A WORRYING time for all golf clubs at the moment is their membership renewal date. With falling memberships, golf clubs must start to take a look at the main causes for this.

The time that it takes to play golf makes it hard for somebody with family and work commitments to find the time to play enough to justify a membership. In my opinion this is affecting membership even more than the cost factor.

I remember in 1997 witnessing a 21-year-old Tiger Woods win the Masters. Looking back at this now, I realise that this was one of the best things that ever happened to golf. With the victory, Woods inspired a new generation of golfers and shifted forever who could play the game.

Sixteen years later, we saw history being made again. Guan Tianlang, who wasn’t even alive in 1997, broke out at Augusta as the youngest person ever to compete there. And while he got media attention for making the tournament, he got even more for being penalised for slow play.

This definitely will not have a positive impact on growing the game. When we talk about promoting the game of golf, I’m not sure that penalising a 14-year-old for slow play was the right thing to do? Anyone who was inspired by Guan to play golf may well be having second thoughts about whether they should try it or not.

Golf is intimidating enough as it is. If people feel that the culture of golf is to penalise players rather than encourage them, then it truly is an uphill battle to grow the game. I think it was the wrong call by the official. That’s not how to handle one of golf’s biggest problems.

We need to educate the slow recreational golfer, perhaps without them even knowing it. It’s going to be slower at public courses, simple as that. We need to understand that public golf courses are in the business of pumping out as many groups as they can to generate as many pounds as they can. Good or bad, that’s just the nature of the beast.

Alternatively, at private clubs there is more onus on pace and overall satisfaction of the members. Here we will find a few more regulations on how many players and groups they will allow on the course at any given time.

We need to make golf interesting and fun again - and motivate people to get out and play. For beginners to learn golf, I believe the best time to introduce them to the game is when a golf course isn’t as busy.

This generally is later in the day, when there are fewer players looking to tee off. To help grow the game and make it more enjoyable for the beginning golfer, I believe golf courses should be promoting these twilight hours more effectively. There will be less intimidation, and much lower expectations regarding pace of play. Now summer is officially here (we hope), we’ve launched our summer green fees for any non-members at Rockliffe Hall.

Sunday to Thursday it’s £55 per person or £200 a four ball and Friday and Saturday, £65 per person or £240 a four ball. And all our green fee rates for visitors include a golfer’s roll and a pot of tea or coffee in The Clubhouse before your round!

*******************

A NEW golfing superstar has emerged on to the world scene in the last couple of months by the name of Guan Tianlang. The Chinese sensation has caused a meteoric stir for the first time since a young Tiger Woods.

Time will tell as to whether he rises towards the top players in the game, but his recent achievements make it very hard to think anything else can happen. To make the cut at The Masters is quite an achievement for a senior established player, yet alone a school child of 14. His appearance at Augusta is by no means the first time Guan has made the record books. Last April he became the youngest ever player to appear on the European Tour at the age of 13 years and 173 days.

His debut at the Volvo China Open was far from easy, however, as he missed the cut by ten shots finishing on 12-over par.

Guan took up the sport at the age of four and his game has been honed by respected coach, Danny Webb, close to his home in Guangzhou from the age of six.

Just two weeks after Guan became the youngest player in history to make the cut at The Masters, he went out and shocked the golf world yet again last week by making the cut at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans.

And this week there has been another sign of things to come in Chinese golf after a schoolboy even younger than Guan created history.

Twelve-year-old Ye Wocheng became the youngest player to ever compete in a European Tour event by shooting a seven-over, 79, at the Volvo Open on Thursday, while 16-year-old compatriot Dou Zecheng posted an impressive 70.

Right now, China is by far the largest untapped golf market in the world. China has a population of 1bn people with the fastest growing economy on earth—conditions very conducive to the game of golf.

If even a three percent China’s population takes up the game of golf over the next ten years, they’d have a golfing population larger than that of America.

Just to put Guan’s accomplishments into perspective, Woods first made the cut in his eighth PGA Tour event at the age of 19. Guan is a full five years younger than Woods and has already made the cut at a major championship.

Tadd Fujikawa made headlines a few years ago when he made the cut at the 2007 Sony Open in Hawaii at the age of 16. Guan is a full two years younger than Fujikawa and somehow managed to navigate his way around Augusta National like a seasoned professional.

This is just mind-boggling stuff and the golf world could very well be underestimating the impact that Guan’s performance over the past month will have on the game of golf in China.

I expect to see an Asian major winner in the next decade, and possibly Guan will be that player - even if he already looks like he will have competition in the shape of Wocheng.