Member Article

Luxury Resort tees up major golf drive

Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club, a four star Country Hotel and golf resort near Durham City, has launched a major drive to grow its golf membership and golf breaks business.

Ramside opened England’s newest golf course - The Cathedral Course at Ramside - last September and follows this with the launch of a new flexible and cost-effective golf membership package.

The new membership is called Flexi-Golf and allows golfers to join the club for just £195 and buy bundles of points to exchange for rounds of golf at the resort’s two championship standard courses.

Helen Roseberry, director of golf at Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club, said: “It’s important to recognise that golf has changed and people have much less time to play.

People are busier than ever before. As a North East golf club we need to make it easier for people to access the sport and our golfing community.

Flexible memberships are growing in popularity across the UK and our new course gives us a perfect opportunity to attract new players who may have given up playing because of work or family commitments.“

According to England Golf, the governing body for the sport, membership of golf clubs in the UK dropped by 20 per cent between 2004 and 2013.

The new Flexi-Golf membership guarantees all of the benefits that full members enjoy without the larger financial commitment.

Members can hold an official handicap and play in club competitions, but the pricing structure is more flexible and cost-effective.

“The serious golfers will always turn out, week in and week out, and for anyone playing lots of golf then a full annual membership is still the best investment, but for new starters, infrequent players or golfers coming back to the sport after a break; Flexi-Golf membership is an ideal solution,” added Roseberry.

The Flexi-Golf points system takes into account overall demand for tee-times at the club and prices golf credits at higher rates during peak times, such as the Summer months and at weekends, whereas tee-times are cheaper off-peak during winter and at twilight times (after 3pm).

Ramside Golf Club’s new 18-hole championship Cathedral course opened in September 2014 and is laid out on rolling farmland and through a picturesque wooded valley between Belmont and Pittington on the outskirts of Durham City.

It is part of a £15m development that will see a brand new health club, spa, swimming pool, gymnasium, 47 additional bedrooms and 34 executive residential homes built on the Ramside Estate, with the leisure facilities expected to open in Spring/Summer 2015.

Flexi-Golf@Ramside membership starts from £195 per annum, to find out more visit: www.ramsidehallhotel.co.uk/golf

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matthew Moore .