Where in Britain a member's guest saves most
The first weekly insight from the index: the visitor fee and the member's guest rate at the same clubs, region by region, and where the gap between the two prices is widest.
Every comparison in the index rests on two figures held for the same club: the green fee a visitor pays, and the rate that club charges when one of its own members signs a guest in. This note takes the country a region at a time and asks where the gap between those two prices is widest.
Across the 264 clubs where both figures are on record, the typical visitor fee is £95 and the typical guest rate is £35. The regional medians below come from the same sample, and a region is only reported once at least five of its clubs hold both figures.
| Region | Clubs | Median guest rate | Median visitor fee | Median saving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 25 | £25 | £150 | £125 |
| North West | 32 | £30 | £100 | £67.50 |
| South East | 49 | £42.50 | £110 | £62.50 |
| East of England | 29 | £40 | £95 | £55 |
| Wales | 19 | £35 | £90 | £49.50 |
| Yorkshire | 20 | £30 | £77.50 | £45 |
| Midlands | 40 | £35 | £77.50 | £43.50 |
| South West | 32 | £37.75 | £77.50 | £42.50 |
| North East | 18 | £28.50 | £62.50 | £30 |
An introduction is worth most in Scotland, where the typical member’s guest plays for £25 on a course that charges a visitor £150, a saving of £125 a round. It is worth least in the North East, where the same two figures are £28.50 and £62.50.
The pattern is not simply that the saving follows the most expensive golf. A region’s gap depends on what its club committees think it is fair to charge a member’s friend, and committees in different parts of the country plainly think differently. The dearest visitor fees and the biggest guest savings do not always sit in the same place, which is exactly why the two prices are worth holding side by side.
The club-by-club figures behind every number here, the method and the caveats are on the index itself.
Free to quote with a credit to Hosted Rounds and a link to this insight. Every figure comes from the same records as the Member’s Guest Rate Index, where the method and the caveats are set out in full.