Should membership costs be determined by how long you’ve played the game?

Amir Malik, founder of the Muslim Golf Association, believes the price you pay to be a member of a club should correlate with your experience as a golfer.

Speaking on The GBQ Podcast, Malik was asked by host Sarah Stirk how clubs could successfully transition players who try the game in taster and coaching sessions into golf club members.

It’s the $64,000 question for many in the golf industry, and Malik had a novel take on how facilities should think about the move.

Looking at the way junior and intermediate golf is priced, where the older a golfer is, the more they pay, he suggested a similar structure for those adults who were new to golf – arguing the gap between the introductory cost of the game and membership was just too great.

“This is, again, where golf has just been stuck in its way,” Malik told Stirk. “If you’re a member of a club, automatically you’d think, ‘I’m going to get my children involved. The price point is low’.

“So you get your child involved at a young age and they grow up in it and [everyone] really understands, from an age perspective, they don’t have a lot of money and that will gradually increase. Great.

“Why not apply that same principle to someone’s golf age? Instead of looking at the physical age, let’s look at their golfing age.

“So if you’re in the first year or so, why not make it just really cheap? And as they progress, as you do when you’re a junior, why not apply that same model?

“There’s one club I am dealing with. Their women members got so excited when they saw so many ladies turn up. Then I said to them, ‘how much is it to become a member?’ ‘£1,500’.

“I said, ‘you, what?’ I’ve just come to a taster where I’ve spent 20 to 25 quid. I’ll spend 50 to 100 on a four to six-week coaching programme.

“You now expect me to spend £1,500 to become a member – just to be part of your club? You can forget it.

“Then you wonder, ‘why can’t we get anyone on board?’ Why not just gradually embed them into your golf club and play the long game? You’re willing to do that with juniors, who get the same access to the same course?

“Why not do that with newcomers? That’s my philosophy and not every club gets it. ‘This is what we’ve always done’, and you realise the board are saying one thing and the members are saying another. I just think, ‘there isn’t really anyone taking responsibility here’.

“So there’s a lot of work to be done on the membership side. I think clubs are too quick to look at these programmes and think, ‘how can we turn them into members?’

“Well, you’ve lost. You’ve lost because you’re looking at short-term gains. That’s not what it’s like. This is a game for life. Once someone is in, if you give them the bug, they’re not going anywhere.

“Let’s just entice them in and look after them and the game will look after them in the long term.”