Growing your club's membership in 2025 means meeting golfers where they are. In a world where convenience is key, giving potential and existing members an easy way to join, renew, and connect with your club is essential for growth. Luckily, as an SCGA Member Club, you have access to a range of free tools designed to help you do just that. If you're not tapping into these resources, your club might be stuck in the sand trap while a whole new group of golfers is teeing off without you.
Let's start with the basics: it's 2025. If you don't have a way for members to join and renew with your club online, then you're severely limiting your ability to grow your membership. Thankfully as an SCGA Member Club, we'll provide you with a free tool to start collecting your payments online. Not only does it make it easy and convenient for new members to join, it also helps keep your current members active with multiple automated renewal reminders before their membership is due to expire and allows them the choice to auto-renew their membership each year.
Plus it's designed to meet all of your club's specific requirements. Need to approve new members before they're added to your roster? Have different levels of membership? Have certain parameters on who's allowed to join the club? All of these can be automated to your club's unique portal.
Over 75% of SCGA clubs are utilizing the Online Join & Renew platform, so don't get left behind. If you're ready to get started, just fill out this form.
Creating a path for members to join your club online is the first step, but that doesn't do you much good if they can't find you. There are plenty of ways you can establish an online presence for your club, from creating a website to starting a social media page, but the easiest way to get started is getting your club listed on the SCGA Club Finder. Hundreds of golfers come to the SCGA website every day looking for a club to join, so make sure they can find you there. Golfers can narrow results based on filters like location, favorite courses, and types of events you host so the more information you provide, the better we can match you with the right golfers.
Get your club listed by sending us some basic info about your club.
Speaking of visibility, there's nothing wrong with going old-school in your outreach methods. If you have a course or courses that your club frequents, ask management if you can put some signs up in the clubhouse promoting your club. You could also consider printing some business cards for your members that they can hand out to prospects they meet out in the wild.
Don't have the time or resources to create these yourself? We've got you covered. The SCGA will provide the artwork services and customize for your needs; you print and distribute.
More and more businesses are offering subscription-based services for similar products, and many of them hand out free trials for prospective users to test their product. If you’re looking to grow your membership, it’s time to start looking at your club the same way. And if you've created your Online Join/Renew Portal through the SCGA, you can easily set up a free trial program for your club. Last year, over 75% of members who signed up with a free trial continued on for a full year of membership, many of whom would never have joined without this option.
This is another method to introduce unfamiliar golfers to the club experience. 15,000+ golfers per year come directly to the SCGA for the sole purpose of obtaining a Handicap Index. Instead of offering these members a direct membership, we've partnered with over 100 SCGA member clubs to offer an Associate Membership that provides these golfers partial access to club events and benefits. Participating AMN clubs receive new members, revenue and a chance to connect with local golfers. Additionally, the SCGA sends automated emails to these members with information on how to upgrade to a full membership with your club.
If you'd like to join the network, sign up here.