Mon Mar 8 2010

Don’t forget the ‘intermediates’

Don’t forget the ‘intermediates’

The issue of junior development has in my opinion literally haunted the Australian golf industry in recent years. While most would agree that the industry’s approach to junior development as a whole has been fragmented at best, there’s no doubt that there have been many success stories in this area. This of course has largely been due to the outstanding contributions made by a small army of volunteers that give up their time as junior coordinators for their respective clubs and districts around the country.

For all the good work that is being done in introducing young players to the game, one can’t help but think that much of this effort is going to waste by way of the significant attrition rates experienced in the loss of players aged in their late teens to mid twenties. This particular issue was articulated well in a recent report forwarded to the Golf Queensland office from the Sunshine Coast District Golf Association.

The report, compiled by the District’s South Burnett Zone junior development coordinator Peter Ryke, rightfully reiterates the frustration experienced by many junior coordinators at the inability of many clubs to stem the losses of juniors to the game once they turn 18 years of age. For Ryke and his District colleagues, the blame lays predominantly with the inflexible nature of many club membership packages. 

The report makes one point that is particularly pertinent to Queensland with its large geographical spread; namely that the retention of juniors in the country is a far more challenging proposition in the country compared to the cities. Juniors that take up tertiary education invariably leave their hometown to move to university accommodation and therefore maintain only a fleeting playing association with their home clubs. Playing even occasionally on visits home makes the cost of club membership prohibitive when full membership and green fee rates are being charged for players 18 years or over. 

Juniors that stay home fare little better when the costs of new found ‘freedoms’ such as accommodation, cars and socializing are budgeted against the constraints of low paid employment. The prohibitive cost of full adult membership barely rates a thought and many keen juniors are unfortunately reduced to the most occasional of social players.

Amongst the many findings from the Club Membership Retention and Attrition Report conducted by Golf Queensland last year, the successful transition of junior members to full members was regarded as perhaps the key retention outcome.

The project specifically asked clubs what strategies they pursued in order to retain junior members once they reached intermediate ages. Of the numerous clubs surveyed, only 56% advised that they operated staged increases in fees; 27% advised that they had altered the definition of their ‘junior’ categories to a more relevant age (e.g. 24 years of age); and 51% of clubs advised that no additional top up joining fees were payable by juniors once they reached intermediate ages or full membership status.

The solution, albeit certainly not an all encompassing one, lies with clubs implementing more flexible intermediate membership rates and / or continuing junior rates for full time students. In pure financial terms, the amount of money that clubs would lose in seeking a fair intermediate rate of fees would be minimal compared to the longer-term retention of numbers and playing frequency at their facilities.

The Sunshine Coast District, long time ‘campaigners’ for the widespread introduction of staged membership fees, discovered some wide variations in policy amongst their member clubs.

While a small number had standardised 18 to 20 years of age as their intermediate membership levels, many still maintain no such buffer between junior and full membership. Others have been more proactive in recognising the advancing age of tertiary students - one member club maintaining a student membership rate (irrespective of age and at around 35% of the full rate) for all full time students at college, university or even apprenticeship employment.

It’s the privately owned facilities that perhaps unsurprisingly are leading the charge. One has adopted family membership catering for a father, mother and two kids living at home under the age of 21, in addition to moving the ‘junior’ age bracket to 25 years in recognition of modern trends for young players to stay at home longer and spending longer periods at University.

Another has successfully adopted this approach by offering membership up to age 21 for as little as $350 per year, including range balls and cart usage if the players’ hold a current drivers license. A small food and beverage levy over the 12-month subscription period is also in effect to ensure ongoing club patronage.

They are simple solutions, but ones that go a long way to ensuring that today’s juniors maintain an association with the facilities that have fostered their development once their adolescent years are over.

As a closing comment, it’s worth noting that this month Golf Queensland commences trials of a Student Golf Network participation project in association with the University of Queensland in Brisbane. We were staggered to hear that UQ expects its 2010 enrolment to exceed 45,000 students, with the universities sporting body, UQ Sport, currently administering and promoting over 40 individual sports. From Golf Queensland’s point of view the universities represent a massive opportunity to increase participation amongst this ‘absent’ late teens to mid twenties age group. Keep an eye on the employment pages. All going well we may need all the help we can get. 

Phil Laurie 
Communications Manager
Golf Queensland.

This story appeared in the February issue of Golf Industry Central magazine. To read this and all other articles click GOLF INDUSTRY CENTRAL

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