The Power of Café Culture

I've been preparing for a podcast this week, and it's got me thinking about accessibility in golf. Not accessibility in the physical sense; but the emotional and social barriers that exist for people who haven't grown up around the game.

Golf clubs can be intimidating places. I think we sometimes forget that.

If you've been running a club for years, if golf has always been part of your life, it's easy to underestimate just how daunting it feels to walk through those doors for the first time.

Consider the journey many new golfers take... taster sessions, range work, perhaps a local nine-hole course, then finally summoning the courage to join a private club. That final step is enormous; particularly for underrepresented groups in the game. Women, minorities, juniors. There's an unspoken anxiety about belonging, about fitting in, about knowing the rules (written and unwritten).

So how do we lower those barriers?

I've been thinking about my parents and how their generation socialised. My mum might go shopping with friends, or they'd meet at the pub for a quick drink. Café culture simply wasn't a thing in the way it is today. Grabbing a coffee wasn't really how people connected.

That's changed dramatically.

Café culture is now woven into the fabric of modern social life. It's how people catch up with friends, how colleagues have informal meetings, how remote workers find their rhythm. The coffee shop has become a default social space for millions of people.

And here's what struck me... it's significantly easier to invite someone to grab a coffee than it is to invite them to play golf.

Think about that for a moment.

If one of your members wants to introduce a friend, a colleague, or a family member to your club, the path of least resistance isn't a round of golf. It's not even lunch. It's coffee. A twenty-minute, low-commitment, familiar social ritual that almost everyone is comfortable with.

I understand that many clubs have rules around non-member access to facilities. But plenty of clubs welcome external visitors, and for those that do, café culture presents a brilliant; often overlooked opportunity to introduce people to your club in the gentlest possible way.

Making it work

If you want to leverage café culture as an accessibility tool, there are a few things that need to be in place.

First, clarity. Your website should explicitly communicate that non-members are welcome for coffee. Don't make people guess. Don't make them feel they need to ask permission. Make it obvious.

Second; and I can't stress this enough... quality. If you're going to do coffee, you absolutely have to go for it. A seven-out-of-ten coffee offering isn't going to cut it. Unfortunately, that loses to the local Costa every time. People's expectations around coffee are higher than they've ever been. You need the details; quality beans, proper equipment, trained staff, oat milk, syrups, the works. Coffee culture has matured, and your offering needs to reflect that.

Third, the cake. This is where golf clubs have a genuine competitive advantage.

Cake isn't subject to VAT in the UK; which presents a favourable margin opportunity. But beyond the financials, homemade cake is a statement. High street coffee shops buy in their pastries, and that's fine. But when you have a kitchen team with qualified Chefs, a homemade Victoria sponge or a freshly baked scone isn't just a secondary spend... it's a demonstration of your operation's quality. It's a preview of what you're capable of. It says something about who you are.

The bigger picture

The world has changed over the last generation. People are drinking less alcohol. They're socialising differently. The pub is no longer the automatic gathering place it once was. Coffee has stepped into that space; and clubs that recognise this shift have an opportunity.

Coffee and cake might seem like small beer (if you'll forgive the expression) compared to the main event of golf. But as a tool for accessibility; as a way to gently introduce people to your club, to let them experience your hospitality without the pressure of a tee time or a membership enquiry... it's remarkably powerful.

If you want to encourage new people into your golf club; or even if you simply want more of your existing members to use the food and beverage facilities more often; start with coffee and cake.

Make it clear. Make it accessible. And please... make it absolutely excellent.

The clubs that have doubled down on coffee quality and training are already seeing the benefits. The question is whether your club is ready to join them.

Quick one — if you’ve not done this yet, my scorecard helps you spot gaps across guest experience, costs, and day-to-day ops. Takes a few minutes and you’ll get a proper report at the end.