Troon Welbeck is an unusual hybrid in South Ayrshire: a member‑run club with its own clubhouse, bar and a busy competition schedule, but no course of its own.
Instead, members pay around £275 in club fees and then buy a separate South Ayrshire Council season ticket – ranging from £495 to £616, with concessions – that gives access to eight municipal courses across the region, including the Lochgreen, Darley and Fullarton layouts used regularly by Welbeck.
That arrangement gives members year‑round links golf at a comparatively modest cost, but also exposes the golf club to council decisions on tee‑time access and pricing. Yet club secretary Graham McAra, a member for 31 years, stresses that Troon Welbeck still sees itself as a well‑run, positive club working with the council where it can to maintain the backbone of public links golf in Ayrshire.
(Image: Damian Shields)
You have no course of your own and cannot charge green fees, so where does the club’s revenue come from?
We drive income by getting members to join and by running social events. At the weekend we had a quiz night, and we have games nights. When we have our open competitions, we invite players up to the clubhouse, we provide them with refreshments, and we can put on a buffet for some of them if they want.
We try to cover the cost of the lease – our rent – from members’ fees, and the income we get from the bar is there to subsidise other things that we do.
How would you describe the relationship with the local council?
We have a good working relationship with South Ayrshire Council and Golf South Ayrshire which benefits all parties. With regard to agreeing fixtures, we give Golf South Ayrshire a list of our competitions annually, as the other clubs do, and we work with them for our open and members-only club competitions.
What changed after Covid around tee times, and how has that affected the club?
We used to have reserved tee times, and we paid money for them – it was not free – on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays but our agreement for this was not renewed by South Ayrshire Council and due to this our membership suffered.
Like a lot of clubs the council and the Troon Links municipal golf complex use the BRS booking system which is fine during the summer, but has its restrictions during the winter months. That has curtailed a lot of members as well.
Club secretary Graham McAra says Troon Welbeck is the only municipal-based members’ club in the area with its own clubhouse (Image: Supplied)
You have strong views on how the council balances members and visitors. What do you see happening there?
Public, council‑run links cannot survive on members alone. They have to bring visitors in, and that is where they say they get most of their revenue. They are charging £50 a round for Lochgreen and Darley in the summer. If you have a visitor coming down ten times a year, that is £500.
As season ticket holders we pay between £495 for a five-day ticket and £616 for an ordinary ticket which allows you to play seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. When you think about it, who is the most profitable to the council?
You can understand why they are doing it, but for the good of club golfers it is not ideal, and you do find members struggling to get a game at busy times because visitors are playing.
Given that, why are you still optimistic about Welbeck’s future – and about this model?
Let us just say we are a very positive club, a very successful club.
Like every other club we have the same issues – membership and age demographics – but all in all Welbeck is a well‑run, well‑supported club. We enjoy playing over the courses, we get our competition times, and we have a great relationship with South Ayrshire.
When you look at it as £275 for Welbeck plus a seven-day season ticket, so you are at about £890 with eight courses you can play over. Compare that with a private club at £1,100 for one course, it is a value‑for‑money argument.
All we ask is for members to come down, play their golf, and enjoy themselves. From where I am sitting, that is still a very good deal.
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(Image: Damian Shields)