What Three Industry Leaders Are Actually Seeing Heading into 2026

A few weeks ago, Ed Heil from StoryTeller Club Marketing and two other industry leaders sat down for a conversation that drew more than 400 club professionals. Jason Becker from Golf Life Navigators, Dr. Jim Butler from Club Benchmarking, and Ed Heil spent an hour discussing trends they're each seeing across the private club landscape and provided perspective for clubs heading into 2026.

The webinar, Beyond the Waitlist: The Hidden Trends Shaping Club Growth in 2026, wasn't created to make bold predictions or push the next big trend. The format was simpler: three people with different vantage points comparing notes on what's actually happening in clubs right now.

What emerged was less about dramatic shifts and more about steady evolution. Demand is settling into more familiar patterns. Buyer expectations are getting clearer. Generational preferences are showing up in amenity discussions. And communication—that theme came up more than anyone expected.

For club leaders trying to figure out where to focus attention in 2026, these six themes might offer some useful perspective.

1. Waitlists Are Landing Somewhere More Familiar

The conversation opened with a look at demand. Butler noted that peak waitlist levels during the pandemic surge reached around 55 or 56 percent of clubs nationwide. Today, that figure sits closer to 45 to 48 percent.

Becker added context from Golf Life Navigators' buyer research during that period. Roughly 70 percent of prospective members said they wouldn't wait for membership. They wanted immediate access, and if a club had a waitlist, they'd look elsewhere or consider a different market entirely.

That urgency has cooled. Demand remains strong, but it's returning to a more sustainable pace—the kind where waitlists are manageable rather than overwhelming.

For clubs, this shift creates some breathing room. There's more time to think strategically about pipeline management and prospect qualification rather than simply trying to keep up with unprecedented volume.

2. Prospects Want Two Things: Financial Clarity and a Sense They'll Belong

Becker explained that across millions of search records at Golf Life Navigators, two themes consistently rise to the top: prospective members want to understand the financial commitment clearly, and they want confidence that the club culture will be a good fit.

"The financial investment into the club is leading the way," Becker said, "and the friendly culture of the club" matters just as much.

Butler reinforced this from the member satisfaction side. Clubs often lead with amenity discussions, yet "the number one reason why people join clubs is that social aspect."

The implication for clubs is straightforward. When someone lands on a club website or talks to a membership director, they're looking for answers to two fundamental questions: Can I afford this? And will I feel at home here?

Marketing materials and membership conversations that don't address both questions might be losing prospects before they ever raise their hand to inquire.

3. The Correlation Between Club Investment and Home Values Keeps Showing Up

The discussion turned to clubs within residential communities and the relationship between club investment and property values.

Butler explained that his team regularly compares home values inside amenitized communities to nearby areas without club amenities. "We can actually quantify how much that investment in the club has impacted that real estate."

Becker shared recent data from Southwest Florida where homes inside golf communities "saw no decline" over the past year, while surrounding areas "were down 5 to 10 percent."

Both Becker and Butler emphasized this isn't a universal formula that applies everywhere, but it does give boards a useful reference point when debating capital improvements or initiation fee structures.

Buyer preferences around living inside versus outside the gates have also returned to pre-pandemic norms. About half of Golf Life Navigators' users today prefer to live off-site, down from the 58–59 percent peak during COVID migration.

For clubs forecasting capture rates or planning for different membership categories, that shift influences how they might think about their pipeline composition.

4. Gen X Is Smaller Than Boomers, and Their Amenity Preferences Are Different

Butler highlighted a demographic reality that should influence every club's long-term planning: Gen X is 28 percent smaller than the Boomer generation. That difference affects membership pipelines regardless of individual club circumstances.

Becker shared what Golf Life Navigators hears from prospective members searching their platform. "The practice facility is the number one most desired amenity" for golfers, followed by technology tools, food and beverage quality, and lifestyle-oriented services.

Service-based amenities also rank highly among Gen X buyers—things like speakers, concierge services, golf trips, business centers, and family programming.

These preferences don't represent radical departures from traditional club offerings, but they do suggest the next generation of members might prioritize different amenities than their predecessors. A state-of-the-art practice facility or golf simulator might matter more than an Olympic-sized pool.

This doesn't mean clubs should overhaul their entire amenity mix immediately. It does suggest careful consideration about where the next round of capital investment goes.

5. Four Factors Drive Member Satisfaction More Than Anything Else

When the conversation shifted to member satisfaction, Butler outlined a pattern that appears consistently across thousands of surveys his team conducts nationwide. While clubs generally score well across many categories, four areas have the greatest impact on overall satisfaction:

• Food and beverage
• Board performance
• Management performance
• Communication

The food and beverage finding surprises many club leaders. Golf maintenance typically scores highest in member satisfaction surveys (averaging around 6.2 on a seven-point scale), but food and beverage—which averages closer to 5.2—has an outsized impact on overall satisfaction.

Butler's theory is that members interact with food and beverage far more frequently than they use the golf course. They're in the dining room multiple times a week. That frequency amplifies how they feel about the overall club experience.

Improving that 5.2 score even modestly can move overall satisfaction meaningfully. Butler also noted that younger members tend to report lower satisfaction scores than older members across most categories, creating another dynamic that leaders are navigating carefully.

6. AI and Digital Accuracy Are Starting to Matter in Ways Clubs Didn't Anticipate

The final segment addressed communication and digital presence—a topic that took up more discussion time than originally planned.

Becker noted that when prospective members search for clubs using AI tools like ChatGPT, they often encounter outdated or incorrect information. Initiation fees from years ago, amenity listings from third-party sites that were never accurate to begin with—all of it gets indexed and repeated by AI systems.

Heil added that club communication today extends far beyond newsletters or social media posts. Clubs are managing multiple channels, and prospects expect consistency across all of them. "The idea that a club can get by without someone as a communications leader," Heil said, "I don't think it's realistic anymore."

This challenge goes beyond technology. Most clubs still don't have anyone whose primary responsibility is communication. That work typically falls to the membership director, the general manager, or whoever can carve out time to update the website.

As member and prospect expectations around digital experiences continue to rise, that resource gap becomes harder to navigate.

What These Themes Suggest for Club Leaders

The webinar didn't produce any earth-shattering revelations. Waitlists normalizing makes sense. Buyers wanting clarity and belonging feels obvious. Gen X being smaller than Boomers has been known for years.

But taken together, these themes paint a picture of an industry moving at different speeds depending on where you sit. Some changes are gradual. Others are more visible. All of them benefit from leaders who stay curious and willing to examine what the data actually shows rather than what they hope it shows.

The clubs navigating this environment well aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most prestigious facilities. They're the ones asking better questions, paying attention to what prospective members are saying (and not saying), and making adjustments based on reality rather than assumptions.

In an industry where tradition often shapes decision-making, curiosity is becoming a strategic advantage.