Fife golf club to offer under-16s free membership

A golf club in Fife has said anyone under the age of 16 whose parent is a member will be offered free membership at the club.

Elmwood Golf Course says this is part of new plans to widen access to the sport.

Scotland’s Rural College (SRUC) has announced that new adult and family season tickets at Elmwood Golf Course will allow children of adult members to benefit from the suite of new deals, which will also see people joining the club receiving 16 months’ membership for the price of 12.

The promotions are part of the club’s new strategy to grow the number of traditionally underrepresented demographics within its membership, as well as in the sport in general.

Course manager Greg Kilgour said: “As part of our ‘golf for all’ ethos at Elmwood, we’re delighted to be able to offer under-16s free junior membership. We are also planning greater engagement with local primary and secondary schools to grow our junior membership, while we are looking at creating a special season ticket rate for former and current members of the Armed Forces, as well as emergency services and NHS workers.”

The SRUC Elmwood Golf Course clubhouse will also reopen its doors on January 8.

This comes as Martin Slumbers, The R&A’s outgoing CEO, has told The Scotsman that he is worried about the state of the Scottish golf industry.

“Of course, I am worried,” he said. “As I said at my AIG Women’s Open press conference earlier this year, I am worried about public courses closing as councils are under huge pressure and having to make changes.

“I will just say one thing that I don’t think has been debated enough. Golf was in decline in terms of golf club club membership every year from 2006 through to 2018. In the early part of my tenure here, I spent quite a lot of time trying to understand why.

“The way I sort of summed it up in my own head was that the clubs that are declining are selling a product that the consumer doesn’t want to buy. Otherwise they wouldn’t be short of members.

“If they want to grow, then they need to focus on identifying the product the consumer wants to buy and not saying to the consumer ‘come and be a member here and this is how it is done!’ The world doesn’t work like that any more. Whether that’s Wi-Fi, whether it’s the ability to use your phone, whether it’s dress code. All of that depends on what audience you want.

“We have gone through this incredible growth in the game, but maybe the clubs who are struggling – not all of them – are because they haven’t really embraced that point about selling a product that the consumer wants to buy.

“It’s the only way I can rationalise why there are other clubs that are shutting their waiting lists and it’s not just the great clubs. It’s selling a product and they have moved with the times. Yes, I am concerned about it, but I think there is more to it than at first blush why.”