It has been out privilege to speak to Andy Rideout, General Manager of Bramshaw Golf Club about their experience of being a PlayMoreGolf partner club.

Founded over 160 years ago, Bramshaw Golf Club has a rjich history as well as over one thousand members, and was the first club south of the M4 to get involved with PlayMoreGolf.

Andy has taken the time to join us (click here to watch the full video) so that he can explain how Bramshaw Golf Club have experienced their membership and what it could do for golf clubs considering signing up.

What cannot be denied is that, while golf participation remains at stable levels in the U.K., membership figures are in decline. There are many reasons for this, including a change in customer demographics, financial factors and a change in lifestyle habits, all of which have been discussed on our blog.

To address this, clubs, including Bramshaw Golf Club, are taking proactive measures to increase membership figures by offering a flexible membership category,  bringing fresh golfers to the club who would otherwise not have the means or time to take up a full membership.

“70%of our members are over 50”, explains Andy. “While we offer a junior membership, once you get to a certain age – let’s call it 19 or 20, your lives are changing, you’re going to university or college, starting young families, and you don’t have the money to suddenly cough up £500 or more for a golf membership. This is where PlayMoreGolf helped us, so that we could reach members who were drifting away from the golf club”.

Helping more people to play golf is the primary goal of PlayMoreGolf and is an interest shared by all our club partners. But for clubs, there’s an added bonus that finding these new players helps boost membership and therefore revenue, giving them more resource to offer a valued golfing experience.

“Getting started was easy”, Andy explains. “At the beginning of our journey, we were sent a points matrix (a system by which points per round are allocated) that other clubs had been using. From there we could customise it to suit our preferences. We already know we are fully booked on weekends and mornings as this is when our members like to play, so we tailored our points system to be more afternoon-based”.

What’s important for clubs to know is that PlayMoreGolf memberships are not just flexible for golfers but for clubs too.

For Bramshaw Golf Club, this has been highly successful. Early in the partnership, they saw new members utilising their points in the way the club set them up, encouraging afternoon playing by allocating more points to morning sessions.

Another benefit noted by Andy was the fresh demographic PlayMoreGolf attracted. “One of our new members is from Wolverhampton!” He said. “While you might be wondering why he’d travel all the way from Wolverhampton to play golf, it actually transpires he has a holiday home nearby so plays when he visits. We have another member who spends most of his time in Malaysia! So, being partnered with PlayMoreGolf is attracting members we would have never hoped to attract before”.

Looking at the statistics below, it is clear to see that flexible membership is pushing the club in the right direction.

Finally, during the interview, Andy touched on how it had been the club’s original intention to create an in-house flexible membership, but that partnering with PlayMoreGolf became the better option thanks to the expertise and collective experience of the PlayMoreGolf team.

Bramshaw isn’t the only golf club to have seen such success. Click here to read our interview with Crompton & Royton Golf Club.

Or, to listen to the full interview with Andy Rideout, click here.

Interested in learning more? Go to our LiveChat feature to ask questions or call 0330 555 6555. Alternatively, click here to book a FREE consultation.