Why The Club Company doesn’t rely on golf income at its 10 golf clubs

The Club Company currently operates 10 golf clubs in England and all have been developed into the country club format that is a hallmark of the group.

“We know that the country club approach works for us,” said

Delsol, chief executive. “We combine a traditional golf environment with superb modern health and fitness facilities so that the whole family can participate. That’s why we have undertaken a significant investment programme over the last few months.

“At The Warwickshire Golf and Country Club we completed a £1.3 million refurbishment of the old clubhouse turning it into a modern building with extensive conference, function and golf day facilities. The Tytherington Club has benefited from state-of-the-art gym equipment plus refurbishment and redecoration of the health club area at a cost of £350,000, and £250,000 has been spent at Meyrick Park upgrading the steam room, sauna, spa and gym. Finally over £200,000 has been at Castle Royle and Mapledurham refurbishing various areas of their clubhouses. Add the £4.7 million at Lichfield and that’s an investment programme of almost £6.5 million; I think that demonstrates our commitment to this format!

“We’ll be looking to add hotels at our clubs but, if and when they are built, they will not be the prime revenue generator, but will add to our overall offering and also to our bottom line. If you look at The Warwickshire for example; we have planning here for an hotel, but we have over 4,000 health and fitness members and 1,300 golfers, so that’s where our major revenue stream sits.

“Those clubs and management groups that rely on pay-and-play visitors must be feeling the effects, but we’ve been able to mitigate this as only seven per cent of revenue comes from green fees.

“The golf sector has stagnated of late; the size of the cake has stayed the same but, thankfully, our slice has got larger. For the benefit of everyone we must get rid of this stagnation and entice more people to the game. We must retain municipal-run courses to encourage a broader uptake of the sport and we must provide more facilities like driving ranges.

“We now have real competition for the ‘corporate day’ market; there are now many alternatives to a golf day and there is intense competition from the rest of the leisure sector. Sailing, shooting, track days, major sporting events; the list is endless, so we have to make golf more attractive and exciting. We have a great industry but we can’t stand still.

“So how do we accomplish this? We have to raise our profile on a national basis and the best way would be through an integrated media campaign. If every golf club in the UK were to contribute a minimum £1,000 with the larger groups contributing more, we would have a very significant fighting fund. It would need to be administered by one of the reputable governing bodies, but if we could increase the playing base by one million it would have a huge benefit for everyone. Getting a consensus will be the issue, but that’s not a barrier for trying to do something positive.

“As I said earlier we have to make the offering more attractive and The Warwickshire is a prime example of this philosophy. It is totally family-orientated. We have a purpose-built crèche with Ofsted-trained child carers and can take children from four weeks old to eight years old. We have a pool hall complete with spa area, splash pool, children’s training pool, sauna and steam room. There’s also health and beauty facilities, dance and activity studios and a superbly equipped gym with the very best Technogym equipment. Add to this bespoke meeting rooms with sophisticated audio visual aids, members bars and dining facilities and we have really attractive proposition.”