This golf club has doubled its membership in just two years

Gaudet Luce Golf Club in Worcestershire has doubled its membership from 400 to 800 in just the last two years.

It has been so successful that its owner has won an England Golf award for what he has called the Utopian scheme, which is flexible membership programme.

Flexible memberships, also known as golf credits, associated memberships and pay as you play memberships, typically involve golfers paying a discounted annual subscription to be a member of the club, and then reduced or free green fees for a certain number of rounds they play.

This seems to be popular with golfers who do not play enough golf to make a typical annual subscription to a golf club cost effective and several golf clubs have launched them in the last few years.

Alec Fernihough, of Gaudet Luce Golf Club, has been presented with the ‘Membership Award’.

The award recognises Alec’s idea of introducing Utopian Golf, a flexible membership package based on a points system but has no annual fee.

Alec said: “I am delighted to receive this award. The way that people live their lives has changed hugely over the past few years and I believe that golf club memberships need to reflect this.

“We wanted to make sure that our membership was as flexible as possible for our customers. We believe that Utopian membership provides this.”

Utopian Golf offers full membership benefits and has had widespread approval, attracting newcomers to the game as well as time-challenged 20 to 40-year-olds, juniors and older players who want to continue their membership but reluctant to pay the full seven or five-day fees.

Since its inception two years ago, the club membership at Gaudet Luce has doubled from around 400 to more than 800.

Utopian members include the GCMA’s Mike Hyde, who said: “I joined early last year just after the birth of my first child and it was the perfect solution.

“I play mostly off-peak and it’s great to have membership options that allow people in my situation to carry on playing the game they love.”

Mark Laing, England Golf county development officer for Hereford and Worcestershire, said: “It’s crucial that we have clubs like Gaudet Luce, creating lots of new members, year on year.