More than 80 per cent of you say your golf club membership fees have risen over the last 12 months – and many of you expect them to increase again.
But most of you will still renew this year, even though course condition, value, and the expectation of further fee increases are tempting some to consider packing in.
These are two of the main findings from our annual NCG Club Golf Survey, which quizzed you on how and when you played your golf.
We sent out the questionnaire, filled in by more than 1,000 players, through our daily email newsletter and across our social media channels.
It showed many of you are extremely committed players, with nearly 80% having played golf for more than 20 years and 60% having been club members for that period.
Most of you who responded were over 55, and over 90% male. We asked you a series of questions on fees, value, expectations and loyalty.
Asked if your membership subscriptions had gone up in the past 12 months, 84.8% of you said they had – with a hike of between five and nine per cent the biggest single increase reported.
Just under 80 per cent of you expected your subs to increase again this year.
But despite those hikes, and pressures from cost-of-living that have been widely reported, over 77% said you were ‘very likely’ to renew and a further 10% reported you would ‘likely’ sign up once again.
Some 14% of you revealed you had either briefly or seriously considered leaving your club to go nomadic or join an independent golfer scheme.
The threat of further fee increases, better value elsewhere, course condition and reduced use were cited as some of the myriad reasons for potentially seeking pastures new.
Our survey also showed:
- Course access (70.6%), handicaps and competitions (57.5%), course condition (44.2%) and community (41.4%) were what you most valued about being a golf club member
- Course quality (74.8%), location (70.5%) and cost (54.3%) were what would matter most if you ever were to move clubs
- More than 90% of you said golf club membership either offered value for money (yes, 59.2%) or was somewhat value for money (31.5%). Only 7.4% felt it did not not offer value.
What is our verdict on the NCG club golf survey findings?
Our survey shows we’re still in a good place – and we discussed this on an episode of The NCG Golf Podcast. Members are loyal and believe their golf club membership offers value.
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It’s no surprise, in an era of rising costs and services, that fees have gone up and are expected to increase again in 2026.
But for many, that won’t stop you from committing to your club for another 12 months – and more than three quarters of you indicated in our that you were very likely to renew.
Participation remains incredibly high and the latest membership figures from Scotland suggest golf is still booming. There’s no reason why the other home nations won’t report similar successes.
And yet there should not be room for complacency. 14% of you admitted you have at least giving thought to leaving a club and playing nomadic golf or joining a handicap scheme.
That’s very different to doing it, of course. So why might that figure cause any concern?
It’s because you are the core of membership. You are not once-a-month, get a bit of exercise, players. You are golfers who have been embedded within your clubs for more than two decades in many cases. Golf isn’t a hobby for you, it’s an essential part of life.
There are other narratives around climate change, especially around water resources and irrigation costs, that are only likely to increase financial pressures on clubs in the future.
There are also increasing demands to release land for housing, with golf courses often cited as an inefficient and exclusive way of using space.
So we can’t rest on our laurels. Golf needs to continue to be as competitively priced as possible – difficult in an industry which has high costs just to get the doors open – and members and customers need to feel their demands and concerns are being met.
Investing in the quality of the golf course will always be the number one priority and while the narrative from the pre-Covid era of doom and stagnation has definitely shifted, there still needs to be evolution in the product of traditional golf club membership.
We remain on a journey to move players from ranges and simulators into clubs. There is still a lot of work needed to increase female representation within golf club membership and clubs still need to carry on the journey to ensure they keep retaining members and bringing in new ones.
Now listen to The NCG Golf Podcast
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Have your say
What do you think about the results of our golf club survey? Let us know in the comments below, email me at s.carroll@nationalclubgolfer.com, or get in touch on X.
The headline image in this article was made using A.I.
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