Asked whether Scotland would see fewer clubs being run directly by their members, he was unequivocal: “I don’t think there’s any question. I would say absolutely yes.”
The debate around this is contentious. Proposals involving TALGC and The Glen in North Berwick sparked fierce reactions earlier this year, with club members ultimately voting against pursuing a deal with TALGC.
Consultant Liam Greasley says golf club membership is increasingly regarded as a ‘retail purchase’, with fewer people willing to take on responsibility for running the business (Image: Supplied)
For Mr Greasley the episode illustrated both the emotional attachment many golfers still feel towards member ownership, and the wider transition taking place across the sport. More fundamentally, he believes golfers increasingly view club membership as a consumer choice rather than a civic commitment to help run the organisation they belong to.
“Membership is going to become a retail purchase,” he said. “The culture has changed.
“When they join, they join to play golf. They didn’t join to have the responsibility of running a business that has perhaps been challenged by the environment that it operates in.”
He further argues that modern golfers are more discerning and less likely to remain loyal if standards fall.
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“I want a better golf course. I want better customer service. I want a better clubhouse. And if I don’t get that, I’ll go somewhere else,” he said.
“The whole world has moved forward. It goes back to the whole point about membership as a retail purchase. Those are the things that you want from the club you’ve decided to join.”
His comments challenge one of Scottish golf’s defining traditions, with hundreds of clubs across the country owned and governed by their members through volunteer committees. Mr Greasley says that model is coming under increasing strain, particularly among the substantial tier of clubs that sit between Scotland’s internationally-renowned courses and its smallest community venues.
“There’s no one model fits all, but the biggest challenge in the industry is not at the top and it’s not at the bottom, it’s in the middle,” he said.
Course improvement work under way at Scotscraig Golf Club following the change in management (Image: Supplied)
Evidence from the last two years of The Herald Scottish Golf Survey suggests those pressures are being felt across much of the industry. Findings from 2025 showed that rising costs had become clubs’ greatest challenge, ahead of ageing membership, while the 2026 survey suggested many mid-market clubs were operating on tight margins with limited scope to pass increasing costs on to members.
Broadly speaking, subscription fees rose far more slowly than visitor green fees between 2025 and 2026. Across Greater Glasgow and Lanarkshire, visitor prices increased by an average of 10% compared with a 4.2% rise in subscriptions. Similar patterns were recorded elsewhere in Scotland.
Mr Greasley said clubs with substantial infrastructure faced a particular challenge.
“We’ve probably been under-invested for years, and we’ve probably been under-invested to ensure that membership fees remain low,” he said. “Unfortunately, the economy, along with the broader culture associated with that economy, has created quite a significant impact on their ability to continue to run successfully as they were.”
Many remained excellent golf clubs, he stressed, but were finding it increasingly difficult to fund improvements and major maintenance projects.
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The pressures became clear at Scotscraig, where Mr Greasley was brought in as a consultant in 2022 following the retirement of the club manager. The club had around 700 members, a seven-day adult subscription of roughly £650 and annual turnover of about £500,000, leaving little room for unexpected increases in operating costs.
As wages, utility bills and other expenses increased after the pandemic, the club sought to grow visitor and golf-day income, almost doubling turnover to around £1 million. Even so, Mr Greasley said comparable 18-hole clubs typically cost between £900,000 and £1.2m a year to operate.
“It’s difficult to go from a turnover of half a million pounds to a million pounds in any case,” he said. “Against that backdrop, you can understand the real scale of the challenge.”
At Scotscraig, the eventual solution was to separate ownership of the club’s assets from its day-to-day operation. Members retained ownership of the course and clubhouse while TALGC took a long-term operating lease.
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Mr Greasley said 18 parties initially expressed an interest in the opportunity, ranging from outright purchasers to prospective leaseholders. TALGC’s proposal included a 125-year operating lease and an agreement protecting members’ access, plus controls on future fee increases. Mr Greasley said more than £5m has been invested in the course and clubhouse since TALGC took over management duties.
George Heron, outgoing captain of Scotscraig, said years of limited reinvestment had left facilities tired and made it harder for staff to do their jobs. Although members initially feared losing control or seeing visitors take priority, he said the agreement had protected tee times while paving the way for fresh improvements.
Asked whether he would vote for the arrangement again, Mr Heron replied: “Absolutely. 100%.”
Mr Greasley insisted that embracing outside investment did not have to mean giving up a club’s identity or its assets.
“The idea of investment is not selling your soul to the devil,” he said. “The most important thing for every venue is it remains in control of its future.”
George Heron, outgoing captain at Scotscraig Golf Club, said he would ‘absolutely’ vote again in favour of the outside investment from TALGC (Image: Supplied)
He argued that Scottish golf also needed to become more comfortable with the concept of profitability.
“Profit seems to be a dirty word in golf clubs in Scotland,” he said. “But if you’re not making profit, you’re going backwards, because you’re not going to be able to deal with increases in employment rates, increases in utility rates or anything else that comes your way.”
For Mr Greasley, the issue is not whether a club remains member-owned, but whether it remains viable.
“The most important thing is that a club remains open,” he said. “If there’s closure, then it doesn’t matter who was the owner or operator, because that’s not a great advert for golf in Scotland.”
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(Image: Damian Shields)