Slumbers’ wake-up call to help golf clubs survive
As membership declines, game must modernise to attract today’s players, writes James Corrigan
‘Only two sports have more people participating – swimming and the gym’
It was a pinchyourself moment to check you were not dreaming. On Tuesday, in the magnificent clubhouse overlooking the famous 18th green of the Old Course, the secretary of the Royal and Ancient actually called for golf clubs up and down the land finally to allow their members to wear jeans.
The journalists present looked at each other amazed. It is fair to say that this was unexpected. Indeed, you could have got better odds on Jeremy Corbyn being announced as an honorary R&A member. But no, Martin Slumbers was serious. If the game is to flourish, if not to be saved, then those archaic rules must be relaxed.
OK, Slumbers did not actually mention denim, but the point was clear. If those self-important committees do not “de-stuffify” then they will have nobody else to blame if their precious institutions close.
“Go into clubs that are very family orientated, have fitness centres, have creches, have coffee shops, have Wi-fi, have no dress code, have short par-three golf courses … those are the ones that are going to succeed,” Slumbers declared.
In his five years in charge of the R&A, Slumbers, the 59-yearold from Brighton, has proved to be a breath of fresh air in corridors that were always so dusty they choked progression.
The former banker understands the sport must modernise and in his annual round-table talk with the media he spelt out in stark terms why golf club memberships are in decline, with a study released last year showing that 10,500 gave up membership in England alone between 2017 and 2018.
“It’s all in the numbers,” Slumbers explained, before outlining the results of research the R&A and the European Tour recently commissioned into how many “play” golf in Great Britain and Ireland.
“Golf club membership amounts to about a million people,” he said. “But if you look at how many people consume golf, so 18-hole golf, nine-hole golf, driving ranges, par-three courses, adventure golf, all of those aspects, that group of people is 10.2 million. It is also a group that is much more diverse and much younger.”
That is a staggering figure, representing 18 per cent of adults. “There are only two sports in Great Britain and Ireland that have more people participating – and they are swimming and the gym,” Slumbers added. “But, now, let’s just say, because we’re all a bit cynical, that half of that 10 million don’t think they are playing golf. That’s still five million. So, five million versus one million. Now, the question is why aren’t those five million joining golf clubs? I would argue it’s because the golf clubs are not providing a product those five million want to buy.”
Slumbers is spot on. Golf clubs must evolve if they are to survive. The next generation is turned off by the perception of old fools in jackets and ties presiding like lords over cold clubhouses that are about as inviting as Howard Hughes’s holiday home. Clubs have to adapt to the economic and lifestyle challenges and Slumbers pointed to those clubs that offer “flexible” membership, by which you purchase “points” that deem how many times you can play. It might appear limited, but it still makes you a member and invested in that club and that course – and most pertinently, that sport.
“Royal Norwich has a flexible membership and it’s always full,” Slumbers said. “People want choice nowadays and guess what? The clubs that have options in their membership policies, have a lot of members. The point is that you just confine to a small group, you’re only talking to a small group. There is a market five times the size of existing membership.
“That’s our opportunity. We have to break down the traditional barriers to be able to embrace it.”
The time is now. Clubs have to stop acting like private members’ clubs and start acting like businesses. The brain power is certainly in situ. After all, golf clubs are essentially run by people successful in business. They just have to start taking their hobby seriously.