Here’s the top three things I learnt while editing the magazine in October

Here’s the top three things Alistair Dunsmuir learnt in the last month:

Offering clubs and balls for free is a cost effective way to boost business

No less than Britain’s biggest golf club operator, Crown Golf, has realised this, as it has decided to drop club hire fees at all of its 22 venues. In fact, if you turn up to a Crown Golf club with nothing, not only will you be lent clubs, but you’ll also be given balls and tees.

“Charging for club hire felt a bit outdated,” said a spokesman. “It’s another barrier lowered.”

The current weak pound is a marketing opportunity

Golfbreaks.com has said there has been a surge in Americans coming to play British golf courses since Brexit, with the top three beneficiaries being Carnoustie, St Andrews Links and Kingsbarns. Also in Scotland Royal Dornoch has said it has received more visitors from the USA since June than ever before and in England Slaley Hall reported a “rapid rise” in visits from overseas golfers between July and October.

Could the favourable exchange rate for foreign golfers be a marketing opportunity for British venues?

Royal Dornoch

We need to talk about a small blue butterfly

There remains a perception in the non-golfing world, which at best is only partially true, that golf courses are bad for local habitat.

Now there is a story that can prove that to be incorrect.

The small blue butterfly disappeared from Ayrshire in the 1980s but, thanks to a translocation in 2013 and several links golf courses planting its only food source, the species is growing.

As a spokesman for The R&A says: “This is an example of how golf courses can help protect and conserve our wildlife.”