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You Spoke... We Listened

17th February 2025

Following the completion of the Golf At Goodwood Member Survey we would like to share our actions with you.

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60% of members had not yet used The Copse, or didn’t think it represented value for money.

We have taken the decision to relax the current rules, allowing far greater access for members. We believe these changes represent exceptional value for money and remain true to our membership model.

20% of members mentioned they’re unable to secure lessons at The Academy due to availability.

We have hired a new ‘Performance Coach’ in Jordan Byrne, who will take the majority of custom fit sessions at The Academy, this in turn creates numerous additional hours of availability for our teaching pro’s which we believe will help this issue. In addition, we have employed two new PGA Trainee Pro’s, Anna Freidinova and Charlie Strickland, who will be assisting with all Junior coaching. As a result, our other more experienced teaching pro’s will concentrate on one-to-one lessons, creating an additional 24 hours a week in the Summer months for members to acquire tuition from our PGA Pro’s.

80% of members mentioned they don’t buy golf hardware from Golf At Goodwood, with 50% citing price as the reason and 20% citing ability to custom being the reason as to why.

Golf At Goodwood price matches all hardware sales with online stores. In addition, with Jordan Byrne now employed as our Performance Coach and as a custom fit specialist, there is now ample opportunity to obtain custom fit sessions at The Academy.

50% of members are interested in representing the club, however 27% of those don’t know how to get involved.

We are in the process of creating better communication channels to ensure as many members as possible are aware of how to get involved in representing the club. This is from new members to long standing members. We hope to communicate more on this in the coming weeks.

40% of members are satisfied by the Clubs competition diary, yet 28% would like to see more fun competitions and 25% would like to see more team competitions.

We have been reviewing the club diary over the past month, with some minor tweaks taking place as we try to ensure the best possible balance for the majority of Members.

65% of members were interested in joining a club run community WhatsApp group.

We have since created this group with nearly 400 Members having joined already. This is being used for club operational news and we have received some great feedback.

There was an appetite to see more Pro’s tips and advice in our club communication channels

We are about to launch a series of videos across our social media channels, showcasing our PGA Professionals on The Copse. We will continue this as the year progresses and look to expand these into the newsletters as well.

There was an appetite to have more ‘club updates’ regarding upcoming plans in the newsletters.

We will communicate any important club plans as soon as we’re able to do so. We have released information about a Members evening where we will talk about our Park Course Masterplan, with our course architects European Golf Design, with work about to commence to phase 1 of the project.  

Many Members mentioned the issues surrounding securing a tee time.

There is a long-term plan in place to reduce the number of members and rounds of golf that are played over the year. In addition, we’re reducing all non member golf by 10% each year, this has been our target since 2022 and we’re pleased to say so far we have hit this target in both 2023 and 2024. This will continue over the coming years as we try to create more availability for more members to secure tee bookings. 

Many members mentioned issues relating to the Park Course bunkers.

We are aware of issues relating to the Park Course bunkers, we have engaged with course architects European Golf Design regarding the Park Course masterplan, of which our plans are about to be released to the membership. The works will take place over the course of a few winters, with bunker renovations taking place, ultimately improving the quality of the bunkers but also the over product and playing experience.

Many members cited a need to help new member integrate into the club better, with more social events and interclub competitions.

We are working on some plans behind the scenes to improve new member integration, as well as member integration in general. We’re working on a social events calendar which we hope to share with the membership soon. We’re also working on a new ‘Buddy system’ specifically for the Ladies section following some direct feedback and we will be providing more interclub competition in the Summer as well.

Many members expressed the need for a golf specific clubhouse, rather than the shared clubhouse that of The Kennels.

This is a project that the club is working closely on with The Estate’s Board of Directors and forms a key part in the clubs current strategic vision document. This is seen as a one of the key projects for The Estate with some exciting plans being drawn up for our Park Course building. At present, we’re not in a position to share anything with the membership, but as soon as we have something more concrete to share, we will do so.

Many members displayed frustration at not being able to see their credit balances.

We’re about to go live with a new tee booking and membership system, as well as booking tee times, the system will allow members to view their credit balances online as well as top up credits online. This is a huge positive following many years of hard work that have gone into getting this over the line. We will be sharing more news on this before the end of February.

Many members mentioned a lack of marshals was contributing towards some pace of play issues across both courses.

We currently operate with a 1st tee starter on The Downs Course as much as we can, as well as marshals thereafter. This increases with a presence almost every day through the Summer months. This has been met with positivity both in terms of experience and also pace of play. We are working with our marshals to ensure the best possible management of pace of play is in force ready for the season. We will also be looking at how we increase the marshalling presence on The Park Course in 2025.

If you have any questions regarding the changes and improvements being made at Golf At Goodwood, please contact the team via golf@goodwood.com.