Golf societies, bane of the club member but the financial elixir for sundry golf clubs. It's a matter of perspective. For those who preside over the new and the old, the elite and the more modest golf clubs, the revenue from society golf can offer the wherewithal to expand and develop a course or clubhouse and copperfasten a club's evolution.
In the golfing terrain of the ambitious, the green fee is king. Revenue generated from memberships will no longer suffice to retain a niche in the competitive end of the market. Corporate golf, society golf or golf tourism are required to supplement the income from members' annual subscriptions. This is quite apart from those clubs with small memberships who rely even more heavily on the visitor.
Corporate golf is no longer the exclusive preserve of the country's top courses. More and more business is being conducted on courses and in clubhouses, at all levels of the business community. This fact is recognised by what would traditionally have been considered as private members clubs who are now aggressively chasing the corporate sector.
While golf courts the business world and vice versa, and golf tourism continues to grow apace, a survey of several clubs within Ireland demonstrates that societies still provide a hefty slice of a club's income.
The expanding choice in sheer number of clubs available to societies ensures a buyer's market. It guarantees the "product" must be good because the choice is wide-ranging. Ireland's current financial climate is also reflected in the choice societies make when they compile their fixtures schedule. The name clubs - Ballybunion, Royal Portrush, Portmarnock, Royal County Down, the K Club, Druid's Glen, Mount Juliet, The European Club, Fota Island, the Old Head (more corporate than society) and County Louth - are cropping up more regularly.
Once considered untouchable for many society golfers, price is no longer a deterrent as societies try to include at least one of the elite courses on their annual schedule.
There are just under 1,200 golf societies registered with the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI). It should be pointed out that a society need not register with the GUI, but in negotiating with clubs they would tend to elicit a preferential hearing if they have been registered with amateur golf's governing body.
As far as the GUI is concerned, the registration of societies is not a regulatory matter, more a service to their constituent clubs. They furnish the clubs with a list of registered societies and depending on the golf club in question it may send out offers to some of the local groups. In scratching the surface of the society sector, it is possible to discern a pyramid style structure.
About half, 600 or so, would spend an average of £25£30 for an outing: it would include a snack or light meal. Another 400 or so would probably have a benchmark of between £40 and £45, while there is a minority of societies for whom the price is no object.
Royal Portrush boast an ideal situation: they are able to cater for their members while at the same time providing corporate, society and golf for non-nationals, the latter category generating about 70 per cent of revenue.
The fact that the club offers two courses, the Dunluce championship links and the much-underrated Valley course, allows greater flexibility. Secretary/manager Wilma Erskine explained: "We wouldn't get many societies looking to play the Dunluce course because there are no group discounts. The £80 sterling (weekdays) and £90 (weekend) apply no matter what size the group.
"In the 26-week season from May to October we would probably get two societies a week playing on the Dunluce course. We would get a lot more corporate golf there."
BUT the Valley course is a different entity, and at £30 sterling (weekdays) and £35 (weekends), that society discount is good value when one considers a meal is included.
On the Valley course, during the same period, about 120 societies, a little under five a week, provide substantial business to the club. Royal Portrush don't advertise for societies, as they receive enough repeat business and golfers making the pilgrimage from Belfast in winter, and have no recourse to selling the "product".
They are also aware that in neighbouring Castlerock and the second course at Portstewart they face tough competition for the society market, hence the rates for the Valley course.
One prominent Dublin club confirmed that about 40 per cent of their total green fee revenue, a little under £150,000, comes from society golf. About 5,000 golfers in this category pass through the club and all are required to dine on the premises.
Juggling the demands of members and generating space on the timesheet to accommodate the green fee traffic would tax Solomon, but not Tom Reid, owner of Glasson Golf Club. He is aware of the need to cater for the members, but as he ventured: "We would only survive for a month if we didn't have a significant number of visitors.
"I'd say 90 per cent of the revenue is down to guest fees, society corporate or the drop in fourballs. I suppose that members in all clubs would view societies as a necessary evil, but to us it is our bread and butter. From the beginning of April to the end of October, if we do not have at least one society per day then there would be questions asked. On Saturday we would occasionally have to accommodate four or five."
One constant theme across each club who responded to the society issue was of the excellent relationships and volume of repeat business: that and the implicit rule: if you book for 40, you pay for 40, no matter how many dead mother-in-laws surface on the day. It ensures clubs don't waste precious tee-times and, by extension, suffer lost revenue.
Fota Island in Cork, home to this year's Irish Open, lumps the corporate and society groupings together and this constitutes about 40 per cent of green fee revenue. Secretary/manager Kevin Mulcahy confirmed: "The corporate would probably generate the majority of business, but we do have a regular flow of society golf and that is very important to us."
A non-negotiable group rate is on offer, divided into three categories: £55: Fri/Sat/Sun; £45: Tue/Wed/Thurs, and finally the opportunity to play an Irish Open course for £35 on a Monday.
Druid's Glen, a former Irish Open venue, would have smallish, if regular society clientele. Denis Kane elaborated: "Society golf would account for about 10 to 15 percent of our turnover. We get very good golfers in general coming here in society outings, most of whom would be members of clubs.
"A growing trend is for us (Druid's Glen) to be included as a final outing on a fixture list, a type of finale to a society season." The society discount is 70 per cent of the normal green fee (£85).
Just down the coast the European Club is another popular venue and owner and architect Pat Ruddy enjoys repeat business in society terms. "It's a controlled situation where we wouldn't have any more than five a week. We have established a pattern of friendships and that is how we would view our societies."
About 90 per cent of the club's business is from overseas. But Ruddy's desire to make his course accessible to native enthusiasts is more than lip service. The normal green fee is £80: societies are charged £35 a head. To avail of that rate, societies must book for a minimum of 24 players and be registered with the GUI.
Many of the private clubs in Dublin would leave some of the aforementioned list in the ha'penny place when it comes to the volume of society golf. Income can very from £125,00£200,000 plus per annum from that sector.
A broadening canvas means that some of the smaller clubs would find it difficult to attract societies. Donal McGillycuddy, owner of Djouce Mountain, a nine-hole layout, explained: "We have spent the last three years rebuilding here and so have not really been in the market place. We have about 230 members and the scope for 300400. Very few societies would want to go to the smaller courses.
"There is more of an emphasis from what I can see in saving up for the £100 round. We would see visitors on a more individual basis. There are many tiers to the society scene, from the top, where they would go to Mount Juliet, Druid's Glen, etc, down through the various tiers that would see them going to Charlesland or Roundwood and so on."
The majority of the established private clubs would probably garner 40 to 50 per cent of their revenue from societies. A smaller number might even rise to 60 per cent, while at the other end of the scale, as was outlined above, it would constitute just 10 per cent of revenue in some of the elite clubs.
Societies seem perfectly capable of adapting to a changing environment and are set to remain a valued aspect of golfing survival outside the membership roster.
