FORGET warbling about solving a problem like Maria. The Sound of Music nuns at Nonnberg Abbey would’ve worked themselves into a quite dreadful fankle if they had to try to solve a problem like Scottish Golf funding.
Nobody likes an increase in price. Gas, a pint of pale ale or, ahem, the newspaper cover price? You name it, folk will grouse about it.
For Scottish Golf Blane Dodds, sourcing new avenues of revenue and prising open other commercial opportunities remains key to the general health of the game.
After a hefty reduction in government funding – Scottish Golf’s sportscotland budget was cut from just over £1 million to around £665,000 this year – the numbers are not adding up for Dodds.
“We are starving our country of golf investment,” he said. “If we do nothing, there will be significant cutbacks, maybe around £400,000 next year, in club support and developmental programmes. That’s something nobody wants.”
To accumulate, they say, you have to speculate and Dodds is well aware that the annual affiliation fee paid by every adult club member to the governing body has to go up. At present, it stands at £11.25, the second lowest in Europe. “A lot of club members don’t know what they’re paying,” he said. “Some think it’s £20-£25 already. Some secretaries say members will walk out [if there’s a rise] but I struggle with that.
“If it goes up by, say, £2 a month with the benefits we are proposing, I struggle to see people walking away.”
Over the last few months, Dodds has been trying to galvanise the 211,000 members of Scotland’s 587 clubs and encourage them to jump on board with a new strategy aimed at bringing in some £4m over the next four years.
A new Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) is one thing he is hoping clubs will embrace while a national tee-time module aimed at generating money for clubs rather than outside agencies is also part of the strategy.
Meanwhile, an international visitor license, whereby overseas players coming to Scotland pay a kind of modest golf tourist tax, is also on the table ahead of a vote this year over a rise in affiliation fees and a change to the articles.
“In recent history, it’s one of the most important [votes],” he said. “The outcome will dictate two ways forward. Either investment and growth or reductions.”
The fortunes of clubs across the country vary markedly. “There are perhaps 100 clubs that are very successful. Then you have maybe 100 clubs in risk of serious issues while 300 or so are surviving. But they need to do more than survive. We want them to grow.
“At present, for example, we have one club development officer per 100 clubs. We need more. The only way of actually growing a sport is with a solid platform and that platform is the clubs. It’s a safe environment for kids, it’s a place where we have qualified coaches and where we get the benefits of a sense of community.
“The other argument is that clubs are finished. It becomes just a bland, soulless facility where you pay 40 quid to have a round.”
Various guises of the CRM system are already in operation at many clubs but Dodds wants everybody to be working off the same database.
Convincing those financially robust clubs could take a bit of doing. “It could be a case of ‘I’m alright Jack’,” he said. “They have loads of money coming in and they are investing it into how they do it.
“We can say ‘fine’, but that then means there will only be a few clubs left – the ones that are in demand and doing well commercially. The CRM is a way to share some of that cash and recycle it and invest in the greater good and make sure clubs can survive by using the same system. I do anticipate resistance but the time is now to make a change.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here