Every season, golf club managers review their greens, their tee times, their membership numbers. They obsess over course condition, handicap systems, competition calendars. All of it matters… but there is one question that rarely gets asked with the seriousness it deserves.
What does your food and beverage experience actually say about your club?
I have spent the last couple of years working with golf clubs across the UK, from traditional members' clubs to Top 100 venues, and the pattern I see most consistently is this; F&B is a ticket to fulfil, not an experience to create. Something to keep members from complaining rather than something to make them feel genuinely glad they stayed.
That framing needs to change. And this season is a good time to change it.
Hotels have understood hospitality for decades. Restaurants are catching up. Golf clubs still have a gap to close.
Think about the last truly memorable experience you had as a guest somewhere. The chances are, it involved food or drink; not just what was served, but how it felt. The warmth of the welcome, the care in the detail, the sense that someone had thought about you. That feeling is not difficult to create. It is simply a choice.
The world is accelerating towards digitalisation and optimisation. Every part of our lives is being streamlined, automated, made more efficient. I think golf clubs should be running in the opposite direction; towards people, towards warmth, towards the kind of genuine human connection that is becoming genuinely rare.
Food and beverage is the easiest and most powerful way to do that. Breaking bread together is one of the oldest rituals we have. It is how trust forms, how friendships deepen, how communities build. You will not create a lasting sense of belonging amongst your membership through a good handicap system. You will create it around a table.
So, what should you be thinking about this season?
Start with the coffee. I know it sounds small. It isn't. In 2026, your members are grinding beans at home, visiting specialty coffee shops, and forming strong opinions about extraction and milk texture. A semi-automatic machine and a bag of medium roast from a catering supplier is not going to cut it. The coffee is a proxy for everything else. If you have not invested there, members will notice; and they will draw conclusions about what else you have and haven't invested in.
Think about your menu. Large menus trying to satisfy every demographic are not ambitious; they are a sign of strategic paralysis. Street food culture has taught us something important: one or two things done brilliantly create more loyalty and more conversation than twenty things done averagely. Smaller, more considered, more seasonal; that is the direction of travel.
Think about your low and no alcohol range. A significant proportion of your membership either doesn't drink, is cutting back, or is simply choosing differently on a Tuesday lunchtime. If your answer to "what have you got that's non-alcoholic?" is tap water and orange juice, you are not paying attention.
And think about the environment. The warmth of the welcome when someone walks through the door. The cleanliness of the toilets (which, I promise you, members absolutely notice and judge your kitchen by). The small details that tell people whether they are valued or merely tolerated.
The golf club is one of the last great third places we have. Not home, not work; somewhere between the two, where people come to be part of something. That is a genuinely precious thing in the world we are building. But it only works if the hospitality is real.
This season, make food and beverage a strategic priority; not a service to provide, but a reason to belong.
Have a great week!
Tony
If you'd like dedicated time to work through your club's F&B challenges, book a Power Hour Strategy Call. One hour, focused on your situation, with benchmarking, guidance, and a clear action plan to take away. £245 + VAT.
