FOREWORD To look back over 2009, but more importantly have the opportunity to look forward as the Gloucestershire Golf Union County President, is an unbelievable experience and a tremendous honour not only for me, but my club Chipping Sodbury and my family. Golf is in the midst of massive change, whether we believe that, welcome it, embrace it or bury our heads in the sand, one thing is certain we will see more change over the next three to five years. The effects could be catastrophic with a Golf Club or more than one closing in Gloucestershire due to the financial pressures imposed upon it by the economic climate and the world we live in. For me the year has been full of positives but unfortunately as always there have been some negatives. Firstly the negatives, we have started to see the role of Golf Club Secretaries become redundant, primarily I would guess as a way of saving between £30k and £40k from the expenses budget but we have also seen the same thing happening with Head Green-keepers and members of their staff leaving as a way of cutting costs and squeezing the margins to remain in profit or balance the books. On the positive side we have seen some Golf Clubs try new ideas with different types of memberships in an attempt to not only retain members, encourage growth but also recruit families back into the game we all love so much. These management roles are critical to the future of golf as they should be empowered with the ability to manage, to be creative, to lead and to make a difference. Golf is a business as well as a leisure pursuit and driving income up, costs down and cash flow have more and more become the buzz words at Committee meetings around the County and golf in the UK. These people, these fantastic people, must be supported and encouraged if we are to come out of the recession and see more members retaining their memberships and new people joining our Golf Clubs. What I would urge all members of the County Golf Union to think about is the difference you can make within your own club. We have a few clubs in the County who have successful junior sections or for want of a better expression ‘junior golf development centres’. These clubs namely Knowle, The Kendleshire, Sherdons and Thornbury all have one thing in common – they welcome people, they want new people at their club, they see the benefit of coaching, they have an infrastructure that supports beginners, they tolerate the odd ‘improperly ‘dressed individual and they encourage people. Golf is struggling because not enough people are joining our clubs! We all know that! There are more people playing the game, there are more ‘nomadic golfers’ but why won’t they join our clubs? We could say we don’t want them; we could say we don’t need them, however I suspect this would be a Club with a unique set of circumstances and not the norm in the County. I urge everyone in 2010 to be more tolerant, friendly, less selfish and more understanding to the Committees problems, the Green keeper’s problems and the Secretaries efforts to run the business. I urge every one of us to try and help a little more with encouraging juniors into the game but also to support and welcome men and lady beginners. previous page next page