Here’s three issues I discovered while editing the magazine in the last month

Some clubs in southern England are now cashing in

Where property prices are at the highest, land is incredibly valuable and now two golf clubs located near London are cashing in.

Kent golf course set to become housing development

Broke Hill Golf Club in Kent is closing down this year as the land has been sold for property development; the club’s members and staff have been invited to relocate to a nearby facility.

Golf club’s course will be worth at least £500 million

Meanwhile, Maidenhead Golf Club in Berkshire will buy a new golf club with the proceeds it is receiving for selling its land to a developer that will create 2,000 homes – as part of a contract that could be worth more than £1 billion.

Appearing in this publication is a good business decision

This year The Golf Business ran profiles on Gleneagles’ hotel manager, golf courses and estate manager and its director of golf, Gary Silcock, who featured on our front cover in May.

Investment is why we are named ‘best golf experience’

At the end of the year the venue was named ‘Best Golf Experience’, ‘Best Pro Shop’ and ‘Best Large Hotel’ at the Scottish Golf Tourism Awards – decided by 33,000 votes from golf consumers across Scotland.

Retention is officially more useful than recruitment

Manchester Metropolitan University Business School worked with 70 golf clubs before producing a report on what the industry can do to grow.

The number one takeout was that clubs waste too much time focussing on recruiting new members when their endeavours should be centred on keeping their existing ones.

Academic study on golf clubs delivers surprising result

Retaining members is cheaper, while recruiting new ones can merely lead to a high churn rate.

One man who agrees is Kettering Golf Club in Northamptonshire’s chairman, Graham Althorpe.

“New members are important, but for us, our best recruiting sergeant is retaining existing members who are pleased with and want to be part of the whole golf club experience,” he said.