Cancelling a golf membership

Natumn

My Dad has signed up to a 15 month golf membership but since he signed up the course was shut for the first 3 months and now the course is in dyer condition. Some holes are still closed and the fairways and greens are more like the rough. Rumour has it it is due to green keepers not being paid as the company are in trouble. Is there any possible way around the T&C's so he can get his money back and go to a golf club that actually has some pride in its course??

unholyangel

15 months is a bit of a strange term. Was that to perhaps accommodate the 3 months it would be closed?

What do the terms and conditions state? What does he pay the membership money in exchange for?

This is technically "off season" though, many clubs shut down during winter or only offer part services during those months (at least around here, certainly cant speak for the whole of the UK!).

Membership is only available by the year (again, around here) and other than that, the only other option is to pay per round/for the day (although if you join halfway through, the fee's are usually less since they run jan-dec for example and not 12 months from when you join).

Natumn

I was wrong about the length of membership. It is in fact a 12 month membership. The reason the course was closed was originally due to the bad weather at the start of the year but even after that had passed it didn't reopen for a few weeks. Once it did reopen, it wasn't even the full course they still had about 3/4 holes closed for another couple of weeks.
Other golf clubs within this time had their 18 holes open.

I'm waiting to get a copy of his terms and conditions to read.

The course itself is awful, the fairways haven't been cut in, the greens are in poor condition. The 1st 3 months of his membership it was closed. Surely you pay a membership to play a course that is looked after. Are they not breaching this contract by doing this?

wealdroam

Have you noticed that the last three months have been something like the wettest on record?*

Where is this golf course?
Is it in a part of the country that has been underwater for several weeks?

If so, perhaps the green-keepers were somewhat hampered by the conditions.

Is there a condition in the T&Cs that says something like "no compensation is payable if we cannot open the course due to circumstances beyond our control"?


*probably. I haven't checked.

wallbash

15 months is a bit of a strange term

Not at our club, its standard practice to offer 15 for 12 if joining any time between Sept and March .

This is technically "off season" though, many clubs shut down during winter o

Again disagree, we have been playing throughout the winter ( we did lose the 9th for two weeks)

Did your father not inspect the course before joining?

ps I hope he sorts it out and joins a better club, we have no complaints, the membership can even be suspended if health issues arrive.

Natumn

I'm in the North East of England so we have not been affected like down south so that is not an excuse.

He played the course a lot during spring/summer 2013 so he decided to join in Jan 2014 but it has had problem after problem since he joined.

He wants to join a better course and already has one lined up but until either this membership ends or he can find a way out of the membership and get refunded he can't see the point in forking out another £500 plus.