Golf is a game played in New Zealand by 482,000 people with 125,000 affiliated to a golf club and over 7 million rounds played annually. I’m no doctor but I think that equates to roughly 10% of the population playing and 3% of the population are members of a club each playing 15 rounds a year on average. There are also 390 odd golf clubs and some of the world’s greatest courses, for example, Cape Kidnappers, Kauri Cliffs, Wairakei, Paraparaumu Beach, Jacks Point, Kinloch and Tara Iti.
All information that doesn’t surprise anyone. I write this article despite all those numbers above, to illustrate the plight of the humble golf professional and therefore the subsequent downfall of golf in this country.
Recently (the last 3 years – maybe more), I have been witness to some of the worst management and handling of the club professional since Tuku Morgan’s undies. If you are playing golf – usually in an urban area – you’ll grab your bats and head to the shop where you’ll meet the pro or assistant, pay your fees and go play. What you almost never see is the manager/committee/president/club captain greeting you, making sure your cart is clean, stocking enough chewing gum, running the bar/catering, and making sure you know where to go. The pro does all of this and much more least of all being the smiling face you see (mostly) when you go to the shop.
The model for clubs seems to be as follows:
- Committee/board – individuals serving their own needs with no consideration of ‘the club’ – in other words – fiefdoms
- Secretary/manager – Some overpaid borderline retiree who has little time for members, arrives late and leaves early, counts the minutes until actual retirement.
- Professional – highly qualified golf expert given spare change to do the committee/mangers job as well as his duties and run a business
So……what happens???
If the club runs short of money – get rid of the pro!
Personality clashes – get rid of the pro!
Battery leads too tight in the carts? – get rid of the pro!
Pro stops doing bar and catering because it’s actually costing him money – get rid of the pro!
Admittedly, some professionals in this country haven’t done themselves any favours but the majority are hard working and do it for the love of the game.
One of my many points to this rant is this – golf club committees couldn’t run a piss up in a brewery. One then wonders why we have such outdated models?
WHO KNOWS!?!?
The governing body of most club professionals here is the New Zealand Professional Golfers Association. Sounds flash huh? What are they doing to change the model and assist the very members they exist for? NADA. NZ Golf is the governing body for golf in New Zealand – what are they doing? Strategic plans – lots and lots of strategic plans – oh and bugger all else. What are both organisations doing to better the game attract more players, attract juniors, keep professionals and thus become a world leader – ZIP.
The internet has changed the professionals business for sure and to a large extent they have adapted and gone with the times at establishments where the model still exists from 2 centuries ago. Professionals like the boys at IGOLF, Nigel Wilson, Dean Kingsbeer, Jay Carter and many others have innovated in spite of the clubs and in many cases have off-course innovations away from bureaucrats and golf club committees. Interesting that the organisations who govern seem happy enough to hang their hats on the success of the people having not been a part of it.
Over the last little while I have experience the horrors of club committees both first hand and through colleagues. The unrelenting ability to not make a decision – or to complete the bipolar nature – make unilateral decisions without other committee members knowledge is astounding. I am aware of a professional with 10 years of service at a particular club, suddenly booted for no apparent reason. In fact I’m aware of two such happenings in the last year. I am aware of a club so badly in the shit they can’t pay utility bills and want to get rid of the pro and the greenkeeper!! I am aware of a club wanting to take the retail shop over from a very successful businessman/professional – just because. I am aware of a 30+ year service professional at a club who was ousted for no sound reason. And, what’s being done to help this change? Not a fucking bean.
There are exceptions to these broad strokes of course, in fact I will name a couple.
Clare Pitt, manager at Bottle Lake Golf Club in Christchurch – innovative and straight.
Bryan Snaith, former manager at Palmerston North Golf Club – innovative and straight.
The management committee at the Bottle Lake Golf Club – accepting, inclusive and straight.
The ladies committee at Maraenui Golf Club – highly organised and mobile and work closely with the professional.
There are others of course – but not many.
I think this could easily be changed. Let me impress upon you some ideas I’ve had for a while:
- Committee/Board – disband – bloody hopeless anyway
- Secretary/manager – no such thing
- Professional – runs ‘golf’ at the club. Is responsible to a board of directors for financial matters and major decisions but is in essence the CEO of the club running the day-to-day affairs without the need for committees to bicker over where rakes in bunkers should go (for example) and provides a sort of ‘buck stops here’ accountability for the club.
This model saves time for the members, cuts costs and has a businessman at the helm who happens to be a golf expert. It also means the man or woman in charge has a vested interest in promoting the game through junior programmes, club promotions, sales and repairs and the well-being of sub-contractors like caterers. This is a grass roots start to building the game back up from the depths of bullshit-dom. It also gainfully employs the golf professional and assistants without the need to go mental on staff salaries.
My hope is that the two governing bodies will start to elicit change in this area. However, the change needs to come from the top and I’m not holding my breath. For example the PGA delivers a trainee program for three years at about $5,000 a year that is unashamedly copied from the Australian one! In fact I was privy to an assignment that dealt with health & safety – in Australia!!!! Seems to me that if you were a reading comprehension wizard you’d be sweet as, bro. I wonder also, when the $1,200 ish subscription for a full member will be put to good use? $1,200 to call yourself a PGA member? Really? I resigned from the PGA in disgust having fought tooth and nail to get in and don’t play golf at all now. I do, however have friends who are members and for the benefit of them hope it changes rapidly. I recently offered a club a plan and execution of a junior program in return for a membership fee. Given my experience with junior golf and being a qualified school teacher, this may have been something attractive to a club – but no. Endless meetings and board (in)decisions. Shame really.
A jolly good rant you may say but I hope everyone reads it and decides for the benefit of the game we must stop employing a model of club management almost as old as the game itself and start using the resources we have. It’s also time – yes you PGA and NZ Golf – that the governing bodies did something to help. Why not use the collective weight to make change for the better and reverse the worldwide trend of falling participation in one of the great sports. Too late for this shit-stirrer but not too late for many many others. Let me share a small anecdote before I go. I took my 5 year old daughter to hockey on a Saturday morning a few weeks back. I think they call it Funsticks. A minor sport you may say in a provincial town in winter. There were 120+ children there ranging in age from 5 to 10 all having a great time. I can’t remember the last time I saw that in golf.
Peace.
Stop Press – at the time of writing Nike is stopping making golf clubs and balls, Adidas wants to ditch TaylorMade and Golfsmith is going out of business – 3 massive companies that can’t turn a decent profit from the game. If the powers that be can’t see there needs to be something done they’re blind.
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