Journal
Guides & analysis from the golf market.
Golf course marketing guides with nothing hidden: every number measured firsthand, with a source and access date. If it’s in the data, it’s in the text.
By Sebastian Scholz · 7 articles · latest As of September 13, 2026
Analysis · As of September 13, 2026
How to increase golf club membership, and why retention matters more.
In 2019, 49,152 new golfers joined and 48,715 left, and the fourth year is seen as the deciding one. What the data on resignations shows, and how a club turns new members into members who stay.
Read the analysis-
Guide · As of September 28, 2026
Starting golf: what it really costs.
About €388 to your Platzreife with your own set: taster sessions from €0, a median €259 course, a used set with bag at a median €110. Real prices and my own story.
Read the guide -
Guide · As of September 28, 2026
Golf membership in Germany: what it costs and when it pays off.
Published fees of 29 golf clubs in and around Hamburg: €1,200 to €2,400 a year, median €1,440, break-even at a median of 19 rounds. Every number taken from the club’s own fee page.
Read the guide -
Guide · As of September 26, 2026
Green fees in Hamburg: what a round really costs.
The official green fees of 34 golf courses in and around Hamburg: €55 to €140 for 18 holes on a weekday, median €80. Every number taken from the course’s own website.
Read the guide -
Analysis · As of September 3, 2026
ChatGPT Ads: your golf club can now advertise inside AI answers.
Launched in Germany on August 24, self-serve since August 31, a $1 billion run rate in under 200 days. All the facts from OpenAI’s primary sources, plus an honest first-mover calculation for golf clubs.
Read the analysis -
Market analysis · As of August 17, 2026
Golf in Hamburg: the ecosystem in numbers.
47 facilities in the area, Germany’s No. 1 course right in the city, more than twice as many courses as around Berlin. My own analysis of data from the DGV (German Golf Association), with a map and a comparison of major cities.
Read the analysis -
Guide · As of August 10, 2026
Fernmitgliedschaft: what a distance golf membership costs and what it really gets you.
Documented annual fees from €29 to €385, the honest story of the golden “R” on the DGV membership card, and a clear calculation of who the model pays off for.
Read the guide -
Guide · As of August 8, 2026
Platzreife: the German golf license. Costs, process and what comes next.
Documented course prices from €99 to €299, the path to the test, and the question hardly anyone writes about: why so many people never make it into a club afterward.
Read the guide -
Analysis · As of August 7, 2026
Why hotels outrank golf clubs on Google.
Search Google for “golf allgäu” and three hotels rank ahead of almost every club in the region. The live top 10, the search volumes behind it, and the one difference that decides the order.
Read the analysis -
The Hamburg guide (in German) · As of July 7, 2026
Indoor golf in Hamburg: all 10 facilities compared.
Prices of €10–50 per hour, TrackMan vs. Foresight, five ways to book. Every simulator bay in Greater Hamburg, with provider profiles and an FAQ. This guide is in German.
Read the guide (in German)
More guides are in the works. Have a topic in mind? hello@golfancy.de
Who writes here
First came the game. Then came everything else.
I’m Sebastian, from Hamburg, and golf got hold of me in 2016. It hasn’t let go since. So much so that at some point I built my career around it.
What keeps me in the game is its honesty. The course doesn’t care what you do for a living or how your last year went. It simply shows you where you stand. For four hours, every single time.
And then there’s the other half of me: more than ten years in marketing. Sadly, it never fully switches off on the course. I stand on wonderful courses that hardly anyone finds. I see clubs with a story they never tell. Every time, I leave with the same thought: so little separates this course from the people who would love it.
This journal is my attempt to write that little bit down. For operators who want to know where they really stand, and for golfers like me who are simply curious how this market works. I collected every number here myself, with a source and access date, so you can check the math.
My day job is external Head of Marketing for golf clubs, golf brands and resorts. If you feel like talking about it after reading, I’d be glad to hear from you. And if you just need the guide, that’s what it’s here for.