Generally you are entitled to compensation is such circumstances.

Sleep peacefully

And its a perfect case study as to why you have insurance, on yourself. You and your income are the most important asset you have. Peple spend $1000 on car insurance but dont spend it on their future and family security…

There’s many a slip ’tween a cup and a lip.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Can’t insure against that one.

You should have sold before you bought. Schoolboy error there tolmij. I do feel sorry for you though.

My wife and I have been socking away superannuation at a pretty solid rate for the last 20 years in order to pay for our retirement. I am now retired relatively comfortably.

Let me say though that I’m very empathetic to cost of living pressures for pensioners. Many went through life as blue-collar wage earners before things like 9%+ compulsory super gave them any opportunity to really save for retirement.

However from a golf club’s perspective, it is a business. You don’t find Holden, Myer or Bunnings selling their products 50% off for pensioners and making a loss. Golf Clubs are not government departments that have to conform to some CPI limitation on their fees. They need to charge what it costs to run the club.

If we have 300 members on a $400 standard membership rate, and 150 went on to a seniors 50% discount, the club would lose $30,000 per year in income. We’d then need to get an extra 75 full or 150 senior members (a near impossibility) or charge the other members an extra $100 per year, to make up the difference, whereupon 50 would probably leave immediately. Other clubs in the area who have installed a seniors’ rate are a long way from closing the gap they’ve created for themselves.

Also, a senior’s rate at a golf club can be very inequitable. Why should a retiree over, say, 65 or 70 get a discount on membership, just because of their age, while a parent with two kids and a mortgage pays the full rate? Why should you get an automatic discount just because of age … what about a member who is over 70 but has a million or more dollars for retirement? Is a seniors discount justified for him/her?

Retirees are also the heaviest users of the course, but some want to be the lightest payers. They get their golf extraordinarily cheap on a per-round basis. If ‘user-pays’ was the dominant fiscal imperative, they’d be paying twice as much, not half as much.

PS. Our clubhouse has free internet for members, so if seniors like, they can do their e-mail and stuff before or after they’ve played golf.

Excellent points Publish.

Well said Publish. I especially like the mention of a “user pays” idea, although from personal experience I would warn anyone about raising this idea at their clubs’ AGM!!!

That is exactly what I did some years ago when it was obvious that things were starting to head in the direction we now find ourselves in.

My suggestion at the time was to freeze the annual subs at a point about half what they were, then charge all members a green fee of $30 – $40 for each round they played. So the more you played, the more you paid, which I thought was a fairer way of raising the revenue required to operate the club.

The hostility with which this suggestion met had to be heard to be believed. The greatest culprits were the retired guys, many of whom were on reduced 5 Day memberships, but who played 4 or more rounds each week.

In the end the idea found little support due largely to the noise of the older brigade who packed the meeting.

What has happened since is exactly what I said at the time would occur, namely that subs would continue to rise to the point that many members would be forced to resign.

It wasn’t that long ago that full 7 Day subs at this club were just a little over $1K per year, now they are around $3k+ and it won’t be too many more years until they’re over $5K. How many people will be prepared to fork out that sort of money and what will happen to many traditional clubs? Lets think!!!

Generally you are entitled to compensation is such circumstances.

Sleep peacefully

And its a perfect case study as to why you have insurance, on yourself. You and your income are the most important asset you have. Peple spend $1000 on car insurance but dont spend it on their future and family security…

There’s many a slip ’tween a cup and a lip.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Can’t insure against that one.

1ST RESERVE MODERATOR.( complimentary )
Recruited by madam, 10th December 2011 09:52.( when inebriated )

Troll inspector.( to make sure no one is better)

Gymnast, specialty double backflip.

Optional extra, speak with forked tounge

But you can against injury and ensure your debts are covered in case you can no longer work.

You should have sold before you bought. Schoolboy error there tolmij. I do feel sorry for you though.

Yes an all too common error and yes I feel for him too. As a general comment most people make the biggest decisions in their life and have little qualified advice around it.

Generally you are entitled to compensation is such circumstances.

Sleep peacefully

And its a perfect case study as to why you have insurance, on yourself. You and your income are the most important asset you have. Peple spend $1000 on car insurance but dont spend it on their future and family security…

There’s many a slip ’tween a cup and a lip.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Classic risk planner’s pitch! Lol.
Next question, when was the last time you reviewed your position depth?

The pay for use idea is an interesting one. I always find it interesting that I play with a lot of retired people who play at least twice but often 3 or 4 days per week, and I am paying the highest price membership for the privilege of playing one day per week. I understand that is the business model and I don’t have any problem with it, but if my club started talking seriously about reducing the cost to veterans (and by implication raising the cost for me) I would get pretty narky.

Fortunately, my club is full of retired people, so it’s not going to happen any time soon.

Ultimately it is a matter of finding a balance between the various considerations and weighing up what you need. One example that I find a good idea at my club is that they have a social membership for about $11 per year. When I made the decision to join, it gave me good reassurance that if I couldn’t afford the membership for a particular year, I could drop back to social with minimal expense, and preserve my years of membership and other benefits including not having to pay another entry fee for rejoining.

In our case the social membership entitles people to use the bistro, bar, function rooms and the pokies (another revenue raiser) – a lot of the older members who are past playing golf keep their social membership so that they can still come in and have lunch with the golfers after their round – it generates a really good feel around the place.

My wife and I have been socking away superannuation at a pretty solid rate for the last 20 years in order to pay for our retirement. I am now retired relatively comfortably.

Let me say though that I’m very empathetic to cost of living pressures for pensioners. Many went through life as blue-collar wage earners before things like 9%+ compulsory super gave them any opportunity to really save for retirement.

However from a golf club’s perspective, it is a business. You don’t find Holden, Myer or Bunnings selling their products 50% off for pensioners and making a loss. Golf Clubs are not government departments that have to conform to some CPI limitation on their fees. They need to charge what it costs to run the club.

If we have 300 members on a $400 standard membership rate, and 150 went on to a seniors 50% discount, the club would lose $30,000 per year in income. We’d then need to get an extra 75 full or 150 senior members (a near impossibility) or charge the other members an extra $100 per year, to make up the difference, whereupon 50 would probably leave immediately. Other clubs in the area who have installed a seniors’ rate are a long way from closing the gap they’ve created for themselves.

Also, a senior’s rate at a golf club can be very inequitable. Why should a retiree over, say, 65 or 70 get a discount on membership, just because of their age, while a parent with two kids and a mortgage pays the full rate? Why should you get an automatic discount just because of age … what about a member who is over 70 but has a million or more dollars for retirement? Is a seniors discount justified for him/her?

Retirees are also the heaviest users of the course, but some want to be the lightest payers. They get their golf extraordinarily cheap on a per-round basis. If ‘user-pays’ was the dominant fiscal imperative, they’d be paying twice as much, not half as much.

PS. Our clubhouse has free internet for members, so if seniors like, they can do their e-mail and stuff before or after they’ve played golf.

Trentham Golf Club
http://www.trenthamgolf.com.au

I have no problem paying full rate for my golf and indeed I do, the club has recently stopped midweek membership but I have always been a seven day member as that gives me more options. Many of the group I play with used to be mid week members but have continued with the club, it is still cheaper than the extra travel to elsewhere but they will revert if the option is offered. I stay on seven days as I play with my son who is not available during the week, but many of my group now have no ties so weekdays were a better option. As with many more on a pension if something is going I accept it, but I do not consider a discount my right, most of those giving discounts only do so because the product is over priced initially.

Generally you are entitled to compensation is such circumstances.

Sleep peacefully

And its a perfect case study as to why you have insurance, on yourself. You and your income are the most important asset you have. Peple spend $1000 on car insurance but dont spend it on their future and family security…

There’s many a slip ’tween a cup and a lip.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Classic risk planner’s pitch! Lol.
Next question, when was the last time you reviewed your position depth?

Ghetto train – get on it.
Bandit express.

Winner C grade OOM #3 Patterson River.

Are we still talking finance LOL!

You should have sold before you bought. Schoolboy error there tolmij. I do feel sorry for you though.

We tried to but with the boundry changes the houses were overpriced for Ipswich so they did not sell. Decisions are made based on one set of circumstances, when they change as you are half way through you are sometimes left up shit creek. Anyway since moving to where we are, we have budgeted like Scrooge and we are now back on track. Without the hiccups we would have been in clover, but that’s life, you have to take the good with the bad.

Generally you are entitled to compensation is such circumstances.

Sleep peacefully

And its a perfect case study as to why you have insurance, on yourself. You and your income are the most important asset you have. Peple spend $1000 on car insurance but dont spend it on their future and family security…

There’s many a slip ’tween a cup and a lip.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Classic risk planner’s pitch! Lol.
Next question, when was the last time you reviewed your position depth?

Ghetto train – get on it.
Bandit express.

Winner C grade OOM #3 Patterson River.

Are we still talking finance LOL!

There’s many a slip ’tween a cup and a lip.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Unfortunately that’s what golf is all about, where’s the money honey:)

I’m not retired but golf is a definite luxury at this stage in my life. Wife at home with 2 young kids, modest income, modest mortgage, 2 ten year old cars, we live simply and tightly and don’t have much money for hobbies but we do okay.

Golf or any other hobby is a luxury, and one I don’t get to indulge in very often. For me to spend $15 a week for 9 holes is not in the current budget, so I play maybe 2 out of 5 or 6 weeks lately. 18 holes is a rare treat as it involves babysitting with grandparents and more money. I bought all my clubs by selling old stuff I had lying around the house.
What I do spend money on though is income protection insurance, and death and disability cover.

Don’t have money, can’t spend it. It sucks but it’s the life we’ve chosen so our kids have a stay at home parent and I don’t have to work a FIFO job. Being average income worker bees, I doubt I’ll have the funds for 18 holes every week when I retire either or to travel the world flying business class, but at least my short game is slowly improving because chipping and putting practise is free :-)

I’m not retired but golf is a definite luxury at this stage in my life. Wife at home with 2 young kids, modest income, modest mortgage, 2 ten year old cars, we live simply and tightly and don’t have much money for hobbies but we do okay.

Golf or any other hobby is a luxury, and one I don’t get to indulge in very often. For me to spend $15 a week for 9 holes is not in the current budget, so I play maybe 2 out of 5 or 6 weeks lately. 18 holes is a rare treat as it involves babysitting with grandparents and more money. I bought all my clubs by selling old stuff I had lying around the house.
What I do spend money on though is income protection insurance, and death and disability cover.

Don’t have money, can’t spend it. It sucks but it’s the life we’ve chosen so our kids have a stay at home parent and I don’t have to work a FIFO job. Being average income worker bees, I doubt I’ll have the funds for 18 holes every week when I retire either or to travel the world flying business class, but at least my short game is slowly improving because chipping and putting practise is free :-)

I was exactly the same untill I retired, you seem to get a few more options with the kids gone, I only played once a month now with club membership, ours is only $770 a year, I play twice a week. golf carts are out as that would break the budget.

Mububbam this may help solve your babysitting dilemma

http://forums.iseekgolf.com...

How can you afford to go overseas to play golf when you can’t afford comp fees?

He said IF he goes overseas.

Tol we have midweek at Piney see ya there

Have paid up for 6 months at Caboolture, see how it goes. Aparently we now only have half the members we used to have so nothing is certain, I don’t see how they can remain viable. I have spoken to several ppl who used to be members or relatives of ex members and mostly they have no intention of returning so I can’t see where they are going to pick up the members they need.

I still want to try out at Piney but circumstances at home make it difficult. I don’t want to be too far away untill my wife’s medical condition is stable. last year she had a minor stroke and time is important to the outcome.

My wife and I have been socking away superannuation at a pretty solid rate for the last 20 years in order to pay for our retirement. I am now retired relatively comfortably.

Let me say though that I’m very empathetic to cost of living pressures for pensioners. Many went through life as blue-collar wage earners before things like 9%+ compulsory super gave them any opportunity to really save for retirement.

However from a golf club’s perspective, it is a business. You don’t find Holden, Myer or Bunnings selling their products 50% off for pensioners and making a loss. Golf Clubs are not government departments that have to conform to some CPI limitation on their fees. They need to charge what it costs to run the club.

If we have 300 members on a $400 standard membership rate, and 150 went on to a seniors 50% discount, the club would lose $30,000 per year in income. We’d then need to get an extra 75 full or 150 senior members (a near impossibility) or charge the other members an extra $100 per year, to make up the difference, whereupon 50 would probably leave immediately. Other clubs in the area who have installed a seniors’ rate are a long way from closing the gap they’ve created for themselves.

Also, a senior’s rate at a golf club can be very inequitable. Why should a retiree over, say, 65 or 70 get a discount on membership, just because of their age, while a parent with two kids and a mortgage pays the full rate? Why should you get an automatic discount just because of age … what about a member who is over 70 but has a million or more dollars for retirement? Is a seniors discount justified for him/her?

Retirees are also the heaviest users of the course, but some want to be the lightest payers. They get their golf extraordinarily cheap on a per-round basis. If ‘user-pays’ was the dominant fiscal imperative, they’d be paying twice as much, not half as much.

PS. Our clubhouse has free internet for members, so if seniors like, they can do their e-mail and stuff before or after they’ve played golf.

Trentham Golf Club
http://www.trenthamgolf.com.au

Agree

Got to offer more than golf

The user pays System sounds fine in Theory. unfortunately , in practice, it is not always the best option. The greatest number of members at Golf club are the older sector of the population. Purely because they have more time on their hands. Some of these ” Seniors” only play golf rgularly because they get offered a cheaper rate on their fees.
What is better for the club. Less members but all paying full fees. Or more members but some on a senior concession rate. Each club has to consider which option is best for them. Ours is of the belief that Bums on seats , so to speak, is the best option.

Australia is one of the cheapest places in the world for golf. If you can not afford to play in Australia, you really need to reassess your career choice.
Paying less than USD $2000 subs per year is almost unheard of in most countries.

Australia is one of the cheapest places in the world for golf. If you can not afford to play in Australia, you really need to reassess your career choice.
Paying less than USD $2000 subs per year is almost unheard of in most countries.

Thats why we live here, we are not under priced the others are way over the top. Australians like to give everyone a chance, most other countries are very elitist, like to keep the working class scum where they belong.

I know in wa we have perth golf network . Pay around the 250 mark a year for fees witch gives you golf link handicap a golf shirt and some other stuff . In return they play 7 days a weeks most days at 2 courses for a highly discounted rate ( like joondelup for 65 including cart ) . As well as other one off days at the higher rated courses . Maybe it’s wirth a look if there is something of this nature in your area

The user pays System sounds fine in Theory. unfortunately , in practice, it is not always the best option. The greatest number of members at Golf club are the older sector of the population. Purely because they have more time on their hands. Some of these ” Seniors” only play golf rgularly because they get offered a cheaper rate on their fees.
What is better for the club. Less members but all paying full fees. Or more members but some on a senior concession rate. Each club has to consider which option is best for them. Ours is of the belief that Bums on seats , so to speak, is the best option.

http://www.golflink.com.au/...

Then don’t charge anything and you’ll pack the joint

Australia is one of the cheapest places in the world for golf. If you can not afford to play in Australia, you really need to reassess your career choice.
Paying less than USD $2000 subs per year is almost unheard of in most countries.

Thats why we live here, we are not under priced the others are way over the top. Australians like to give everyone a chance, most other countries are very elitist, like to keep the working class scum where they belong.

1ST RESERVE MODERATOR.( complimentary )
Recruited by madam, 10th December 2011 09:52.( when inebriated )

Troll inspector.( to make sure no one is better)

Gymnast, specialty double backflip.

Optional extra, speak with forked tounge

I strongly disagree. Australia is very underpriced.

Next you will be complaining that the price of playing polo is too expensive.

Also, saying that “most other countries are very elitist” is just a ridiculous comment.