

Some of the clubs which he used to win those titles are now on display in the Royal North Devon clubhouse.

14 | GCMA.ORG.UK

The building plays host to its own museum, which is a must see for any students of the game, and the trophies on display there are a monument to golf in its earliest days.

That the course is really, really, old is not its only unique feature, though.

Westward Ho! is the only place that has an exclamation mark in its title, while the signature shot on the course comes on the fourth hole and features the fabulous Cape bunker.

Old Tom Morris was responsible for the massive sand trap, which lies some 170 yards from the tee.

Most players today simply drive

over the top of it but a painful experience awaits those who fail to properly get through the ball.

Around 100 yards across, with 15 foot high planking, the Cape is a sight to behold but a menace to your scorecard and was once considered one of the widest bunkers in Europe. Keep well away from it if you want to truly enjoy your day out at Royal North Devon.

What is it that makes your club special? Every club has something that makes it unique, that sets it apart from everywhere else. Why not let us know what it is?

Email s.carroll@sportspubs.co.uk

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

@RainBirdGolf

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

Teeing off

FOR STRATEGY

S

trategy without leadership goes nowhere; leadership without strategy has nowhere to go.

That was the road map the GCMA began with when it embarked on a comprehensive review of its structures.

“We needed a review of where we were going, and looking at

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how we needed to develop in the future,” says chief executive Bob Williams of the project, which has seen the GCMA work with Nick Watkins, of consultants Q4 Management, for the last 16 months. Every aspect of the association’s work – from the board to membership and regional structures – has been examined to map out a way

forward for the GCMA. Built on key strategic pillars, the review is designed to equip the association with a clear understanding of direction, define what it needs to achieve over the next three years and have clarity of vision that everyone can buy into.

Those pillars are: membership, the regional structure, the board and organisational structure and

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The GCMA has embarked on a comprehensive strategic review with the aim of promoting a culture of excellence in golf club management. Here’s a summary of what is planned…

GCMA chief executive Bob Williams discusses the review at Conference

communications and marketing all underpinned by finance.

All embrace the mission (the GCMA’s why) and the vision (the what). The mission is ‘to promote a culture of excellence in golf club management’. The vision is ‘to be the recognised authority in golf club management through modern, progressive leadership’.

“I believe this is about helping

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you as golf club managers,” explains Watkins.“If we can make your life better – in terms of golf club management – then we will make better golf clubs.”

That mission, and vision, will be realised by guiding principles: Integrity – “we demonstrate a commitment to integrity by conducting our business in accordance with the highest

standards of professional behaviours, ethics and transparency.”

Knowledge sharing – “we actively gather, apply and share knowledge with our members and proprietors, designed to further foster their development and enable them to succeed to their highest potential.”

Respect – “we foster a culture

GCMA.ORG.UK | 17

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

The head full of Strategy

of total respect where we listen, communicate openly and value diversity amongst our membership, their ideas and their points of view.”

Community – “our valued membership and partnerships are our community to whom we will, at all times, endeavour to make a positive contribution in a responsible and responsive manner.”

All of these bond together in a clear culture: The GCMA culture aspires to be progressive, modern, energetic and proactive – a culture that encourages collaboration, communication, openness and commitment.

So let’s take a look at each of the pillars in turn…

Pillar One – Membership “What’s our overall objective?” asks chief executive Bob Williams.“It’s growth in membership. We need to grow membership.”

That’s the key to the membership

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pillar – the growth of membership to further underpin the association’s financial sustainability.

To do that, the GCMA board has looked at what it can do to deliver programmes of continuous professional learning to support the career development of members. The review has looked at, evaluated, and aims to enhance the membership benefits of being part of the association – from both a national and regional perspective.

Williams explains:“Over the last few months, I’ve talked to a number of associations. From the Association of Holiday Parks to the Association of Brewing and Distilling, we’ve asked how they work and how we can share best practice?

To meet the aim of growing membership, the strategic review advocates the introduction of additional categories that will seek to appeal to an audience of aspiring golf club managers.

The first of those is the

“To meet the aim of growing membership, the strategic review advocates the introduction of additional categories”

introduction of the Affiliate Membership, which will cater for those either working or having a professional interest within golf management and aspirations to advance their professional development.

“Why? Because we know there are people out there with a hunger for education, training and who want to learn,” Williams explains.“They are the golf club managers of the future. They are

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House of Strategy

part of what we do. They are part of our extended family and an integral part of our community.

We are excited about the new expertise and additional experience that affiliate members will bring to the association.”

Extending the GCMA family is also behind the desire to further enhance the Club Membership category. That aims to deliver support to golf clubs that are temporarily unable to financially support the appointment of a manager of a secretary.

“We know certain clubs go through hard times. Not all clubs can afford to employ a manager, but they need knowledge and we need to share the knowledge that we have, to allow clubs to grow to a point of stability that allows the appointment of a manager, who can then takeover the club’s membership,” says Williams.

A Membership Services Manager will also be appointed to support and drive growth, as well as helping to deliver professional

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development services.

These new categories will be put to members at the annual general meeting in April, with the aim of agreeing the rule changes required to put them in place.

Pillar Two – Regional Structure Key to this pillar is the review of the current regional structure of the GCMA, the membership structure and the geographic reach. Objectives include looking at the various membership offerings as they relate to individual regions and identifying what makes them different.

Identifying and understanding what makes a successful region, each of the individual regional managers will be involved with the overall aim of fostering a sense of community within the regions and engendering a strong sense of belonging.

“We’ve reviewed the current regional structure and had a number of discussions with the regional managers,” adds

Williams.“We understand how many people attend the regional meetings and what they gain from the network within those meetings.

“We know some regions are vibrant and productive, while we are also aware that others tend to encounter problems with attracting attendees. Why is that?

“We are planning to consult with the regional managers, their committees and members, and try to ascertain what is needed in that region to create a meaningful and successful region.

“We’ve created a small working group of members and they are diverse in age and gender. They are young and retired, and we asked them what they thought constituted a successful region.

“The message that came back was that it wasn’t about how many people came to a regional meeting, it wasn’t about presentations.

“A successful region engendered a community spirit that is well

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

“There is no question that, from our point of view, we will take on more of a disciplined approach” - Eddie Bullock

supported by regional meetings, seminars and social events.”

So the ethos will be ‘a successful region is one that engenders a community spirit, that is supported by regional meetings, seminars and social events’.

The aim is to implement the regional adjustments at the beginning of 2019.

Pillar Three – Board and Organisational Structure This pillar will ensure the GCMA board are ‘familiar with, and adhere to, the principles of good governance, acting always with transparency and full accountability in their leadership of the GCMA’.

The new strategy will adopt five key governance principles: 1 To ensure that there is a coherent strategy, with frequent reviews, that provides the GCMA with direction, purpose and focus.

2 To ensure that there is adherence to the agreed strategy.

3 To ensure that all those associated with the GCMA are aware of, and subscribe to, its mission, vision and values.

“That’s where we should be broadcasting to our clubs at

20 | GCMA.ORG.UK

all times and being proud of our association - knowing our mission, vision and values at all times,” says GCMA board member Eddie Bullock.

4 To ensure that the GCMA’s policies in relation to: procedures, risk management, health & safety and organisational structures are fit for purpose.

Bullock adds:“That is something we will review on an annual basis. Rules and regulations are changing rapidly and there is no excuse for being unsure.”

5 To ensure that there are adequate succession plans in place to support continuity, diversity and competence at Board level.

Bullock continues:“There’s no question that, from our point of view, we will take on more of a disciplined approach - seeking members or independent directors whose expertise will bring skills and competencies to match the existing board members and work, more importantly, with the actual management structure of the GCMA.” This pillar also unveils five key GCMA people commitments for

staff and members.

These include staff appointments to be made upon core competencies and cultural fit, having roles, responsibilities and accountabilities to be clearly defined and supported by the provision of performance management frameworks, along with the introduction of effective ‘onboarding’ programmes to ‘support new GCMA recruits and to acquaint them with core GCMA policies and codes of conduct’.

The GCMA will adopt a Board and organisational structure that reflects the code of good governance as recently published by the Sports and Recreation Alliance. That will pursue accountability, collaboration, teamwork, innovation, value and excellence.

Pillar Four – Communications and Marketing Ensuring members remain at the heart of what the GCMA offer is the aim of pillar four, which covers Communications and Marketing.

Key objectives include building on the success of The Golf Club Manager to ensure the membership receives consistent and high quality communications,

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to continue raising the profile of the association among golfers and developing the association as a respected thought leadership voice to progressively influence the industry and protect and grow the game.

“We are already recognised as the industry leader – a position we should reinforce among our membership and the golfing membership,” declares Mike Hyde, the GCMA’s communications manager.“Raising awareness of the association amongst golfers is consistently identified as a key element of membership recruitment and retention, and will remain a constant priority.

“Our industry knowledge, the fact we are respected and our existing communities and regional networks are our key strengths and should form the core of our future actions.

“But there remains considerable potential to generate commercial revenue to support and develop the activities of the association.”

Principle goals include refining and improving The Golf Club Manager, ensuring the golfing public – and particularly committees – understand the role of the golf club manager and the support the association can offer while developing the association’s voice in the golf industry by engaging in key debates and discussions.

“It has been both an interesting and educational journey so far and we, as a board, are learning all the time and still continuing to learn,” says Williams summing up the strategy as a whole.“Whatever we do, the financial sustainability of this association has to be our platform and from that we will strive to achieve membership growth.”

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Nick Watkins

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

What will 54 handicaps

ACTUALLY MEAN? The new Category 5 and 6 handicaps have been introduced but what will they actually mean in practice? Gemma Hunter, England Golf’s handicap and course rating manager and CONGU board member, spells it out to Steve Carroll

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

T

o say they caused something of a storm would be an understatement. When CONGU introduced categories 5 and 6 a the start of the year - allowing handicaps up to a maximum of 54 - it seemed everyone had something to say about it, and much of it negative.

But what golfers think will happen, and the reality, can often be very different and so we put some of the key questions from both members and clubs to Gemma Hunter, England Golf’s handicap and course rating manager and CONGU board member, to find out exactly what we can all expect when the white tee markers go back out in April.

Do we have to allow maximum handicaps in every competition?

It’s totally up to the golf club.

What we have to establish is that a player has the right to access competition. What that form of competition may be is up to however that club wants to design it to suit them.

They don’t have to have access to every single event, just as a golfer doesn’t have the right to access every single event that England Golf run. There are certain events that might have a handicap limit and clubs can do that within their own competition conditions.

That’s where it’s really key that the club highlight in their competition conditions, or their

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

entry criteria, what requirements there are of any given player for each event.

So a club can restrict handicaps in a monthly medal, for example?

They can. We wouldn’t say do it for every single one (competition).

The recommendation we have given is that we understand that for a club’s major prizes – board competitions, club championships, club trophies – they may want to keep a handicap limit on.

But we would hope that clubs would open up competition to any handicap player.

For example, medals might not be suitable for those players with a higher handicap – due to the number of strokes and the time and the fact it can be quite disheartening to hit that many shots. So it may be that Stablefords are a better option for that handicap of player.

We have seen clubs that have run two competitions on the same day.

They’ve had a medal for, let’s say, handicaps 30 and below for men and then, for handicaps 28 and above, they’ve run a Stableford.

Those players who are 28 to 30 can then choose what they play in.

There are loads of different ways people are doing it and it purely comes down to the club thinking ‘what’s our membership make up and where do we want to pitch certain competitions?’

I would hope that if a club played a Stableford competition it would be open to everybody, irrespective of what type of event it was.

Whereas I can see clubs putting certain restrictions on medal events like board prizes and trophies.

Clubs are having their annual handicap review. How will they deal with players at the old maximum marks, who can’t play

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to that and will probably expect an increase?

In the handicap review this year, we have introduced a new element – a report that sits in the back of the handicap software. It’s what we’re calling an ‘all members report’.

You will have some of those players that are currently on 28.0 and 36.0 appear on the annual review, with a recommendation in terms of what that handicap increase would be. It will only go up to two strokes.

What we’ve said is that in the

report there is a column, which is a performance against target score, and that’s what the annual review is built upon. Based on that, if you print off the report and have a quick look at the players on 28.0 and 36.0 you get that performance against target score.

CONGU in their FAQs have put in a little paragraph to say what to do with those players and whether you should increase them by one, two or three shots.

Whatever those increases are, we would always say to the club ‘keep your eye on the player’ because if they are still not able to play to it you might have to do another review in a couple of month’s time.

Or if you gave them too much

back, you might want to drop them back a little bit depending on their performance.

So we’re not going to have a situation then where a player on 28.0 or 36.0 jumps to 54?

Not unless there is an exceptional case to warrant that and I’ve not yet come across one. The biggest increase I have seen so far has been from 36 to 45 - for a lady.

I’m looking at between one and three or four shots maximum for the average golfer.

So what exactly will the handicap software propose?

Up to a two shot increase. You might want to look beyond that at anyone who might need a third or a fourth shot, depending on how big that performance against target score is and your knowledge of the player.

There are other reviews in the CONGU system that will flag players if they are outside the buffer zone so we will continually watch these players and it does tend to be the declining golfer.

There’s not going to be a huge number of players in these higher handicap categories this year. Over the year, as players go up .1, you will

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see a drift where those players on 28.0 could quite easily drift up to 30 or 31 depending on how much they play.

And you have that review that kicks in during the season after seven consecutive .1s...

That’s all part of the process of saying ‘even though we’ve given this players three shots at the annual review, if they are still returning scores of seven .1s do we need to look at it again?’ My advice would be: yes, if they are consistently still outside the buffer zone by a number of strokes.

A lot of people think higher handicappers will slow the pace of play. If a club has a number of such players wanting to take part in competitions, how can they help them keep up the pace of play?

There’s three key points. Firstly, nobody has ever found a link between a player’s handicap and the pace of play. We’re not actually changing the players that are out on the golf course. We’re just changing the number of shots that we are giving them to make it fair and equitable.

The second point is that, as a golf club, be sensible about it. Speak to that group of players who are off 50 and above or, mid 40s and above. They probably don’t want to be playing medals.

They want to be able to enjoy their golf and don’t want to have 11s and 12s. Give them more opportunity to play in Stablefords than medals. That way, they can’t score, they pick their ball up and move on. It’s not delaying play any longer than anything else that causes a delay in pace of play.

Thirdly, look at 9-hole competitions. It is suited to that type of player because they don’t

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want to be out there that long.

They want to enjoy and measure performance and I know, from when I was starting in the game, that I would quite prefer to play 9-holes because, by the time I got to seven or eight, I’d hit quite a lot of shots and was getting a bit bored. For ladies that haven’t got massive fields in their monthly medals or competitions, putting a 9-hole competition for those higher handicap players at the back of the field, so they could

“We’ve been doing a lot of data collection to show the number of rounds - medal to Stableford - coming through CDH is now almost 50/50. Previously, it was very medal predominant” come in and be at the golf club at the same time for their cup of tea or sandwich after the game, is a really good way of doing it.

At certain times of the year, put on 9-hole competitions that are open to everybody. Targeting Stableford as a preferred format is certainly the approach I would recommend clubs take.

So be flexible about your competition structure and when players book tee times…

We know there’s times where you can’t have a medal and Stableford running on the same day because you are going to have a full field.

But if you run 40 medals a year

and only 10 Stablefords, while not run 30 medals and 20 Stablefords.

Just think about how you set your competitions up for the year.

We’ve been doing a lot of data collection to show the number of rounds – medal to Stableford – coming through CDH is now almost 50/50. Previously, it was very medal predominant. Now that’s starting to level up and certainly the higher handicap players in category 3, 4 and 5 prefer Stableford over medal.

It’s just getting clubs to see that when they set their competitions up.

Can a competition committee set handicap limits for matchplay events as well?

You have to play it off full handicap so it’s not about setting a fuzzy limit of the number of strokes. We are not limiting the number of strokes a player can give, what we are saying is ‘set a limit that suits the competition’.

So if you’ve got a men’s knockout and you want to set a handicap limit of 24 then do that but, if a player is off 25, then they can’t enter. It’s the same with competitions. Set a hard limit.

Don’t say ‘you can be off 30 but you have to play off 24’.

That’s against the spirit of the CONGU system. It has to be a handicap limit – just as if you were trying to enter the Brabazon and the handicap limit was two. If you don’t get to two, you can’t play in it. A handicap limit, set within your competition conditions, is totally fine and acceptable. If a player hasn’t achieved that handicap, they are not eligible to play.

For more information about the new categories and handicap changes, visit congu.co.uk

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In the

LOOP 1. Scottish Golf appoint new chief executive What’s happened: Scottish Golf have appointed Andrew McKinlay as their new chief executive.

He’s joined from the Scottish FA, where he was most recently chief operating officer and interim chief executive.

What does it mean? This might finally start to bring to an end a disruptive time for Scotland’s governing body following the resignation last year of Blane Dodds. Scottish Golf say the application process, which started last October, saw a host of highcalibre applicants and, while he joins against the backdrop of a row over affiliation fees and a growing issue with club membership, he now gives the body a focal point for the coming years.

McKinlay will take charge in May, after the March AGM at which a number of issues arising from December’s Future of Golf conference are set to be discussed..

“I look forward to the hugely exciting challenge of leading Scottish Golf towards a prosperous future as the governing body for the largest registered participation

Three things you need to know from the last month in the golf industry…

sport in Scotland,” said McKinlay.

“I realise a lot of hard work has been undertaken already to increase participation and accessibility to golf and, having attended December’s Future of Golf conference in Edinburgh, I believe the passion and collective will throughout the membership gives us a terrific foundation on which to build a bright future for our game.”

2. England Golf and Golf Business International join forces What happened: England Golf and the consultancy organisation Golf Business International have entered into a partnership that will gives clubs access to specialist

knowledge and expertise.

What does it mean? Golf Business International have become one of England Golf’s ‘preferred partners’.

There are 35 of these that the governing body has networked together to provide clubs with advice and practical help.

This latest partnership will see Golf Business International’s services highlighted to more than 1,900 clubs by England Golf’s Club Support Officers. The agreement was signed at the consultants’ recent annual meeting at Frilford Heath.

Howard Swan, Golf Business International chairman, said:“It gives us a wonderful opportunity to work for the members in increasing their business opportunities in the national golf market. And it is my hope this agreement may prove to be the forerunner of similar agreements with the other three domestic national bodies, leading our members to help their clubs through their respective support programmes. An important part of the initiative will be to link closely with the regions of England Golf to provide education and training

@GCMAUK Great week looking at some of the best golf practice facilities in the UK @3hammersgolf and golf innovation @GolfBisShow at Celtic Manor #lovegolf #loveinnovation

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@wlkellow Developing & Managing a Socially Responsible Golf Club workshop delivered yesterday, as part of

the @GCMAUK ASQ L5 Golf Club Management Qualifications. @PGAMemberED Going through our presentation

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We want to hear from you!

Send your correspondence, on any subject, to letters@gcma.org.uk

through seminars and workshops.”

3. Rain Bird team up with Rigby Taylor What happened: Rain Bird, one of the leading manufacturers of irrigation products and services, appointed Rigby Taylor as their golf products distributor for the UK. What does it mean? Club and course managers will still be able to access products through Rain Bird contractors but they will now get added support,“new product

information and after-sales service from Rigby Taylor’s technical field sales force”.

Jimmy Sandison, regional sales manager for Rain Bird in the UK, Ireland, Iceland and Scandinavia, said:“We want to provide the very best levels of service and support to all of our customers. By having Rigby Taylor in place as a strong UK distribution partner for our golf course irrigation products, contractors and course managers will all benefit from a quicker, more efficient service.”

Welcome to our newest GCMA members Michael Piercy, manager at Whiteleaf, in Chiltern & Home Counties region Ryan Parfett, manager at Fynn Valley, in East Anglia region Steve Searle, manager at St Neots, in East Anglia region James Sanderson, assistant at Sunningdale Heath, in London & Home Counties region John Saul, honorary secretary at Church Stretton, in Midland region Stephen Bootes, manager at Sittingbourne & Milton Regis, in South East region Sophie Skinner, director at The Ridge, in South East region Keith Wood, manager at Gloucester, in South West region Alan Ferguson, secretary at The Eastwood, in Scotland region, has rejoined the GCMA John Shakespeare, honorary secretary at Walmley, in Midland region, has rejoined the GCMA Members who have moved

for next week’s @GCMAUK regional event @hiltonageasbowl #GrowTheGame #ModernGolfClub #EnglandGolf @PlayMore_Golf

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No snow up @TheBelfryHotel at the moment. @PGAMemberEd @GCMAUK training day! @MattTucknott

Stephen Scott-Bowen has become the new general manager of Cardiff, in Wales region, having held the same post at The Bristol.

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A Matter of Opinion

KEEPING IT LOCAL

From left to right, Karen Drake, Martin Bennet, Neil Annandale and Rob Wormstone

W

ith the GCMA split into regions, the 16 regional managers that take responsibility for an area obviously have a huge responsibility to spread the word of the association to members – whether that is through meetings, seminars or

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just offering vital support when needed. But how did they get involved? How do they feel about the GCMA and why can attending meetings be so beneficial? Our panel get stuck into the debate…

How did you become regional managers and what was motivation behind taking the role?

Rob Wormstone: I don’t think anyone else would do it! But, seriously, our existing secretary gave plenty of notice to the region that he was retiring and they went through a process. I think three people applied and I ended up with the role. It was a proper CV interview with the past captains.

Neil Annandale: To put it in context, I joined the association in

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Regional managers are at the heart of the GCMA structure, providing the main support and social networks for members. We asked a quartet to talk about their jobs and the association…

1999 and, having been a member and seeing what the region does, I’d seen two previous regional managers who had both been in post for a considerable number of years. Howard Williams, the current national captain, was going to be stepping down when he took up that role and I’d been working on the planning group – behind the scenes and getting involved with Howard and working with him on some specific projects like the centenary at Formby.

I had an insight as to what the job entailed so, when the vacancy became available, I put my nomination forward. I was unopposed, I was elected and I have been doing it for the last 12 months now.

Martin Bennet: In Chiltern region, Colin Hextall was there for a long time and gave notice that he was going to go. I had been on the committee and I put myself forward. I thought I’d enjoy doing it. Colin then decided to stay on but I was there in waiting all the time. He did another 18 months

and I’d been on the periphery of it.

Our region is not as regimented as others and it was just a question of being nominated at the relevant AGM and I just took over. But I’d had an 18-month lead in period, which was quite good because I followed what Colin was doing.

Karen Drake: We had a longstanding regional manager, Brian Rimes, and he was beginning to feel he wasn’t able to commit quite as much time as the job entailed. I’d previously been involved in organising a few business seminars for the region – on the region’s behalf. I was one of the committee members and I saw it (regional manager) as an opportunity to be able to progress that and get involved. I loved putting something back into the GCMA because I’ve got a lot out of it and I’m the sort of person that likes to be involved and likes to do something worthwhile.

So here I am. Unfortunately for me, it coincided with me moving job, which was quite a task and I wasn’t able to commit as much

time at the beginning as perhaps a lot of regional managers do.

I’ve managed. I survived and I think I put on the same number of meetings as other regions do.

To me, it’s just seems quite useful that I can be at the club and know exactly what topics are in order to put those in front of people. It’s very useful.

RW: For me, it was all about the networking. As soon as I got a job, I joined the association. I didn’t know too much about it at the time but I did know that the strength of a network is very important.

KD: Doing my job as well, there is the means to be able to contact people and say ‘I’m looking at doing X. Any ideas who you might have used previously?’ You just learn so much more and gain friendships. You make so many friends through it.

NA: I take my hat off to you for doing it while working. The three of us are fortunate. We are retired, you are the only working manager and regional secretary as well. I

MEET THE PANEL

Rob Wormstone, Midland regional manager

Neil Annandale, North West regional manager

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Karen Drake, South West regional manager and managing secretary at Burnham & Berrow

Martin Bennet, Chiltern & Home Counties regional manager

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”I think one of the challenges is the personal development of our colleagues rather than the commercial presentations in meetings. One thing the association might have to look at going forward is a bit more pastoral care” – Martin Bennet think that is a big commitment for somebody like yourself because I know how time consuming it can be for me in the role.

I don’t think, on occasions, that behind the scenes people realise just how much time and effort you do put in – especially when you want your monthly meetings to be to the point, to be professionally run and to go smoothly.

You are representing not just yourself but also the association.

I take my hat off to you Karen for doing both jobs.

KD: I suppose I see a lot of people in my working life that come to me trying to sell their wares and, often, I’ll talk to them after we’ve met and invite them to come to my regional meetings. So, in a way, it aids that. I haven’t got to go out cold calling like you guys have to do. You must have to pick up the phone to various people to make contact with them. I get those contacts because they come to me, rather than me looking for them. So, in a way, it’s easier for me.

RW: The other thing that’s nice about this group (of regional managers) is that I know most

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of them now. There are one or two newcomers over the last 12 months but I can pick up the phone to most of them and talk about speakers, topics, ideas, meeting venues and so I think, because we have got our own community that works on our level as much as it does on the bigger association level.

You’re talking about 100 or so members in your region. The 16 of us seem to work together quite well and are quite happy to share knowledge among ourselves and that’s nice too.

MB: I think one of our challenges is the personal development of our colleagues rather than the commercial presentations in meetings. One thing the association might have to look at going forward is a bit more pastoral care. This last year, four of my managers have left claiming stress and disillusionment with the golfing hierarchy – and committees – and I think the association probably needs to cuddle our members a bit more going forward.

KD: I have seen that a lot in recent

years, where people have been at a club for a good length of time and then they have taken on another role somewhere else, they have been there three or four years and then they have a new chairman or captain in post and it’s almost as though they just clash. That manager suffers as a result of that.

RW: We also need to be educating our guys and girls on how to deal with stress and recognising it.

What are members who don’t attend regional meetings missing out on?

RW: It’s the networking, really. It’s being able to interact with your peer group – and we all want to belong to a tribe. We want to feel the comfort of shared pain, if you like, or shared success. They are not really doing themselves any favours by working in isolation.

That’s my feeling and that’s what I try and get across.

KD: Then that stress becomes relieved because you are having a therapy session with those who you are meeting with. When you turn up and you have got all these pressures and all these things

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going on at your own club and you talk to someone else who has got the same, or even worse, you often go back feeling a little bit more relieved that at least your job isn’t quite as difficult as theirs.

NA: Networking is a big part of it and that’s probably the soft and secondary benefit but we obviously put together a programme for those meetings.

There is the continued professional development side of things which, if we are doing our jobs right, and we’re talking to the members and finding out the factors which are important and affecting them and making their jobs difficult, then it is up to us to hopefully tailor a package of training and presentations.

The development I have seen in recent years has moved away from the pure supplier sell to the education element of it. Just as a member, and not as a regional manager taking part in the meetings, I used to go and think ‘well, I’m going to learn who I am going to be able to buy my toilet rolls cheaper off next week’.

Now, I go there and it’s more about skills and key skills development issues that are being put in front of me. I think things like sourcing supplies – with the tools at your disposal such as the internet – has become easier. You don’t necessarily need to have that shoved down your throat.

A quick phone call to Fred or Freda down the road and it’s ‘who are you using for your admin software?’ But the skills, in terms of how to overcome objections, how to deal with difficult members, how to recognise stress, which are all the sorts of things we are putting in front of our members now, have probably moved to the front of the queue.

KD: I have noticed, comparing my

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”The development I have seen in recent years has moved away from the pure supplier sell to the education element of the (regional meeting)” - Neil Annandale

role to that of my predecessor, that it was very much about a gathering and networking. Now it’s all focused on the business side and the education side and we are far more disciplined. There’s a consistency among the regions now – far greater – and that’s only in the last 10 years I suppose.

It has really changed and we are providing very good business opportunities and education opportunities to those that are in the region. The friendship and the networking comes as well – as a result of that – but, primarily, we are far more professional about delivering that whole package.

MB: I’m not afraid to say also that one of the reasons why I agreed

to do this type of job is I get a buzz out of watching people get something out of it. The feedback that you get on the day – ‘thanks that was a good meeting, I really enjoyed that because I made a contact with x, y and z’ – that’s the buzz that I get.

We all of us need that feedback and, when it happens, that’s why we do it. We want to give of ourselves for others.

RW: It is a good feeling to get that but always in the back of my mind there is this nagging little thing churning away that says ‘why didn’t you manage to get so and so, and so and so (to come)?’

One thing I’ve got (at an upcoming meeting) is four people who have never been to an association meeting while I have been a member – and that goes back 10 or 12 years or more.

I’ve got four of them and I intend to go and have a chat with each one of them and say ‘what was different about this agenda than what we’ve had in the past?’ I have been trying to make it all educational. This is educationalbased, but what’s the difference?

Is it the location? Is it the timing?

Is it the fact there is no golf, so you haven’t got to justify to your committee, chairman or line manager that you are out of the club and are possibly playing golf.

There is none of that.

Maybe that’s still part of the justification of coming to this meeting and not the ones where there is the golf element.

MB: People say to me ‘well I can’t do that because of this or the golf’, I will say ‘well, you’ll still go and play golf at other courses otherwise how do you know whether your course is better or worse?’ It is up to us to get out and see what other places do. I am sure all of us feel that we never actually stop

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working when we are playing golf.

Our golf has gone to pot because we are working every minute.

RW: You put yourself out last and you end up with one of the poorest scores because everything is still going through your head.

MB: But I would hope that we put that across to people who don’t attend that it’s ‘come along, network, have fun, have a couple of hours out of the office and learn something along the way’. I don’t know why people don’t do it. In my business life, I would always go to the exhibitions and the training courses.

KD: That’s probably your personality and your characteristic in that you are always willing to learn. There is an element who are not willing. Whether there’s an element of arrogance – that they don’t feel they need to – or whether they don’t feel it’s professional enough, I don’t know.

When people ring me up and say ‘I can’t make it because of x, y and z’, I think ‘that’s a very poor excuse’.

RW: I had one lady who said ‘I don’t need to come. I run this

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golf club. I don’t need you’. I am thinking ‘that’s quite an arrogant way of looking at it’.

KD: How does she know that until she goes to other golf clubs and talks to others and sees for herself?

RW: She was just isolated. She said ‘I have to do everything’. So she has not obviously got the skills to delegate and it all falls down to her. She had an office that was completely cluttered up with boxes everywhere. You think to yourself ‘how can you work in that environment to start with?’

It’s important for those who don’t attend meetings to know it’s not just about the meetings.

The support extends outside too…

NA: When you start talking to people about it, you realise attendance at meetings shouldn’t be viewed as the be all and end all of the benefits of GCMA membership.

You’re talking about that informal community and networking that goes on outside of meetings – the Facebook groups that we’ve

established in the region.

They know, because they are all members of the same association, that they are likeminded individuals. The fact that they can pick up the phone and talk to head office – the helpline – that they can go onto the head office library and they’ve got the magazine, which gives them the information.

They can refer to the website after the event, see copies of the minutes and see copies of the presentations. The ways people educate themselves are different.

Some need that more formal environment of the meeting and other people are more insular and they prefer to operate in that way.

It’s as long as you don’t think your only valued members are the ones that attend the meetings. You keep in contact as a regional manager, head office does through the weekly update emails, and then they still feel involved and feel important. When something happens that they don’t feel comfortable with, they know you are only a phone call away.

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The interview

JAMES MACLEAN There can’t have been too many younger secretaries when James Maclean assumed the role at Bognor Regis at the age of 23. Now general manager, and still only 27, he talks to Steve Carroll about acceptance, and becoming southern region GCMA captain...

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Bognor Regis The present course was designed by James Braid and constructed by FG Hawtree. The club celebrated their 125th anniversary last year and it’s testament to the tight 6,100-yard layout that the course played today is similar to that experienced by the legendary golf writer Bernard Darwin

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in 1938. Of the West Sussex course, the great man said:“It was a charming, rustic spot with the wooded South Downs as a backdrop.

“The sense of flatness is entirely gone, the greens laid out in gently sweeping curves and humps and hollows and the bunkers representing a skilful bit of landscape gardening.”

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H

ow long have you been in post?

I’ve been general manager since January 2017 but I did four years as club secretary before that, which was effectively the same role except I was on a level with our food and beverage manager and, initially, on a level with the head greenkeeper and coordinating between us all.

and it was a bit different – being the youngest there by quite a few years. It was quite strange.

How did the role come about?

I sort of fell into it, to be honest. I actually worked in the pro shop first. I wasn’t a pro but I worked there from 16. I was doing A-Levels at the time, the assistant pro left and the pro asked me if I wanted to work full-time for him – with a view to doing my PGA

We lost a substantial amount of money over a six to eight year period. That was frustrating for me, from the pro shop point of view, and I was just trying to help out.

I started doing competition results – running all the competitions and the handicaps – and then I progressed naturally to helping out with cover in the office while the assistant secretary was on holiday.

Then the club said ‘right, how do

“I started going to GCMA events in October 2012 and it was a bit different - being the youngest there by quiet a few years. It was quite strange”

A year into the post as secretary, I took on the golf course and management responsibility for the head greenkeeper.

When I became general manager, I took on management responsibility for the food and beverage as well.

You’re 27 now, and became secretary at 23. You must have been one of the youngest secretaries around?

I must have been but it was never confirmed. It was just an assumption. I started going to GCMA events in October 2012

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qualifications at some point.

I did five years for him and did the first year coaching course as a volunteer with the PGA. I didn’t give up my amateur status and decided this wasn’t the route I wanted to go down longterm. I didn’t really enjoy teaching, to be honest.

It was a bit different at Bognor Regis too.

The general manager before me left in 2009 and the club didn’t replace him.

The club was losing members year on year, losing money year on year.

you feel about carrying on that role?’ It was an evolution. I just fell into it. I didn’t intend – or sit there at school saying ‘I’m going to be a golf club manager one day’. At school, the dream was to be a PGA pro.

That gradual transition will have removed some of the concerns you might have had taking the role: would the members think I was too young, for instance...

If I’d just been brought in off the street, well, it would never have happened.

There’s no way a private

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GCMA 2018 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY GCMA AGM INCLUDING THE CHANCE TO PLAY FOR THE CAPTAIN’S CUP

MONDAY 16 APRIL | MOOR PARK GC

NATIONAL GOLF DAY MONDAY 18 JUNE | BROADSTONE GC

SPONSORED BY

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

members’ golf club, even now, would just take on a 23-year-old as their secretary with no prior experience.

Was it a good way of doing it, though? You have had to prove yourself at every level and succeed at every level…

The club showed a lot of faith in me by giving me the opportunity.

It was difficult but it was probably the only way to do it, because as I just said, I probably wouldn’t have got that opportunity any other way.

I had to fall into it, and in the deep end if you like, to prove I could swim and be able to make it.

You get the position and have experience of each part of the job. But when things go wrong, which they do, how did you cope with that?

I just tried to apply common sense.

A lot of good management, in my opinion, is just common sense.

It’s making a logical decision.

Things go wrong and you’ve just

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“A lot of good management, in my opinion, is just common sense.

It’s making a logical decision. Things go wrong and you’ve just got to run with it” got to run with it and try and do the best with it.

I was lucky that I knew the team well and, when I worked in the pro shop, one winter I did a couple of months in the bar as well.

I was part of the team, if you like, and I knew what was going on everywhere. It was just ‘get on with it’.

All the team were very supportive.

They could have easily not been happy about having a 23-year-old in charge, and telling them what to do, but they were all fantastic.

Bognor are presumably a traditional club with committees and structures?

We were and we still are a private members’ club but, at the end of 2016, we incorporated and became a limited company.

We now have a board and, to be honest, I was one of the main drivers, along with our finance director, for doing it.

We had a management committee of 14 people and, at times, it was challenging to reach a decision on some issues.

Having a board of five directors, who have been elected based on what they can bring to the table, has been fantastic.

When you first worked with that committee structure, did you experience a lot of support or was there some resistance – because you were young?

Generally, the support was fantastic. There may have been some people who needed to be convinced, but on the whole, everyone was very supportive.

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

Was that a difficult experience for you?

You knew what was happening and I had a good sense of the people who were going to support me and the ones that were resistant.

I imagine you also had a lot of support and goodwill as well?

Exactly. That was the good thing about a management committee of that many people.

You had a good scope of people from across the whole club.

I had a good sense that the members supported me.

It wasn’t easy but I accepted it, and I knew it had to be that way, for me to progress in that career path.

There was no way I would have got the job otherwise.

That kind of experience – both positive and negative – is key when you are the person trying to put through a management change as you did…

It took us over a year to get the process through but our finance

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

“We’ve turned that around. We’ve had a surplus for those last three years and that has grown considerably every year. It’s completely turned around” director was on board with it and, obviously, the club’s management committee.

They were all for it and could see the sense of it.

I wrote a five-year strategy programme for the club and a key part of that strategy was ‘this is where we need to get to’ and we delivered it.

What difference has going to a board structure made?

It’s absolutely fantastic. It is much easier to talk about the accounts with only five or six people, as

opposed to 14, and the decision making process is much easier and quicker.

It’s so much better. I can’t rave enough about the change it has made.

So when you go to meetings, every one is on point straight away…

Absolutely. These guys want to do it and make a difference.

The club had substantial debts.

They were going only one way.

We were reliant on members to support the club, through members’ loans.

We were losing members every year and, in the last three years, we’ve turned that round.

We’ve had a surplus for those last three years and that has grown considerably every year.

We had 96 new members in 2016 and, towards the end of 2017, it was about 85 with another six applications on my desk.

It’s completely turned around.

Talk to us about your team…

It’s a rather unusual one. My

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

“We had 96 new members in 2016 and, towards the end of 2017, it was about 85 with another six applications on my desk”

assistant is actually going to become my mother-in-law.

I got engaged in October last year.

I was on holiday and I have been with her daughter for more than eight-and-a-half years.

That was another point that was raised during my process – about having that family relationship.

We were only a year into our relationship at the time but that complicated things slightly.

So I’ve a full-time assistant, a bookkeeper in the office 25 hours a week, a head greenkeeper – with five in total.

Food and beverage-wise, we’ve got a new F&B manager, who started in April last year.

That was one of my first tasks, to employ a new F&B manager, when I became general manager.

That was interesting, a challenge, and I’d kind of taken for granted

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that the previous post holder knew the club inside out.

When you employ somebody new like that, it takes them a while – probably a couple of years – to get used to the whole club environment and what events come along.

We do a lot of private functions at Bognor Regis.

It is a massive part of our business and about half of our annual turnover. It is really important to us.

So you joined the GCMA pretty much the moment you got the secretary’s job?

Actually, it was just before. It was in 2012 that I joined and I did (what was then) the weeklong Introduction to Golf Club Management course.

What kind of support did that

bring – being a member of the association when you were brand new in post?

It was absolutely brilliant. It was a bit daunting going to that first meeting.

I knew, of course, that I was going to be the youngest attendee by a considerable way but it was daunting from that aspect.

Everyone has been so welcoming and it has led to me being asked to be vice-captain and then to captain the region this year.

To be captain of the Southern region, which is such a strong region for the GCMA anyway, is a really nice feeling. It’s really nice to be honoured in that way.

It shows the impact you’ve made on the GCMA but also the faith they have in you going forward?

When I was asked I was more shocked than anything. I thought ‘surely there’s lots of other people in line before me?’

Actually, when I look at the list of members in the region, there aren’t too many that have been in post as long as me.

You have some people that have been there 25 years but there’s a lot of new people after me in the last five years. It’s quite a quick changeover.

You’ve got to be the youngest GCMA captain, haven’t you?

I would have thought so. I’d be surprised if there had been another regional captain in their twenties.

It was, and is, fantastic to be honoured by your colleagues in such a fashion.

I am really looking forward to the year ahead, captaining our match teams and representing the region nationally within the GCMA.

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

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GCMA.ORG.UK | 41

GCMA RECRUITMENT

FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE VACANCIES BELOW, VISIT GCMA.ORG.UK/JOBS

HARPENDEN ::: GENERAL MANAGER

LETCHWORTH GC ::: GENERAL MANAGER

Harpenden Golf Club has a thriving membership roll of almost 900 and will enjoy its 125th anniversary next year.

Letchworth is a prestigious private members’ golf club looking to appoint a General Manager with proven club management experience.

The successful candidate will have at least five years’ experience as a General Manager. Key responsibilities include dynamic and efficient management of day-to-day operations.

Candidates must possess excellent communication and leadership skills and a thorough knowledge of golf and its traditions.

Applications by covering letter and CV should be emailed to Ian Shipley, Chairman, at ianshipley@me.com Region: Chiltern & Home Counties Salary: Highly competitive Closing date: March 16, 2018

MOUNT PLEASANT ::: GENERAL MANAGER

To apply, email a CV and covering letter, highlighting motivation and suitability, to M E Plumbley, President, at meplumbley@stavonga.co.uk Region: Chiltern & Home Counties Salary: Commensurate with experience Closing date: March 16, 2018

PENNARD GC ::: CLUB MANAGER

We are a proprietary owned, progressive, club and are presently in development to extend the course to 18 holes.

Pennard, ranked in the top 100 golf clubs in the UK, are seeking to appoint a talented and capable club manager.

We are at the start of an exciting transformation period. We are looking for an exceptional leader, who will lead the staff to deliver a ‘one team philosophy’ and provide a high level of service to members, guests and visitors.

The successful candidate will have experience as a general manager, with a proven track record.

The successful candidate will be required to implement and contribute to the development of the club’s strategic plan.

Region: Chiltern & Home Counties Salary: Competitive Closing date: March 31, 2018

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It is expected that the successful candidate will hold a recognised golf club management qualification and have worked extensively in the golf industry.

Region: Wales Salary: Competitive Closing date: March 10, 2018

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

Good

PRACTICE Advice on golf club management issues – from finance to clubhouse rules and employment law to staff morale – from our panel of experts

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

How to ...

RETAIN MEMBERS

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

For many clubs, renewals season is one of the most stressful times of the year.

So what can you do to make life easier? Abbie Lench, England Golf’s head of club support, has some helpful advice…

L

ots of visitors and increased green fees are all well and good but membership remains the foundation of a successful club.

The renewals season, whether that’s in January or April, can be a fraught time for clubs, who are trying to keep their numbers intact while also enticing new players through the doors for a long-term commitment.

Membership fell sharply during the economic downturn but, over the last couple of years, figures have stabilised as clubs have enhanced their offerings and become more innovative in the way they structure their deals.

But, aside from a few very fortunate, most clubs could do with adding to their bottom line – and membership is one of the best ways of doing that.

How can clubs retain the members they have got, while also bringing in new blood to further secure their future?

England Golf have undertaken lots of work around this subject, recently publishing the Value Your Customers document, which was produced with Manchester Metropolitan University and discovered six key drivers of membership retention.

So who better to ask for advice than Abbie Lench, the governing body’s head of club support?

Think about when you time your renewals

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I think there are still a large proportion of clubs that will renew in January. That is obviously something (for clubs) to consider.

In January, people have just had Christmas. It’s not very good weather and, suddenly, they are being asked to pay a significant chunk of money.

Make retention your goal every day of the year When we did the research with Manchester Metropolitan University on the key model for retention, what came out loud and clear is that it isn’t just something you do when you need to.

It should almost be the basis of every day. What are you doing to make sure those people feel they are a part of your club?

That could be anything from what the atmosphere in the club is like to what the experience (of membership) is for them. It isn’t just once you get them through the door, you sign them up and take their money.

We certainly had lots of anecdotes where people said ‘the only time I hear from my club is when I have to renew’.

You can’t blame someone for dropping out if that’s the only interaction they get. The retention model we’ve come up with captures all of those different touch points with a customer.

That could be someone speaking to them at the bar, when they are booking a tee time or when they have just walked into the club. It

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could be that monthly or weekly newsletter, or the Twitter account that tells them when the course is open. It’s those tiny little things that actually add up to quite a lot and make it harder for that person to walk away from the club when they get that renewal letter.

Follow the six key drivers of membership retention Fun and engagement We underestimate the fun aspect.

Golf is a fun social experience that people are doing outside of work.

It might be the only thing they do – that is their own personal time – so it does need to be fun and engaging and not feel like a burden. It’s got to be a nice experience that they want to do and look forward to doing.

Ethos and atmosphere and the membership experience You’ve got realise different people

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have different needs and your club isn’t going to be able to cater for all of them. You’ve got to understand what your USPs are, what types of people are you going to appeal to and then focus on those strengths.

Club participation journey, the welcome and long-term involvement In society, we are almost used to mass customisation now. Everyone expects to be treated like an individual and we want different things at different times.

Club participation is about being a bit more in tune with the members and tracking what they do.

Not everyone wants to play in the monthly medal and not everyone plays once a week with their three friends. Sometimes, it is a case of understanding their playing behaviours and habits and adapting to what they need, or offering them something new.

Keep your members engaged and involved For a long time, the focus has been on recruitment and I think that’s a knee jerk reaction. If membership is falling, everyone says ‘we must recruit more members’ whereas more time should have been spent, retrospectively, on saying ‘why have they left? Why have we lost these people? Have they gone to another club? Have they dropped out of the sport?’

Our message is if you focus on retention and get that right you will automatically be better at the recruitment side, because you will be understanding what you are going to do with those people once you actually get them.

Think of fresh ideas…like female friendly clubs My background is tennis and I came into golf two and a half years ago. I thought tennis was a bit old

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fashioned in some respects but I’d never ever thought of joining a ladies or men’s section of a club. I found that a little bit bizarre.

I think some of this is a little bit of a culture change. We know that needs to happen, but sometimes it takes time. For every dodgy example there is out there, which always seems to make the press, there’s lots of clubs that are much more forward thinking and much more inclusive.

We’ve produced some friendly facility guidance. So as well as understanding the customer, it’s about what can you do with your facility to make it feel a friendlier environment.

I think it’s okay to have a range of beginner friendly clubs through to the clubs that you aspire to join once you become a good golfer.

Right now, across our 1,900 clubs, we’ve probably got too many that think they are the top end and

“If you focus on retention and get that right you will automatically be better at the recruitment side”

we’re trying to say ‘you can’t all be up there because there are not enough golfers to go around’.

If you spread the people who want to play, you are all going to find your niche and will have enough people. But that’s an education and there are challenges that come with that.

How segmentation can help

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In daily life, we are all segmented by businesses every day of the week without even realising it.

When you are using your Clubcard at Tesco, they are tracking what you are buying, when you are buying it and how much you are spending on average.

They are getting a picture of what you do and how you behave and then, in turn, are able to send you different offers and benefits that relate to your behaviours.

It helps them better understand what you are going to want from their shops and when you are going to want it. It just improves the experience for you.

Sport has had to get its act together in this respect because it was a little bit one-dimensional.

A couple of years ago, we ran a study to try and understand what the demand was (for people playing golf) in terms of size and the shape of it. Are we running out of people that want that 7-day membership, or are there other people out there that want golf but in a slightly different way?

What we have tried to do is open the eyes of clubs to make them realise that, outside of the people you already recognise – your typical club members – there’s a whole raft of people you could engage but you might have to package the offer up slightly differently.

We’ve spent 18 months trying to get clubs to think about that – not just understanding their existing membership but also looking around them at the local demographic and the other clubs in the area to say ‘what’s making us different from the three clubs that are five miles down the road?

What is the point of difference and can we appeal to slightly different people?’

For more, visit englandgolf.org

Knowledge is power Despite all your best efforts, members may still leave.

But the key for the growth of your club is to understand what’s going on and learn from it.

You can consider attrition rates and membership satisfaction alongside trends to discover: • The lifetime value of a member • The monthly retention versus annual retention rate • The most common reasons for leaving • How many members have joined and left over the last 12 months “The more you understand about your retention strategy, the more effective your recruitment campaigns will be.Your existing membership is the best place to start when looking for new target areas for potential members.”

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GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

Keeping your

MEMBERS HAPPY

“

W

e can’t dictate to people how they want to enjoy

their golf.

“People will either not play at all because they can’t find the product they are after or they will go somewhere else.”

Alec Fernihough knows a little bit about how to keep his members happy.

Under his stewardship of Gaudet Luce, the West Midlands club have doubled their numbers in only six years – during a time of overall membership stagnation in the game.

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The club’s innovative work with beginners, who are helped into Gaudet Luce life through a twoyear programme, has seen them highlighted as an example of best practice by England Golf.

The governing body also handed them their Membership Award two years ago, recognising the work they had done with their Utopian flexible membership scheme.

In total, they have 27 different options ranging from a five-year full scheme to one of four pointsbased options. It is a rare person they can’t find a suitable package for.

“We have to offer that flexibility, we have to offer packages that fit

with the way that people want to live their lives,” said Fernihough of Gaudet Luce’s membership strategy.

“It’s changed from the way it was 20 years ago and even 10 years ago. You’ve got to offer that flexibility.

“I want to be in a situation where if somebody comes in looking for membership, I can turn any issues – whether it be price, whether it be value – around and say ‘we’ve got an option for you’.”

Fernihough estimates that, over the last few years, more than 500 beginners have begun their golfing journeys at Gaudet Luce.

Word of mouth has helped but the effort and dedication the team

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With 27 different forms of membership, and close to 1,000 players, Gaudet Luce are experts at bringing in, and keeping, golfers. Owner Alec Fernihough tells Steve Carroll how the West Midlands club do it...

“Of our membership, 70 per cent have not been a member at a different course” ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

have put into their programme has not only enticed people to try the game – at what they perceive to be a welcoming club – but it’s kept them there as well.

They’ve picked up juniors, through their professionals coaching at local schools and from on-site tuition that sees more than 150 children descend every week.

They’ve picked up adults, wives of members and couples, which Fernihough quipped “means you have to do a good job – otherwise you lose two members instead of one”.

New players receive a short introduction course and discounted fees while they hone their skills in a structured programme that uses the academy, par 3 and full course.

The aim is to ease people into membership before they find the option that’s right for them.

Fernihough said:“From our point of view, it’s simply about getting people on the golf course and enjoying the feeling of hitting a good shot. All of us are capable of doing that.

“Of our membership, 70 per cent have not been a member at a different golf course.

“They’ve either come to us – we’re the youngest site in the county – through our membership scheme or they’ve joined because we’ve got a type of membership that allows them to join a golf club.

“Quite a lot of our members are used to being in a different environment to what people

over the years thought of as the archetypal golf club, which is a middle-class, middle-aged, white male domain.

“We are in a people industry and golf has to accept and understand that. It’s a route we continuously look at and tweak every once in a while.

“The introduction of flexible memberships has also helped.

Even with traditional memberships, we have been pretty flexible over the years.

“We have got a number of different options just on a traditional membership.”

From a membership total that was around the high 400s in 2012, the club peaked at the back end of last year with nearly 1,000.

Keeping members involved has helped to drop the attrition rate, as has accepting that many customers don’t necessarily join a club to enter competitions.

“We try and keep it as fun as possible and as social as possible.

The people who tend to run golf clubs tend to be competitive golfers. They tend to be private members’ clubs on committees and run the club in that way.

“Nowadays people – certainly our members – aren’t necessarily hugely looking for as much competitive golf. There’s a small competitive element in there but it’s a case of making it as fun as possible. We are a people industry and people are social animals. Golf, although it is a sport, is a vehicle for social interaction.”

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ADVERTORIAL FEATURE

Suppliers Guide

LOVE GOLF Love Golf Memberships provide members with greater choice, value and flexibility

S

pring is just around the corner and golf clubs are teeing up for the start of a busy new season.

Club managers are approaching their busiest time and having to turn their hand to a broad range of activities, from membership renewals, course management, health and safety, data compliance, bar and restaurant management to name a few.

At LGM we understand the modern day club manager is under pressure to be an expert in all of the above and to not only prevent membership decline, but to also increase it!

With this as our priority we have brought to the market four innovative golf packages. These target golfers who have decided that a traditional membership does not suit their needs. These are: Flexible Membership…. Ideal for the golfer who plays fairly frequently but not often enough to gain value from a full traditional membership.

Multi-Course Memberships….

Provide golfers with the flexibility to play a total of 60 rounds per year split evenly between up to four courses of their choice.

Family Membership….. Designed to allow families to play and enjoy

50 | GCMA.ORG.UK

time together.

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You can select one or all of the packages to maximise your income. The good news doesn’t end there.

We can help drive up your membership by working in partnership with you and your club.

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LGM packages match the modern day golfers’ expectations.

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To register your golf club’s interest please visit: www.lovegolfmemberships.com For more information, email info@lovegolfmemberships.co.uk or telephone Chris Clarke (Company Director) on 07480 769809.

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

LT HEEA D WAY

G RO W THE GAME MA X I M I S E Y OU R P OTENTIA L lovegolfmemberships.co.uk For an informal chat about how LGM can help your club, contact:

Chris Clarke, Director: 07480769809

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

The case for

FLEXIBLE MEMBERSHIPS

T

hey have been both hailed and derided.

They are a vital source of income for some, and symptomatic of the continuing ‘race to the bottom’ for others.

We can only be talking about flexible membership schemes.

Even the term itself is apt, with the myriad options clubs and companies have come up with to offer alternatives to traditional five and seven-day options.

One such flexible membership

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package is offered by Play More Golf, who are working with dozens of clubs around the UK to provide a scheme that’s designed to sit around existing membership options.

We put some of the key questions about flexible membership and the PlayMoreGolf project to director Jamie Carroll…

How does Play More Golf work?

A player pays £325 for a 12-month membership at their designated home club. That gives them

100 points. They can be used at their home club but 20 of those can also be used at other (PlayMoreGolf affiliated) clubs across the UK. So if I joined Reddish Vale, all my member benefits are there but I can go and use (some of) my points at Fairfield Golf Club, which is five miles around the corner.

If I join on February 1 and use all my points by September 1, my renewal date is still February 1, 2019.

If I didn’t play any winter golf, that’s fine. I can just renew in

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Those who don’t offer lifestyle tailored packages to members are missing out on vital revenue, reckons Jamie Carroll. The PlayMoreGolf director outlines why his scheme can help your club…

February or I can add multiples of 20 points to my account to take me up to my renewal date. That’s £65 for each 20 points.

I could also renew at that time and my renewal date would then be September 1, 2019.

All different options are applicable to the member based on what their playing behaviour is like. It is totally up to them what they want to do.

The number of points per round (it costs) varies depending on when you play. A huge benefit for the golf club is that they get to set the points tariff per round – with some guidance from us.

(As a customer) I join online, I book online, I renew online and I top up online. I refer my friend online. It’s online administrated, so think online banking but for your golf membership.

People want things in real time so, if I want to join a club, I can do it now and it will take two minutes.

Then I can make a booking for that afternoon, and my points will come off automatically.

They get a membership that’s shaped for them. We have a lot of members who don’t use all their points throughout the year. If I’ve still got 50 points left at my home club (when it’s time to renew) I get to keep them next year – as long as I renew again.

What are the benefits to golf clubs?

They get to shape it according to their needs. Certain clubs have dip

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times on their tee sheet they want to fill. Instead of having to rely on selling green fees at £15, they get to have guaranteed contracted membership revenue, which we then help provide them by finding these people.

What does a PlayMoreGolf member looks like? On average they are 44-years-of-age and somewhere between 12 and 17 years younger than an average traditional member.

They only use between 50 and 55 per cent of their points per year. They play 65% of their golf at perceived off-peak times, which is spring and summer after 3pm and after 12pm in the autumn and winter.

That’s because the golf club get to make it more attractive for their points tariff. They get to yield their tee sheet. 81% of people stay on an annual basis – even though they only use half their points. That’s because when they renew they get to keep what they haven’t used.

That means, on average, they play between eight and 12 rounds a year.

The value per round sits between

“A lot of golf clubs are tentative to introduce a flexible scheme because they don’t know how to administrate it. That’s where we come in”

£24 and £28. For a five-day member, paying £600 a year and playing twice a week – so 100 rounds of golf a year – the average value per round is £6 to that golf club.

The flexible value per round is somewhere between £24 and £28. In some circumstances, it is significantly higher than that because people join and don’t necessarily use all their points.

Let’s say an average member round is £12, because they play even more frequently, and a pay and play customer might pay £15 a round on average yield.

We are trying to encourage the clubs to fill that gap between their pay-and-play business – which will always remain there – and their full membership.

A lot of golf clubs are a bit tentative to introduce a flexible scheme because they don’t know how to administrate it.

That’s a big risk for them so that’s where we’d come in. Everything is administrated for them so they don’t have to worry about sending out renewal letters, because it is all done online and we do it for them.

They don’t have to worry about booking windows.

Clubs are concerned this encourages players away from traditional forms of membership…

The transfer of members from a full category to a flexible scheme is only between 0.4 and 2.5% of full members.

In the worst-case scenario, on

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“Golf clubs wouldn’t work with us if we just migrated 25% of their full members because it is not profitable for them. It’s really important that it is set up properly”

Studley Wood are one of the clubs using PlayMoreGolf

a membership base of 500 full members, you are talking about 13 people transferring across on an annual basis.

We are time-constrained. Is that where flexible schemes, however they are operated, come into their own?

Exactly. Golf clubs wouldn’t work with us if we just migrated 25% of their full members because it is not profitable for them. It’s really important that it is set up properly and what we give golf clubs is comfort that people aren’t going to behave like a full member on a flexible membership category.

That is always their main worry.

I have visited lots of golf clubs that have said ‘we put in a flexible membership category two years ago. We’ve got 60 members. Do you think it’s successful?’

I say ‘how many of those 60 members were full members?’

‘Probably about 40 of them’.

Well it hasn’t worked. They are worse off.

So this scheme sits with existing

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memberships…

It does. What we see now with clubs is that it’s an average between eight and 10 joiners a month, which is still pretty good value for a club and it’s manageable.

A lot of clubs get a bit scared if you talk about 30 joiners or new members. We say that six members, per club, per month, over a three year period and retaining 80 per cent of them, is worth £92,000 of profit.

It’s just an added revenue line.

They don’t have to rely on the sun shining. It secures their revenue and waterproofs their business a little bit.

The membership drain for golf clubs is a real issue. Managing churn is very important…

What golf clubs have a habit of sometimes doing is that if they lose 50 members on April 1, they will go back to that same group of people two months later with the same offering.

If someone has left and they haven’t seen the value for that

period of time, they are probably not going to take it up again.

There’s a small group of people that want something a bit different.

I remember reading an article saying that UK membership is down by 25%. It’s probably somewhere between 18 and 20% but that’s still a huge number.

Somewhere there’s hundreds of thousands of golfers who have left golf club membership over the last 20 years and haven’t rejoined a club.

We are thoroughly in the camp that people leave golf clubs through gritted teeth, because they probably feel they are letting their pals down and their golf club down.

They disappear into the abyss of pay and play golfers, never to be seen again – unless something gets in the way to get them to come back.

It’s an evolving process but the more clubs we work with, the more golfers we can bring back.

For more information, visit playmore.golf

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CASE STUDY

HOUGHWOOD

Peter Turner, owner of Houghwood, in Merseyside, outlines why his club are benefiting from working with PlayMoreGolf…

“We were beginning to have concerns that we had a lack of 30 to 40-yearold members. We looked at ways of recruiting that type of member and then I came across PlayMoreGolf.

“I played with one of the sales guys in a golf day. He came to see me and we decided to give it a 12-month trial.

“With the help of their marketing, it has worked very well for us.

Our current level of PlayMoreGolf members is about 118.

“That, like all membership these days, is very migratory. We’ve lost some during the winter but we picked up nine in January.

“It’s affordable for them. At £325, it

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isn’t a family decision. They can make a decision on their own.You get some people, who are existing members, who see it as a way of cheating the system but we put checks in place to stop that happening – by limiting the amount of major competitions they can play in.

“So if it is a serious golfer, who wants to play on Saturday morning, he can’t pay his membership in three instalments.

“The average age of those members is around 30 to 45-years-old. They wouldn’t be here otherwise, and it has helped us retain members – people who would have left have stayed with us for 12 months and then come back.

It’s helped retain membership that way.

“We are in control of it. The interface is compatible with intelligentgolf and,

when a member plays, the points are controlled automatically through the system.

“We don’t have to worry about the points balance being incorrect.

“We’ve got 460 other members – full, weekday, juniors, ladies.

“It doesn’t fill the gap that was lost through not having joining fees these days – we used to get nearly £700 to £800 in joining fees and that’s gone.

“But it’s an additional revenue stream and we are continuing with the scheme.

“We’ve just got a new personal representative from PlayMoreGolf. He’s very good and the different marketing initiatives that he has set up since Christmas have worked well. He rings every week for an update.

“They pay on time. It’s accurate and I’ve no complaints.”

GCMA.ORG.UK | 55

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

Meet the

ASSOCIATES Flexible membership doesn’t just have to be about points. At Reddish Vale, a scheme that sounds a bit more traditional has had a big impact…

Reddish Vale sits in some glorious countryside

W

hether it’s credits or points, flexible membership has taken off as clubs try to

bolster numbers.

With lifestyle changes preventing some from spending lots of their leisure time on a golf course, managers have to get increasingly creative in a bid to bring in new blood. Many have teamed up with companies that manage the flexible part of their memberships

56 | GCMA.ORG.UK

for them. Reddish Vale work with Play More Golf, but the Cheshire club also run their own successful associate membership scheme.

With a low cost outlay, the club have bolstered their numbers by more than 50 since the scheme was first introduced four years ago.

We caught up with manager Dave Sanders to find out why it has been such a success…

What made Reddish Vale look at a flexible membership scheme?

The modern young person has a

lot of pressures with work, partners and families.

In my previous life, I played rugby for 20-odd years. I was training most days and playing rugby and I also worked. My wife got on with bringing up the family.

Things are different now. There are many more pressures so the normal membership - of paying £1,000 a year, playing on Saturday and Sunday, nipping in a couple of evenings a week and getting a game in around work – just doesn’t work for some people.

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We looked at this and thought ‘how do we get these people in?’

Once you get them in, get bums on seats, you’ve always got the chance of converting them to full membership. We had a look round and there were one or two clubs in the area that offered these schemes. We took what we liked from them and set up our own.

We call it associate membership.

You pay £65 a year and, on top of that, there’s a bar levy, County levy and insurance liability of £3. So it comes to just over £100. That offers you membership of Reddish Vale.

It doesn’t allow you to play in the Saturday or midweek competitions but we have been running Stablefords on Sundays and Bank Holidays and it does allow you to play in those.

Provided you play in the required number of qualifiers, we can set up and maintain a CONGU handicap.

Every time an associate member turns up to play, they pay a green fee. It’s basically the members’ signed in rate. We’ve currently got 52 associate members, who are paying us £100 a year. They pay their reduced green fee on an ongoing basis. They tend to bring guests with them, who subsequently join as associate members, and we get some spend at the bar.

So these are people who might

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not have otherwise been a member?

The vast majority of them – 80 to 90 per cent – will never take on traditional membership. It just doesn’t suit their lifestyle. So they have two choices – having a flexible plan, or not.

“The vast majority of them - 80 to 90 per cent - will never take on traditional membership. It doesn’t suit their lifestyle” I think for a traditional club like ourselves, and there are something like 17 golf clubs within a four mile radius of us, it can make the difference. This brings in, with the bar spend, around £10,000 to £15,000 a year. That’s vital money in this tough environment. If all of a sudden we lost that, and the potential pipeline for traditional membership that it brings with it, then we would be struggling.

membership. He was a member at another local club that unfortunately, doesn’t weather very well in the winter.

He played the course a couple of times in the summer and came in to have a chat. He wants full membership but his son is a total beginner and he doesn’t want to be paying a load of money in case he doesn’t take to it.

He said ‘what else have you got?’

I told him about the associate membership and he said that would be right up his street.

If his lad comes in as an associate and, after six months he’s really taken to it, we can uplift him. It’s just something in my armoury that I can tempt people with.

At £65, it’s affordable. If it is two or three hundred quid, people might just think about it.

It really does work very well for us.

It also allows people to put a foot in the door to see if a more traditional membership might be for them…

I had a guy in to discuss

GCMA.ORG.UK | 57

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ith club managers under increasing time constraints, and the demands of members and customers getting

58 | GCMA.ORG.UK

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

announced the release of Quick Event Setup, a new feature that streamlines the steps to create simple single-round games.

Users wanted an easy way to set up the smaller games common at clubs and courses and Quick Event Setup allows golf staff to enter the minimal information required and quickly generate scorecards and printed materials.

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GCMA.ORG.UK | 59

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

From the

REGIONS EAST MIDLANDS AGM The East Midlands region anticipated starting the year with a bang, having arranged an AGM along with three business meetings and a further winter seminar.

Some top class speakers were lined up to update on GDPR, golf tourism, the 2019 rules update and other relevant industry topics.

Due to a lack of numbers, the winter meeting at John Deere was cancelled. The venue, in past years, had been very popular and well attended.

Regional manager Rod Savage said it was very frustrating, when a lot of time and effort had been put into the presentations, to hear the reasons from members for nonattendance.

The AGM went ahead as scheduled and Ron Beckett was elected as captain with Paul Thornton his vice captain.

Members Andrew Mee and David Dalby were elected to the region’s steering group.

The region’s balance sheet was in a very healthy state considering the costs involved for Conference and to bring Lodewijk Klootwijk to the winter meeting.

The region thanked their sponsors and partners for their financial assistance in keeping them afloat. Attendance was less than previous years with only seven secretary/managers and

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nine retired members attending.

That was said to be “very disappointing”.

Next up is the Spring Meeting on April 26, where Andrew Cooke will deliver the main presentation on Golf Tourism in the UK, having given a similar presentation at Conference last year.

Later in the year, Nick Solski, of Boomers and Swingers, will be speaking.

Nick has experience of working in Russia and claims to have taught Roman Abramovich. He will also be talking about how he attracts people to his driving range in Manchester. It is hoped more members will make the effort to attend our regional meetings this year.

The region also notes the continuing development at member club The Nottinghamshire Golf & Country Club. Over the past couple of years, they have invested huge sums of money and have completed a clubhouse refurbishment programme, improvement of the two 18-hole courses and driving range.

They have also built a boutique hotel, with 12 further bedrooms in the pipeline this year. The banqueting suites are fully booked for the next year with wedding receptions and residential golf breaks have also been added to their portfolio. It is very pleasing to hear that, in these hard times, a club is doing so well.

Regional Managers Full details at gcma.org.uk/ regions Chiltern & Home Counties

Martin Bennet East Anglia

Gary Smith East Midlands

Rod Savage London & Home Counties

Maureen Brooker Midland

Rob Wormstone Norfolk

John Barnard North West

Neil Annandale Northern

Terry Minett Northern Ireland

Jim Cullen Scotland

Bernard Flockhart South East

John Edgington South West

Karen Drake Southern

Paul Gaylor Wales

Mike Rees Wessex

Alex Taylor Yorkshire

Cameron Dawson

GCMA.ORG.UK | 61

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

Meet the

MANAGER

Sponsor of the 2017 GCMA Manager of the Year award

Marie Taylor talks to Clint Whittaker, club secretary at Surbiton in Surrey

Surbiton

H

ow did you get into golf club management?

I worked in sales in the leisure industry when I moved over from New Zealand. Crown Golf were recruiting sales consultants in 2004 and they gave me my first club to run in 2005. Over the next 10 years I managed five clubs and then moved to private member clubs with secretary roles at West

62 | GCMA.ORG.UK

Byfleet and now Surbiton.

What are the challenges?

The biggest challenge is the balancing act between the need to operate the club as a business while trying to stay true to the traditional nature and culture of a well established private member club.

We’ve invested in our personnel, course and equipment in order to deliver the best experience to

members and visitors. To make investments, though, we need to explore multiple revenue streams which means we can keep members subscriptions realistic and in line with similar clubs in the local area. Sometimes these alternative revenue streams don’t sit well with the more ‘traditional’ members. It’s an education process.

Generating new members is a challenge. Surbiton sits in a saturated local market. There

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are at least 21 golf clubs within a 20-minute drive.

The club rightfully maintains an entrance fee. It’s an investment into the club from a new member, who will, in return, have that money invested into the course.

With a recent shift of clubs moving away from entrance fees, we’re finding more prospective members opting for quick win deals at other clubs.

By staying true to our resolve, we are finding those that do join are committed to the club for the long term. Thankfully, with recent course improvement projects, we have a steady stream of interest through our member referral campaigns and we are working on some digital marketing initiatives which will help to attract prospective members from the surrounding areas.

What part of your role do you enjoy the most?

It’s a great office job! The ability to put the pen and paper down and go out and talk to a range of different members from different backgrounds and experiences is refreshing.

Our members like a bit of banter and they like to see their secretary out and about.

Although you need to have thick skin to manage a club, if you are keeping the majority of the membership happy then you know you are on the right track.

We have two very forward thinking committees which is half

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the battle.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?

Always understand where the line is between staff and members and staff and you.

“By staying true to our resolve, we are finding those that do join are committed to the club for the long term”

Clint Whittaker

Sometimes it’s lonely at the top but for good reason.

Respect is important, and banter is great for morale, but keeping clear boundaries is paramount.

Understand you’ll never please everyone!

What’s your proudest achievement in golf?

Getting to where I am today. I learned and saw a lot about golf during my time working in the commercial sector.

Being able to succeed there and then transfer those skills into private member clubs has been great.

Where do you see the role of a club manager in 20 years’ time?

There will still be those clubs where the traditional secretary role will prevail. Most, however, will need to move towards more business-minded skill sets.

We’ll need to be marketing savvy and experts in almost all areas of the business. My ambition is to make members think of Surbiton not just as a place to come and play golf but as a destination location. I want members to think about SGC when they consider going out for a meal or just a social drink.

Currently, once the course is shut then the club is shut.

Everything I’m currently working on is trying to push the club closer to that goal.

We’re investing in a new patio and lounge refurb and we’ve got some good F&B staff now on board, so we’re heading in the right direction.

Get In Touch To contact Surbiton, visit surbito ngolfclub.com

GCMA.ORG.UK | 63

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

My success story...

ROB MCGUIRK Steeped in history, Prince’s have held the oldest major of all. The club are constantly improving and embarked on a huge renovation to their Himalayas nine, as general manager Rob McGuirk tells Steve Carroll

T

HERE’S something about the Kent coast that makes for wonderful links golf and Prince’s is a club that more than lives up to the billing.

A final qualifying venue for the Open, the Sandwich course hosted the big one in 1932 and, fittingly, it was a giant of the game – Gene Sarazen – who claimed the Claret Jug. Majors may have moved on for the time being, but Prince’s continues to hold the game’s biggest events – co-hosting the Amateur Championship only last year.

The family-owned proprietary club is already lauded for the Shore and Dunes courses and, over the last year, embarked on a huge project to transform the Himalayas nine.

The fruits of that labour, which saw Prince’s entrust venerable architect Martin Ebert with the task, will soon be open to all when the re-designed layout is officially unveiled in May. The Himalayas is a loop that is popular with members but, as general manager Rob McGuirk explained, visitors weren’t taking the bait.

64 | GCMA.ORG.UK

“Every time people came to play here they were saying ‘I don’t want to play a little course out the back’,” he said.

“That’s the feedback we kept getting. Even though we all knew how good it was, that is all anyone would ever say to us.

“The members absolutely loved it because of the way it works out with playing loops of three, five, seven or nine. So they play it a lot.

“But visitors just didn’t want to play it. We got to the stage where people said ‘if I have to pay the Himalayas I don’t want to pay this for it’.

“We thought we could make it better than the Shore or Dunes, though, but we’d need to have a proper plan in place to do it and to pay the money for the best architect.”

Ebert came in and proposed a

“It was to take the Himalayas to championship standard like the rest of the 18 and they (members) took to it very well”

set of changes “to make it really special”.

Among them was a new signature par 3, the 5th, which plays towards the sea, and a penultimate hole that was to become a driveable par 4.

McGuirk added:“We invited all the members to come along for an evening with Martin.

“He showed them historical images of how the course used to look and he went through how we were going to reintroduce all these old features, take a lot of trees out that weren’t there in the past, and upgrade parts of it to make you think your way round it a bit more.

“It was to take the Himalayas to championship standard like the rest of the 18 and they (members) took to it very well.

“They have been very excited

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Construction work on the new 5th

by it. Being a proprietary club, we’re investing all the money and they are getting all the benefit so they’ve rolled with us and now they can’t wait for it to be open.”

The bulk of the work was undertaken through some of the busiest times in Prince’s calendar.

With lots of visiting parties passing through in August, September and October, there was the potential for major disruption.

But McGuirk revealed that honest marketing and some future incentives were key in helping the club come through unscathed.

“Anyone who was on a stay and play package, we tried to only get them on Himalayas once,” he explained.

“We explained to them what we were trying to do, showed them the plans, what we were trying to achieve, and 95 per cent of the

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people really enjoyed it.

“The fairways were exactly the same, the bunkers were still in play as were the greens.

“Nothing really changed but we had work going on either side of them. It was disruptive.

“If people were here on a day package, we’d only charge them an 18-hole rate and they’d play Himalayas for free.

“So we managed to put a positive spin on it – ‘this is our biggest undertaking since the 1950s and it’s going to be great when it comes back and next year we can look after you with rates’.

“That’s the way we managed it and the guys in the shop were very good and on point with it.”

In fact the project has been such a huge success that it has brought an unexpected consequence.

“It’s (Himalayas) actually better

than the Shore and Dunes.

“We’ve now started doing the Shore and Dunes (bunkers) for final qualifying.

“We’ve actually kept the contractors on to do those for us.”

McGuirk added:“In time, we’ve got plans to do the Shore and Dunes and we’ve got plans for a par 3 course next to the Lodge.

“We want to be the best 27-hole resort in the country.

“Now we’re really excited and looking forward to people playing the Himalayas.”

We want to hear all about the success stories at your club.

Get in touch by emailing s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk

GCMA.ORG.UK | 65

GCMA | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | EDUCATION | REGIONAL

January 2018

STATS UK&I 5,842 2,215

Total competitions recorded

GENTS:

4,027

LADIES:

1,815

Hole-in-ones in qualifying events throughout 2017

36 Hole-in-ones made in qualifying events during January

LOWEST EXACT HANDICAP

Gents

Ladies

-5.4 -5.3 22,082 total HowDidiDo Order of Merit sign ups for 2018

148,865 total rounds of golf recorded

1,362 eagles

66 | GCMA.ORG.UK

53,243 birdies

470,851

Stats provided by HowdidIdo.com

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

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