Are TANDOORI members of golf courses killing the game of golf or are they helping it survive? I say, they are helping it survive… but for how long!
TAM Sports report shows that there are over 70 million viewers on Television who follow Golf in India. The definition of ‘Follow’ is when a viewer watches a golf program for over 5 minutes in continuation. I would like to take a very pessimistic number of only 10% which is 7 million unique are genuine followers of this game.
The golf governing bodies like the Indian Golf Union say that we need more courses in the country for the game to grow. The total number of Golf courses which are worth counting are about 150 in India. Out of these 150 golf courses, all most 80 courses are under the defence and another 70 courses are run by Civil societies/ Governing bodies/Government. Each of these courses has an average of 3000 members. Interestingly, on an average only 20% of these members play golf. Rest of the 80% of these members ONLY use the golf club for socialising and F&B. Therefore, based on these numbers the golf course and its maintenance is actually surviving on the billing of the F&B. And because of the difference, 80% of the members are paying for the maintenance of the golf course so that 20% of the members can play all most every day for not more than Rs.1000 for the whole month. Please note: on an average an 18 hole golf course can accommodate over 300 golfers every day.
Here is purely my suggestion as a golfer. All golf courses should offer 3 types of memberships.
· One should be a FULL membership which includes playing on the Golf Course.
· Second type of membership should be for the club which has F&B and other facilities like swimming pool etc is available.
· And Third should be for Playing on the Golf Course only. (Like we have it as in SriFort complex)
Costs of each can be managed in such a way that a GOLF playing member should be atleast paying 10% of the Green fee charges each time he plays. In a nutshell, if I am a member of a Golf Course and I pay Rs. 1000 per month for unlimited rounds, I should now be paying atleast Rs. 100 per round. A golf course is like an Aircraft, its upto the management who will pay for the travellers who FLY free every day in the whole month. This suggestion has clear advantages:
· More members can be accommodated for the game of Golf.
· Non-playing golfers will not need to pay for the Golf course.
· Remove the baseless concept of “All members play unlimited rounds” even if you are only 20% golfers.
· Justifies the randomly made green fee rate at each course.
I would also like to share some world statics: 78% of golfers in the UK are NOT members of any golf course. They prefer to Pay-Play as it gives them freedom to play on a different course. 70% of golf courses in the USA are public golf courses with similar above concept.
