Is it time we took a swing on “golf’s Soho House” Caddi Club?
Soho House is one of two things to Londoners: it’s either the bane of their life, a place where friends force you to enjoy yourself in an overcrowded central spot, or it is the capital’s oasis, where discretion and exclusivity reigns supreme.
Why would any other business like to be associated with its model? Because it is successful, even managing director Nick Jones has been forced to say it is oversubscribed.
But a will for an offering that feels exclusive and just about accessible at the same time might just be something that Jones and Aaron Lloyd-Goodwin have in common.
Lloyd-Goodwin is the founder of Caddi Club, the member’s club focused around golf; where pros help improve your swing with a strawberry daiquiri nearby.
They say their USP is the allowance of people to use their venues instead of escaping beyond the M25 to practise their bunker recovery.
My future family is half-French, so I have got some family in Paris. We’re looking at Paris and then Amsterdam and Berlin, basically major cities in Europe.
Aaron Lloyd-Goodwin
Open up golf
“We are just trying to open up golf to people it hasn’t really been available to before in an environment that we’ve come to know and love in the form of a member’s club, such as Soho House,” the founder told City PM
“It is nice to feel like you’re a part of something and to be able to go to a nice, comfortable environment which is not a traditional stuffy golf club.
“But you can still do everything you can at a golf club. So it’s bringing together all the best parts of what golf is about and where golfers come from, with what we need in today’s society.
“The convenience of having the golf club on your doorstep versus the driving range two hours away or the round of golf that takes 10 hours [round trip].
“So you can play St Andrews in an hour [in the simulator], which is obviously much more convenient than driving into Richmond Park and spending seven hours hacking it around there.
“It just opens it up to a new generation of golfers and existing golfers who previously hadn’t been able to get their fix as it were.”
Caddi Club expansion
But it doesn’t come cheap; the top tier “elite” offering is £290 per month, the cost of two weekend rounds at Bethpage Black – which is hosting the next Ryder Cup in the United States – or a round at Walton Heath, which hosted the Women’s Open in 2023.
With sites in Chelsea, Fulham – which City PM has experienced – and Waterloo, Caddi Club are growing across the capital. But London is not necessarily the boundary of aspiration.
“So because some of our investors are based out in different countries, we’re looking at Abu Dhabi and Dubai,” Lloyd-Goodwin added.
“My future family is half-French, so I have got some family in Paris. We’re looking at Paris and then Amsterdam and Berlin, basically major cities in Europe.”