A steep rise in the number of club golfers turning 65 over the next few years and demanding heavily subsidised golf is threatening to throw Scottish clubs into chaos.

It has long been the culture at the traditional private-members clubs that 65-and-overs pay a subscription discounted by as much as 50% and in some cases where they have been members for 25 years or more they qualify for free golf forever more.

It is a setup that until recently has worked reasonably well. Few have objected to the notion that working men who until now have formed the vast majority of golf club members should support the poor pensioners.

The dynamics, however, are changing fast. Not only do the words poor and pensioner fail to go together quite so often as far as golf clubs are concerned, but also the one-time small and friendly group of oldies are turning into a veritable army that simply won't be defeated.

The baby-boomers, the ones born in immediate post World War II times, are due to hit 65 in unprecedented numbers. Anecdotally it is reckoned that this tsunami of seniors could form as much as a third of golf club membership in five years' time. It is a demographic time bomb.

Compounding this is a dearth of club golfers in the 20 to 40 age group. These golfers are thought to be around in healthy numbers but are not, in the majority, club members, preferring to pay as they play instead of joining the local club that they see as old and stuffy with an ageing membership that has become far too demanding.

As of now there are no absolute figures, but this pattern that would send club finances spiralling out of control is fully expected. The Scottish Golf Union are working on a national census that is due to be complete in about a year when the full horror is likely to be revealed.

The average age of the club golfer is thought to be in the late 50s and rising, and unless action is taken quickly, clubs are in danger of sinking ever deeper into the mire.

Seniors view free or cheap golf as their constitutional right. Typically, they will have been promised this for years and it will be justified in their minds because they have supported the club by paying full subscriptions maybe for as much as 40 years while they were working and unable to play golf much more than once a week. This is payback time, whether or not the figures add up.

From the perspective of the younger working man or woman - and females form a shockingly low 13% of club membership - the idea of paying an entry fee and full subscription to subsidise the "Last of the Summer Wine" brigade is abhorrent. The sums don't make sense to them especially when the seniors are the ones who are playing the most golf by far.

Not only that, but many clubhouse atmospheres are fast resembling retirement homes still with those long outdated dress codes of jacket, collar and tie. It is hardly a welcoming atmosphere for the young families who have been identified as the kind that clubs should be trying to attract.

It extends just about everywhere. Senior golfers have established a network that allows them to bring guests from other clubs for discounted green fees. There is also a summer tour of open competitions for small entry fees not to mention regular league matches with competitors receiving hot meals afterwards that are likely to be free or, again, heavily subsidised.

This is great in that it is helping to keep older people active and healthy, but your average golf club has become a cut-price pensioners' party, and it can't go on forever.

Neither is there an example being set from the top. Three of the foremost clubs in Scotland, the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers at Muirfield, and Royal Troon remain all-male and in all probability among the most elderly in the land.

The trouble is that the system is self-perpetuating. At annual or extraordinary general meetings where subscriptions and membership policies can be altered, seniors aren't likely to vote to increase their own subscriptions. Moreover, they are the ones with time on their hands to turn up at such meetings en masse to preserve the status quo. With each year that passes it will become more difficult to enact change.

Senior golfers have the power and the ability to hold club golf to ransom. The future health of clubs in Scotland could depend on their willingness to be persuaded to pay a fair amount for what they get.