The article below was written by our friends at National Club Golfer.

We all tune in to the PGA Tour to watch our favourite professional golfers make tons of birdies and thrill the crowds, but as distant as you feel from their superpowers, we are all human.

Sometimes, things don’t go to plan and the PGA Tour scores you see on your television don’t always match your expectations.

An errant drive or a poor approach can cause even the greatest players to tumble down the scoring charts in the blink of an eye.

Although we want to see quality golf and dramatic finishes, some scores give you the reassurance that any player, professional or amateur, can make mistakes.

With that in mind, let’s dive into the leaderboard on which NO player wants to be – the most shots in history taken on a single hole.

If you’ve ever carded 15 or more on a hole, congratulations, you’re on the list!

Most shots on a single hole in PGA Tour history

T6. Herman Tissies

Tournament: 1950 Open Championship
Venue: Royal Troon
Hole: 8th
Score: 15

Ah, the Postage Stamp. Many have fallen victim over the years, but none more so than Herman Tissies.

The German amateur stood on the tee, just 123 yards away from one of the most famous greens in golf. Fifteen shots later, he was walking off with an unwanted slice of history.

T6. Bill Collins

Tournament: 1958 Denver Open
Venue: Wellshire, Colorado
Hole: 17th
Score: 15

Bill Collins would go on to make a nice career for himself, including four PGA Tour wins. But his CV will always have a 15 on it after coming a cropper of the par-4 17th at the Colorado course.

T5. Ed Oliver

Tournament: 1954 Bing Crosby Pro-Am
Venue: Cypress Point
Hole: 16th
Score: 16

Ed ‘Porky’ Oliver faced great difficulty on Cypress Point’s spectacular par-3 16th during what is now the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, needing 16 blows in reported 50 mile-an-hour winds.

The eight-time PGA Tour winner’s CV boasts a runner-up spot at all the majors bar The Open – in which he never played. Shame, he clearly likes links golf…

T5. Gary McCord

Tournament: 1986 Federal Express St Jude Classic
Venue: Colonial, Texas
Hole: 16th
Score: 16

Perhaps better known for his 33-year career as an analyst for CBS, but in Gary McCord’s playing days he managed to hit five approach shots in the water on the 16th at Colonial en route to pencilling a 16 on his card.

T5. Kevin Na

Tournament: 2011 Valero Texas Open
Venue: TPC San Antonio, Texas
Hole: 9th
Score: 16

When Kevin Na hit his ball in the middle of the woods on San Antonio’s par-4 9th, it led to a comedy of errors that saw the now LIV Golf player thrashing around with seemingly reckless abandon.

At least he was able to see the funny side once he escaped…

NBC played the Kevin Na clip of him making a 16 to Taylor Swift’s “Out Of The Woods” years ago and just played it again. It’s not the full version but remains one of my favorite clips a network has ever done. 😂 pic.twitter.com/bnriYSQlng

— Carson Cunningham (@Carson_OKC) April 2, 2022

4. George Bayer

Tournament: 1957 Kentucky Derby Open
Venue: Seneca, Kentucky
Hole: 17th
Score: 17

As well as being one of golf’s original long drivers, George Bayer was also known as an angry customer and his fiery attitude led to him taking 17 shots during one tournament.

The four-time PGA Tour champion was later suspended for his outburst.

3. John Daly

Tournament: 1998 Bay Hill Invitational
Venue: Bay Hill, Florida
Hole: 6th
Score: 18

It will come as very little surprise that John Daly appears to have some pretty high single-hole scores on his record.

He attempted to take a shortcut over the water on Bay Hill’s par-5 6th no fewer than six times before he managed to clear it. Then he found a greenside bunker, from which he failed to get up and down.

John Daly went FULL Tin Cup at Bay Hill’s 6th hole back in 1998. pic.twitter.com/cAkH3t9TqX

— Skratch (@Skratch) March 10, 2019

T2. Ray Ainsley

Tournament: 1938 US Open
Venue: Cherry Hills, Colorado
Hole: 16th
Score: 19

Ray Ainsley may be tied-2nd for his 19 at Cherry Hills but he can bask in the glory of being the highest entrant at a major championship.

After finding the water with his second shot, instead of taking it out for a one-shot penalty, he thrashed away at his ball while the current was pushing it further back. After half an hour (!) and some time spent in the trees as well, Ainsley finally left the hole with a 19.

According to his own memory of proceedings, Ainsley said that angrily throwing his club at the ball in the water accounted for four of the strokes he recorded.

T2. Dale Douglass

Tournament: 1963 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am
Venue: Pebble Beach, California
Hole: 10th
Score: 19

Dale Douglass reportedly made 17 career hole-in-ones, but at the other end of the scale was his struggles on the 10th at Pebble Beach where his tee shot didn’t return to land until his 14th shot.

T2. Hans Merrell

Tournament: 1959 Bing Crosby National Pro-Am
Venue: Cypress Point, California
Hole: 16th
Score: 19

Cypress Point and everyone’s favourite Pro-Am make yet another appearance on this list of horrors.

Hans Merrell’s tee shot on the par-3 16th landed in the sand, while his next effort found the ice plants on the hillside. He eventually declared his ball unplayable before several more swipes and he just missed a 20-footer for an 18.

1. Tommy Armour

Tournament: 1927 Shawnee Open
Venue: Shawnee, Pennsylvania
Hole: 17th
Score: 23

In 1927, Tommy Armour recorded what remains the highest ever score for a single hole on the PGA Tour. He is also the only player to ever jot down a score more than 20. Some effort.

By this point, Armour was a six-time PGA Tour champion – including his maiden major – but just one week after lifting the US Open at Oakmont, he rocked up in Shawnee and was ticking along just fine until he put 10 balls out of bounds on his way to a 23.

Armour would go on to win 19 more PGA Tour titles, including an Open and PGA Championship to miss out on the Grand Slam by width of a Green Jacket.

The article below was written by Matt Chivers of National Club Golfer.

The BBC has stuck another dagger into the future of its golf coverage by reportedly rejecting the chances to show PGA Tour coverage for free.

According to the Telegraph, the BBC has refused on “multiple occasions” to show highlights of the PGA Tour even when the corporation wasn’t required to pay for the rights.

Highlights of The Players Championship at TPC Sawgrass were allegedly on the table, but the BBC has asserted that golf broadcasting “doesn’t suit the demographic” to which the platform wants to appeal.

This news probably won’t shock golf fans who have already been made aware of the BBC’s unwillingness to show golf, particularly the four major championships that attract the largest audiences.

The Telegraph says the PGA Tour was up for allowing the BBC to show highlights of the previous weekend’s action on Monday nights, or whenever it was deemed appropriate without paying rights fees.

The BBC’s rejection seems more damning at a time when players such as Rory McIlroy, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Tyrrell Hatton are flying the flag so well for the home nations in the states.

Golf fans experienced significant frustration at the end of 2022 when Fitzpatrick was neglected by the Sports Personality of the Year award, with golf as a whole being given a very small segment during the awards ceremony.

The Masters is set to be removed from the BBC’s sports coverage for the first time in 56 years and this has effectively banished the sport from the popular terrestrial channel.

Sky Sports has secured the rights to the Masters, the US Open, the PGA Championship, and the Open Championship, with the broadcasting giant often dedicating a whole channel to golf’s oldest major.

2020 marked the first time in more than half a century that live golf wasn’t shown on the BBC. The voices of Peter Alliss, Ken Brown, and Andrew Cotter became synonymous with settling down and enjoying an evening of action.

In a year, and a week at TPC Sawgrass, where the controversy of LIV Golf has dominated again, golf fans will no doubt be disappointed to hear that top-class professional golf will continue to be subscription-based only.

BBC radio will reportedly maintain its coverage of the Masters and there is a glimmering hope that renegotiation could take place with Augusta National.

The year’s first major will play host to a mixture of PGA Tour stars and LIV Golf rebels who have been allowed to compete on the hallowed turf in Georgia while their exemptions still remain.

The article below was written by Steve Carroll of National Club Golfer.

As Nick Dougherty took his tentative steps in the game, there was always a helping hand. There was his father, who sacrificed to give his son the very best chance of climbing the golfing ladder.

There was Sir Nick Faldo, who spotted the prodigy at a Faldo Junior Series event and took ‘Little Nick’ under his wing.

And there was The Golf Foundation. “They were there at the earliest steps,” says the 40-year-old, who has recently become President of the charity.

He remembers a pivotal moment in his development coming when he was a teenager. He was handed an Outstanding Achievement award from the organisation by former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher at Wentworth – the club where he is now proud to be a member.

“One of the things that is great about The Golf Foundation is that they are there from the very get-go – inspiring kids to get involved and keeping their interest alive. To have an experience like that, to meet someone like Bernard Gallacher, to go to Wentworth, and to win something that was UK-wide was an incredible inspiration to me and had a huge impact on what I did going forward.”

The Golf Foundation’s programmes, as Nick says, have already had a significant influence in bringing young people into the game – whether that’s through Tri-Golf or the equally successful GolfSixes.

But Nick wants to go much further. He believes the way golf interacts with schools is piecemeal, often depending upon ties with a club or the availability of a pro.

And so the three-time European Tour winner, who is beamed into our homes as the main presenter for Sky Sports Golf, is pulling together an incredibly ambitious project.

It won’t just require the resources of The Golf Foundation. It will need every stakeholder in the game – whether that’s governing bodies, brands, and even government – to play their part.

What is Nick’s idea? To put golf onto the school curriculum. To give youngsters in every one of the UK’s 32,000 schools the chance to fall in love with the game.

Here, he explains to GCMA Insights why he’s determined to see it through and the legacy it could leave…

What’s your vision? Every school has a football pitch, an athletics track, a basketball hoop. But it’s a bit more difficult for golf…

We’ve put together a team that’s driving to put golf into all schools. That’s a grandiose ambition. It might seem quite unrealistic, and it’s certainly very expensive. It would cost about £15 million, if we were starting from scratch, just to provide the equipment.

It’s about changing the mentality in schools and getting across the message of what golf does better than other sports. I struggle to be convinced there is any other sport that does a better job of teaching some key life skills.

If you can show the benefits of the sport, golf will be the by-product because we know when you play the game people just generally fall in love with it. Covid was a great demonstrator for how that helped people through a time where mental health really did plummet.

Golf can help kids. It can be like the well-being classes which are in a lot of schools now and are part of the curriculum.

Even if children try it for a term, and decide they don’t want to do it anymore, they will have had a term’s worth of some of those lessons and life skills: whether it be integrity, discipline, work ethic, or the camaraderie.

I want to create a programme which is run by teachers. The PGA do a wonderful job and that should be an option for schools to take up. They should always have the opportunity to bring in a PGA instructor.

If we’re going to be serious about getting golf into all schools, though, that’s a huge cost. But we can create a programme, whether it’s run by the science teacher who just loves golf or the PE teacher, that they can go through step by step.

Does golf understand how big a deal it can be for a young person to go to a club? Is a key part of your idea about giving children access to golf in an environment where they’re comfortable?

It is challenging. It is overwhelming. Even if golf clubs are friendly, they’re huge facilities, with people you’ve never met doing something you’ve never seen before.

It would help massively if we could put golf into schools and they are introduced to the sport there. I also think there is a huge part for driving ranges to play and there are always going to be clubs that do it brilliantly.

I’d like to think the one thing you take from playing this game is that you’re going to help pass it on and make sure you’re allowing future generations to come into it. That’s our duty and what The Golf Foundation have been doing for a long time.

But that starts in schools. Sure, some of these children will never play it again. At least they will have tried. It’s like trying to get my kids to eat broccoli. The only thing I demand is that you try it. If you then say to me, ‘I don’t want to do it’, I’m cool with that.

We need to be like that with golf – to give them the canvas. Let them decide. We’re not jamming it down their throats. Just go and play the game and it will do its thing.

That’s a part of what we have to do with the messaging and it’s a huge operation. But being in schools is incredibly important because you’re exposing children to what the game is. I think the game is good enough. It’s a sport that has no negative effects and only benefits.

This is going to require a very unified approach from the many agencies involved in golf…

One of the things we’re going to have to rely on is everybody working together and that’s been one of my takes from sitting in board meetings with The Golf Foundation.

They really do have all the most important people in the UK and Ireland in the room. They have the people who can move mountains in golf.

I know it’s difficult. I know there is always politics in sport and people have objectives and pull in different directions because that’s their job. They have to protect their members or their people who are involved with their company or corporation. For this to work, we all have to pull the same way at the same time.

I want to go back to the coaching briefly because, previously, campaigns of this sort might have been delivered by PGA pros but that comes with huge time consequences. Is the idea of teachers being able to deliver this programme the gamechanger?

It’s about how to hold a club, how to stand to it, what the feeling should be, how to make the club move away – real basics. We can give those tools to a PE instructor.

I want it to be an online learning platform for instructors and for the delivery of the classes: how it should look in week one, week two, the games to play – it’s all in one place and super simple. It’s like a lesson plan and it’s about ‘click and follow’.

The last thing I want to do is harm the PGA and I think a lot of this has to be driven by the PGA. There still needs to be oversight of the programme. But oversight isn’t the cost.

The cost is going to be a real stumbling block…

The big thing we’re going to come up against is, ‘oh, the cost’. Let’s assume none of the schools are going to pay – even though lots already do – and no one wants to spend any money. We’ve got to generate the ballpark figure of £15 million that it will cost to deliver the equipment.

That’s without rolling out the system, so we do need to make this watertight. It’s got to be self-sustainable. It’s got to be something that’s super easy to apply – where there isn’t really an excuse not to do it.

I’d like to think once we started to see the effects, and we started to hit some really big numbers across the first year and the second year, it will become self-sustaining.

Going into every school is not going to happen in six months. It’s going to take a few years for us to get there and do it well. Imagine if we put golf into the 32,000 schools across the UK and Ireland? If we managed to do that, think about how it would change the way the Government looks at it.

Perhaps they would then want to, or be forced to, get behind something that helps mental health, helps children get the most out of their education and gives them skills to help them go forward in their life. Isn’t that the whole ethos of what school is supposed to do? We have a sport that does that.

If your ambition is to bring more young golfers into the game, then golf clubs have got to step up too…

They’ve got to help themselves a little bit. That means looking forward to realise they are their new members. Without going into detail, my plan will involve golf clubs playing a huge part. That will require the golfing nations to speak to them independently to express what we’re trying to achieve and help make the future brighter.

There will inevitably be clubs that push back and aren’t really interested but that is a mentality that’s changing. Whether the pace is [quick enough], I’m not so sure and that’s the bit I find just a little bit disappointing.

I’m not sure we’ve done enough yet. There are still plenty of examples of things we’d get embarrassed about.

We talk about the great things in our sport. You see the wonderful things that people and organisations like The Golf Foundation are doing. You go to The Open and see how that feels for kids. We’re doing it right. So many clubs are endeavouring to do it right and get better at what they do. It’s a slow burner.

But some clubs aren’t really doing anything because they think the members won’t like it. We have to change that. They have to want to change that.

I’d like to feel if we can really get some momentum with this then there would be an element of feeling embarrassed at being on the outside looking in.

I really hope we get to a tipping point where people feel they should really be a part of this and would feel bad if they weren’t doing their bit for the future of the game.

This is a very ambitious programme. It will require huge commitment. But you seem very optimistic?

There’s so much to say but if you look through the various golf and health reports from The R&A, and so on, how much more do you need? That’s why you should be playing golf – whether you are an old man or a young girl.

Golf gave me an opportunity. It doesn’t care if you’re stick thin, overweight, small, tall, and nor should it care where you come from. We have to put clubs into the hands of kids who wouldn’t have that opportunity.  

I look back. What if my dad hadn’t managed to achieve what he did in his life, being from the wrong side of the tracks in Liverpool, to use the money he was earning to give me a chance to play golf?

We could have used that for so many other things in our lives. But he said, ‘No. Golf’. He put me in that position. He gave his hard-earned money for me to go and have lessons from a good PGA coach in Richard Bradbeer at Royal Birkdale.

I’ve gone on and made a career in this sport. Golf gave me that, but dad gave that commitment. What we want to do is stop mums and dads from having to make that kind of decision.

It’s a no-brainer to try. It’s a huge idea. I know it will be met with resistance in some places. But if we can create the right messaging and get schools understanding what it does, then it makes it very hard for a school to say no.

We’re not asking for anything. We’re just giving the opportunity. Getting the numbers will be the hard bit, as will getting it off the ground and making real headway.

But when it’s got momentum, I think it will fly and it will just become what we do. If we could just realise that dream then golf in the UK would change completely.

The article below was written by George Cooper and Matt Chivers of National Club Golfer.

With the LIV Golf world rankings debacle causing havoc within the breakaway league, we track just how far has defector fallen in the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR).

LIV Golf world rankings

While the growing list of players defecting to LIV Golf continues to produce an endless amount of controversy, backlash, and legal conflict over their future endeavours, one of the biggest issues facing the league’s rebels is their plummeting positions in the OWGR.

As it stands, the Greg Norman-led series has not received OWGR accreditation, meaning players have been unable to collect world ranking points for playing in the LIV Golf invitational events.

Couple this with the PGA Tour indefinitely banning LIV’s rebels from returning to their circuit (for now), and we’ve already seen the defectors begin to plummet in the OWGR.

But just how far are we talking? Well, here’s a table showing where LIV’s stars ranked prior to joining the breakaway series, and where they sit today…

OWGR of LIV Golf players

And, if the stats weren’t alarming enough for these players, the trend appears in no danger of slowing down soon.

While Greg Norman’s series is undergoing an application to obtain accreditation from the OWGR board, the hurdles couldn’t be greater at this moment in time.

Approval can take anything between one and two years, and even then, LIV’s field size is not greater than 75, LIV Golf events are not contested over 72 holes, and they do not involve a cut – just a few of the compulsory elements the OWGR requires in its rules and regulations.

At the end of the LIV Golf League 2023 season, the LIV Promotions Event will take place which takes a Q-school-type form to allow a pathway for external players to join the league.

Four players at the bottom of the LIV Golf individual leaderboard will be relegated and four spots will be up for grabs in the 2024 season.

The article below was written by our friends at National Club Golfer.

The Players Championship hole-in-one hits differently from any other as the ace has been achieved at one of the world’s most iconic golf courses.

The Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, the host venue of the PGA Tour’s flagship event, contains four fabulous short holes where the world’s best players take dead aim once a year.

The iconic 17th hole is the one that springs to mind, both when talking about Sawgrass and essentially any conversation that concerns par-3s.

Not only is the tee shot threatening, but this green at TPC Sawgrass has larger slopes than meet the eye on your television screens. Although it is only 137 yards, just the sight of the island green is hugely intimidating, but this hasn’t stopped a number of players from finding the bottom of the cup from the tee.

In the latest playing of The Players, three players found the bottom of the cup.

Hayden Buckley was the first with just the sixth shot of the tournament into this hole…

🚨Hayden Buckley with the ACE on 17 at TPC Sawgrass! 🚨

Just the sixth shot of the day on the famous par-3! pic.twitter.com/3LAFRO8q6H

— National Club Golfer (@NCG_com) March 9, 2023

That was followed by Englishman Aaron Rai during Saturday’s third round…

Aaron Rai!

The Wolverhampton Wonder makes his first career hole-in-one — and what a place to do it!

pic.twitter.com/mRryYRXnU2

— National Club Golfer (@NCG_com) March 11, 2023

Rai is the first player from England – and, indeed, the UK – to have an ace at The Players – and this was followed by Alex Smalley…

THIRD ACE OF THE WEEK!!! @ASmalley_Golf cards a 1 on No. 17 @THEPLAYERSChamp! pic.twitter.com/Itl4abCS1Y

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) March 12, 2023

It was the first ace of Smalley’s career on Tour and the first one in the final round of the Players Championship since Fred Couples in 1997.

Who has had a Players Championship hole-in-one?

3rd hole (177 yards)

– Jim Gallagher (1986)
– Russ Cochran (1994)
– Chris DiMarco (2001)
– Seamus Power (2019)

8th hole (237 yards)

– Gary Hallberg (1994)
– Mark Brooks (1997)
– Bob Friend (1999)
– Naomichi Ozaki (2000)
– Ted Tryba (2000)
– Michael Thompson (2013)
– Brendon Todd (2021)
– Viktor Hovland (2022)

13th hole (181 yards)

– Chip Beck (1992)
– Phil Mickelson (1995)
– Jay Don Blake (1996)
– Craig Stadler – (2002)
– Jose Maria Olazabal (2004)
– Justin Leonard (2006)
– Jesper Parnevik (2006)
– Henrik Stenson (2006)
– Fred Couples (2006)
– Robert Garrigus (2008)
– Chris Stroud (2013)
– Sungjae Im (2019)

17th (137 yards)

– Brad Fabel (1986)
– Brian Claar (1991)
– Fred Couples (1997)
– Joey Sindelar (1999)
– Paul Azinger (2000)
– Miguel Angel Jimenez (2002)
– Willy Wilcox (2016)
– Sergio Garcia (2017)
– Ryan Moore (2019)
– Shane Lowry (2022)
– Hayden Buckley (2023)
– Aaron Rai (2023)
– Alex Smalley (2023)

Country-by-country breakdown

– USA: 26
– Spain: 3
– Ireland: 2
– Sweden: 2
– England: 1
– Japan: 1
– Norway: 1
– South Korea: 1

The cost of living has got many of us feeling the pinch. But its impact on golfers and the golf industry as a whole is varied.

Golf club membership fees aren’t going anywhere any time soon, but what’s the current state of play, and can this well-established model be flexible given the current economic backdrop?

We speak to Headingley Golf Club manager Jon Hall below on how the Yorkshire club has budgeted in line with the cost of living, and its approach to membership fees.

A golf club’s financial planning need not be rocket science. We have a good understanding of what we need to maintain the course and clubhouse to a decent standard, and because we’re always working to a rolling 5-10 year development and CapEx plan (course and clubhouse changes, course machinery etc.), we know that too. 

In simple terms, our income comes from three main streams; membership fees, visitor green fees, and gross profit from the bar. Once we have set our budget for the green fees and bar, we then need to calculate what our membership fees need to be in order to cover all of our expected costs. We never want the club to fall into problems in years to come, so we have always budgeted cautiously and include contingency sums if required.

Golf club membership fees

We’ve always applied an annual increase to subscriptions to keep up with the general cost of living. Some golf clubs fall into the trap of not increasing their fees which is a huge mistake as you’ll never get it back. That 2% you didn’t charge extra for compounds, and you fall back. Your wages have to go up every year, costs go up every year, and there hasn’t been a year when that hasn’t happened—so we’ve always tried to budget responsibly.

We sit down in October each year and look at all the indicators of inflation—of which there are generally five different ones—and we also have a spreadsheet with the current number of members. We know what the subs for the current year are, so we can work out what the expected revenue will be. Some years there will have been a 1, 2, 3 and 4% increase for inflation—this year, that multiplier will be 4, 6, 8 and 10% increases.

Then we make an educated guess about how many members we will lose at the end of the year. Members leave golf clubs every year regardless—that’s just a factor of club golf. Typically, our annual net attrition of adult playing members is about 7%, but this can vary. In a good year, we might have just 25 leaving, but in some tough years, like during the last recession, we had up to 60 leave. Again, some guesswork is required at this stage, so we’ll discuss the general economy, member satisfaction, and so on before cautiously deciding on an increase. Once that’s decided, we’ll release a fee schedule for the ensuing year with an explanatory note to our members. 

A few weeks later, members will receive their fee invoices, which will normally give them several weeks before their renewal date of January 1. Like many clubs, we also allow members to pay in instalments, and this option is now taken up by about 15% of our members and is an invaluable tool to retain them.

The economic climate

One of the best indicators of the current financial situation every year is how many young members leave. Older members have generally already made their money and are financially secure, so they’ll keep going as long as their health and desire permit. However, we also have a large cohort of members under 40, so we take particular notice of how many of these younger people are leaving, which influences some of our thinking regarding fees. There will obviously be a concern about the job market and cost of living, but I’m pleased to say that we haven’t had a particularly high number of members leaving in the past couple of months. 

In previous years, our normal operating income and expenditure have been stable, so the sudden cost increases have provided a definite challenge. Energy costs have tripled in some cases, and of course, different clubs have been affected in different ways depending on what type and length of contract they were in. We’ve not done too badly, but with long-term contracts coming up for renewal and the government support ending soon, this is something we have to keep an eye on—and again, budget for responsibly.  

Another impact of the cost of living has been that we’ve focused much more on energy efficiency. We have embarked on several energy-saving initiatives, such as LED lighting and fitting timers to appliances, so some long-term good has come from all of this too.

However, we’re a golf club. And, in many ways, we use what we use, and we still have to function—so there has to be an element of ‘sucking it up’.

Having applied an increase in fees of just under 6% this year and also increased staff wages by a similar amount, we have worked hard with all our suppliers to keep their increases manageable. We have to be fair with everyone.

Generally speaking, membership golf clubs are fortunate that many members will sometimes pay their subs before paying their mortgage, as it’s a huge part of their lives, but you can never take anything for granted. We’ll always ensure that our members know we care about them, want to keep improving the course and keep the club moving forward. This can be difficult, though, as everybody’s expectations are getting higher and higher. 

Where we do think we offer great value for money is the ability to play year-round golf; we don’t like to close the course, don’t use winter greens, and we don’t use artificial tees or fairway mats. We compare well with peer clubs in this regard, but we know we still have a long way to go and have ambitious plans to build more tees and paths to cope with the ever-growing demand of modern golfers. 

Looking ahead

Having begun my tenure at Headingley at the end of 2008, just as the world was slumping into recession, my honest view is that the current challenges will not be so protracted and deep as they were then—when golf was in seemingly terminal decline.

The golf industry, like cycling and fishing, for example, received a huge boost during the Covid pandemic, as so many new people were introduced to the sport. So, in effect, many golf clubs have entered the current cost-of-living crisis in good health and should be in a good position to ride out the storm.

At Headingley, we had already built up a healthy cash reserve and have managed to fund several course and clubhouse improvements without the need for borrowing. In my time at the club, we have always been very risk-averse, and our finances have been very well managed by our committees. All of this has laid the foundations for the club to move forward with confidence.

Many thanks to Jon for his time and insight.