Payments for golf clubs
Subscriptions, green fees, societies, the bar. One partner, one person to call.
Card terminals in the clubhouse and the pro shop, online payments for visitor tee times and society bookings, and Direct Debit for member subscriptions, all with one partner.
How the money moves
Every way the club takes money, with one partner.
Most clubs run three payment systems that do not talk to each other.
A terminal in the pro shop on one contract, the bar till on another, and a booking system taking visitor cards through whichever provider the software supplier happened to pick. Three statements, three support queues, and nobody quite sure what the club pays in total.
It is worse than it looks, because a club is not one merchant. The professional is very often a separate business with their own till and their own agreement, so the pro shop's rate has nothing to do with the club's, and neither party can see the other's. The one person who could sort it out is a secretary or a general manager with a committee to answer to and a golf course to run.
Subscriptions
Annual renewals, collected on time
Most clubs still take the year's subscription in one payment at the start of the subscription year. It is the largest single bill a member receives, it arrives at the same time as everything else in the calendar, and it is the moment people quietly decide not to renew.
Spreading it monthly by Direct Debit is the retention argument, and it only works if the collection is genuinely reliable, because a failed subscription payment is an awkward phone call between people who see each other in the bar. Direct Debit on UK rails does not fail because a card was reissued, the amount is set by the club rather than the member, and a failure is reported with a reason rather than discovered in the accounts three weeks later.
Categories are handled as categories. Seven-day, five-day, intermediate, country and social all sit at their own rates on the same collection run, and a joining fee, where a club still charges one, goes on the first collection rather than needing a separate transaction.
- Direct Debit for monthly subscriptions, on UK rails
- Annual payment still on card for members who prefer it
- Every membership category at its own rate on one run
- Joining fees collected with the first payment
- Failures flagged with a reason, and retried
Visitors and societies
Society and group bookings
Visitor green fees are straightforward: a card online when the tee time is booked, or a terminal in the pro shop for the walk-up. Societies are not, and they are usually the bigger number.
A society booking is one organiser, a party of a dozen or more, a deposit taken well in advance, a balance due before the day and a final number that moves right up to the week of. The organiser is not spending their own money, they are collecting from twelve people who all pay differently, so what they need is a link for a total they can chase against, and a clean refund when three players drop out. Not twelve separate green fee transactions.
Catering, buggies and a prize fund all end up on the same booking. They should end up on the same payment.
- Online card payments for visitor tee times
- Deposit and balance against one society booking
- A single link for the organiser's total
- Catering, buggies and prizes on the same payment
- Clean refunds when the numbers change
What one provider looks like
Terminals where the club needs them
Clubhouse bar, pro shop and halfway house, plus Tap to Pay on a phone for the drinks buggy and the starter's hut.
Subscriptions by Direct Debit
UK Direct Debit for monthly and annual subscriptions, every category at its own rate, failures handled properly.
The club and the pro, separately
Two businesses on one site, each a merchant in their own right, on terms each can actually see.
One partner, one person to call
The club's payments in one place, with a named contact who knows the setup.
Questions
Often the honest answer is that you should not, at least not immediately. The case for moving is that the subscription collection, the visitor card payments and the bar all sit with one partner and one person accountable for the lot, rather than a bureau for one and two card providers for the others. If the bureau is working and the club is happy, that is a reasonable thing to leave alone.
It is normal, and it is handled by treating it as what it is: two businesses on one site. The club is a merchant and the professional is a merchant, each with their own agreement and their own settlement, each on terms negotiated for their own volume. What the club gets is a clear view of its own costs for the first time, which is usually the thing nobody has.
Then the useful conversation is about when, not whether. Bring the contract to the call and we will tell you what it actually costs to leave and when the notice window opens. If the sensible answer is to wait eight months, we will say so.
Almost certainly, which is why we put the comparison in writing rather than in a conversation. Bring your current statements to the call and you will leave with a document that can go in front of a finance sub-committee without needing anyone to remember what was said.
Talk to us about your club
Thirty minutes, your current statements if you have them, and a straight answer on what one provider would cost. Including if the answer is that you are better off where you are.