What have you been doing at 9pm on Monday evenings this summer? If you’re like me, you’d have been perched in front of a television, watching Mary Queen of Shops for six weeks and, more recently, Dragon’s Den, on BBC Two.
   If you didn’t see it, Mary Queen of Shops involved retail adviser Mary Portas visiting six shopkeepers whose businesses were failing. From a hairdresser to a baker, the sextuple had more in common than the stress they were suffering due to a severe drop in profits; none of them had had the commercial sense to canvass potential customers in order to ascertain what they needed to change about their shops, which were all stuck in a time warp. And all of them, which is probably why they were shortlisted to be the six featured, actually showed resistance to the change that was then advised to them in order to be profitable again – because they felt it would alienate their existing customers.
   If you did see it, the parallels with golf clubs were obvious. The facilities that have struggled the most in the last two years have been those that have stood still – seemingly paralysed by a fear of upsetting a dwindling number of, albeit loyal, members who are resistant to change. Meanwhile the clubs that have either continued their progressive policies or seen some form of transformation – based on surveying potential members – have not just been successful in recruiting, but have even achieved good retention levels. So, for example, this magazine last month highlighted the taster days Gog Magog GC introduced for women that led to 27 new members joining, and this month looks at the raft of measures Burhill Golf and Leisure has deployed that has seen profits soar.
   The success of these television programmes suggests that the British public appreciates commercial shrewdness but takes a macabre pleasure in seeing certain people falling flat on their faces. On Dragon’s Den recently, the inventor of a pitchfork repairer that featured a pencil sharpener fulfilled both criteria when he was met with incredulity for not knowing how many of his competitor’s products were sold in golf clubs, but he got the investment because it was deemed lucrative to corporate golfers.
   Both programmes, in their own ways, demonstrate the financial opportunities and threats for golf clubs today.

Alistair Dunsmuir / editor