Most golf clubs throughout the UK are facing a number of difficult problems. These include, but are not limited to
• Diminishing , or non existent waiting lists
• Difficulty in persuading people who come to the top of such lists to pay traditional joining fees (typically less than 20% of those offered membership accept)
• Declining membership
• Increasing average age of members
• Lack of juniors becoming full members
• Growth of “pay and play” rather than play via membership of a club (this is now 60% in England and 50% in Scotland of all rounds played)
• Rapid growth in costs – maintenance of the course, staff wages, health and safety etc
• Decline in usage, and therefore profitability of, Professionals Shop and Services. Recently, a number of clubs have not renewed their professional after retiiral of current incumbent, as the position is not economically viable.
The nett effect of these changes is that the financial pressures on clubs is becoming severe, and it is vital that clubs take action to address these issues before they reach a crisis point.
To address this position, every club needs to increase visitor green fees significantly, and to make every effort to get, and retain, members.

To achieve this, most clubs will need to invest in an up to date web based system as it is through the Internet that people will find the club, and through the Internet the club will communicate with members. The system needs to have a full online capability to raise the club profile, and to provide a professional service to members and visitors alike.

There are 3 vital features that such systems MUST have.  - They must be COMPREHENSIVE to cover all current and future requirements, so one investment only is required. - They must be FUTURE PROOF, so that the club can be sure of a long return on its investment, and they must be PRICED REALISTICALLY, especially in view of the above mentioned crisis.

Most web based systems of this type have, in the past, been very expensive and therefore out of the reach of the average gofl club. However, at 21st Century Golf, we have used the latest technology to break this mould and can now offer a FULL system either FREE or, at worst, at a cost which gives a payback in MONTHS not years.

These systems, where they have been done properly, have proved very successful where they have been implemented in other clubs, and the paybacks are generally very quick. In addition to the increase in visitor revenues, clubs with these systems also increase their internal efficiencies of staff usage, thus lowering admin costs, and/or freeing staff up to do more productive work. The other significant benefit is an increased interaction between the club and its members. This in itself can only help in the club's efforts to get and retain members.

In order to achieve maximum return on this investment, the new website is crucial, since it is through the website that new visitors will find the course, read the information provided and hopefully then place a booking. It is also through the website the club will be able to provide a better service to existing and future members.
Previous generation websites are simply not capable of providing the necessary search engine optimisation, nor were they responsive enough to enable rapid changing of content, which is a pre-requisite for a modern, online website. This has also been addressed as new sites must be designed with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind, as this is vital to getting visitors to the site. (See Technical on this as well)

The system is based on a package called Joomla. Joomla is an Open Source Content Management System (See Technical for more information on Open Source and CMS). To exploit this fantastic technology, we have developed a unique, specialist golf club template which is used to create the new site. The Joomla CMS will enable specific end users to maintain and change the content thorughout the ENTIRE site (not just specifc areas as most current club systems do). 

New sites will be updated and maintained by selected staff and officials, and is instantly updated when any change is made. Because of the system design and components used, this can be carried out by non IT people. The training for administration is not significant in time or cost - anyone who can create a word processing document will be capable of editing and maintaining the site.

Without doubt, this system does take golf clubs into the 21st Century