The Shed That Never Was: Why Golf Club Operations Beat Marketing Every Time

Picture this: It's November 2017, and London's hottest restaurant reservation is impossible to get. Food bloggers are buzzing. The waiting list stretches for weeks. Number one on TripAdvisor out of more than 18,000 London venues.

There's just one problem: it doesn't exist.

Seven years on, this story offers UK golf clubs a crucial lesson about the difference between marketing problems and operational reality.

The Garden Shed That Fooled a City

The Shed at Dulwich was nothing more than a garden shed, a burner phone, and journalist Oobah Butler's brilliant social experiment. He created mood-based cuisine photos using bleach tablets and shaving foam, claimed the restaurant was "appointment-only," and used fake reviews to climb from last place to #1 in seven months.

When Butler finally hosted one real dinner—serving frozen supermarket meals as haute cuisine—some guests wanted to return, convinced they'd experienced something exceptional. The gall of it is fascinating, but what's more revealing is how easily it worked in 2017.

The 2025 Reality: Members Can't Be Fooled

Thankfully, the world has moved on. Diners are more savvy now—they cross-reference reviews, check multiple platforms, and talk to each other. This is especially true in UK golf clubs, where members visit regularly and compare notes at the 19th hole.

Yet I've spent this week pointing out that many clubs still think they have a marketing problem when the reality is simpler: their operation isn't good enough.

When Clubs Confuse Marketing with Operations

How many UK golf clubs blame poor F&B performance on needing better marketing, competitive pricing, or email promotions, while the actual member experience is:

• Breakfast service that's slow when members need to make tee times

• Coffee with watery espresso and poor milk creating substandard lattes

• Lunch offerings limited to tired sandwiches and reheated soups

• Staff who seem inconvenienced by serving members

The problem isn't your marketing. The problem is your offering.

The Coffee Test: Where Quality Really Shows

Here's something fascinating: nowadays, people judge places on their coffee. One of my clients has outstanding espresso, and I made that point on my first visit. The GM said that was common feedback... their real, honest reviews are based on doing a great job with the coffee.

That's authentic reputation building. No fake reviews, no mood-based menu descriptions, no artificial scarcity. Just consistently excellent coffee that members notice and genuinely praise.

Compare that to clubs serving watery lattes with poor milk while wondering why their F&B operation struggles. Members taste that difference every single visit.

Get the Basics Right First

The Shed proved you could temporarily fool people with smoke and mirrors, but it collapsed when reality met expectation. Your members experience your F&B operation multiple times per week—they can't be fooled by fancy menu descriptions for mediocre food or marketing emails promoting substandard offerings.

Before focusing on promotional strategies or competitive pricing, ask yourself: Is your basic breakfast and lunch operation consistently good enough to retain members without any marketing at all?

The clubs that succeed focus on operational fundamentals:

Get the coffee right; it's the first impression of every day and what members genuinely review Make lunch reliable; members need to trust they'll get a decent meal after their round, extending the club experience
Train your staff properly; service should enhance the club experience Execute consistently; members should know what to expect every visit

Get these basics right, and everything else... member satisfaction, positive word-of-mouth, operational profitability... falls into line naturally.

The Simple Truth

Unlike The Shed's one-time victims, your members visit regularly and base their satisfaction on consistent operational delivery, not clever marketing campaigns. They're people who want reliable, quality food service that enhances their membership.

The question isn't whether you can create buzz around your F&B operation. The question is whether your coffee is good enough that members actually want to start their day with you, and whether your lunch is reliable enough that they'll choose you over driving elsewhere.

In the end, people see through the hype. The quality has to be there.

Get that right first. Everything else is just noise.

TL;DR: The Bottom Line

The Shed at Dulwich reached #1 through fake reviews but collapsed when reality hit. Today's golf club members visit regularly and can't be fooled by marketing spin covering operational shortcomings.

Many UK clubs think they have a marketing problem when they have an operational problem. Focus on the basics first: outstanding coffee (people judge places on this now), reliable breakfast service, decent lunch options, and consistent execution.

The simple truth: Quality has to be there before marketing matters. Get the operations right—everything else falls into line.

Is your club focusing on marketing solutions for operational problems? What's your coffee really like?

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.