12-month gap to ease golf clubs’ fears on Independent Golfer programme

Mark Kennelly, CEO Golf Ireland. Pic: Inpho/James Crombie

Golf Ireland has moved to reassure clubs concerned by the governing body’s proposed Independent Golfer programme by agreeing a 12-month stand-down period for golfers who resign their memberships to join the incoming scheme for non-members to earn handicaps.

Golf Ireland chief executive Mark Kennelly revealed the board-level vote to introduce the year-long stand-down period while also outlining why the governing body for golf on the island of Ireland believes the Independent Golfer (IG) programme, which is set to be introduced later this year, will benefit rather than threaten golf clubs by providing a pipeline to some 350,000 players who regularly play full rounds of golf but who are currently non-members.

The R&A-backed scheme, which has been already rolled out in England, Scotland, Wales, and New Zealand, with Australia set to launch its version of IG shortly, offers non-club members the opportunity to register for handicaps without the need to join a golf club.

An annual subscription will be required, with Golf Ireland currently developing an app to manage subscribers’ recordings of round scores in order to gain and maintain their handicap.

A price point will be set in the next month or two, according to Kennelly, who said the programme would not be run for commercial gain.

Yet the motivation for the scheme is clear. With 377 affiliate golf clubs on the island boasting a combined membership of 223,000, the 350,000 non-members playing up to 30 full rounds each year represents a huge, untapped pool of golfers that will be able to be accessed if they subscribe.

Kennelly said he understood concerns voiced at recent webinars on Independent Golfer by stakeholding participants such as the clubs that their membership numbers could be threatened.

To that end, he told the Irish Examiner that the Golf Ireland board had signed off on one important safeguard, whereby someone who is currently a club member will have to wait 12 months from the end of their annual membership before becoming eligible to join the programme, that period being suggested by the CEO as being at the upper end of what any other country has done within its version.

“We’ve done that to reassure our clubs that this is not in any way targeted at existing members,” said Kennelly. “The international evidence is that very few regular golfers will give up their golf for a whole year to join a scheme such as this.

“It’s just not what golfers do, and this emphasises that the target audience here are the people who are not yet club members.”

Addressing further concerns, Golf Ireland will have a national-level handicap committee to oversee IG, functioning as a club’s committee would in terms of annual and peer reviews, monitoring unusual scoring patterns and taking action accordingly.

“We understand people’s concerns,” said Kennelly. “This is a change, and we acknowledge that. That’s why engaging with stakeholders, to try and reassure people this is actually going to be a positive for Irish golf.

“Our strategy around growing participation is about ensuring we have healthy and vibrant clubs for the future. That won’t happen if we stand still, because the sports arena is quite competitive in terms of competing for participants and members.

“So our clubs are our key stakeholders, and our entire infrastructure for golf on the island of Ireland is through our clubs. They are essential, which is why we want to grow their memberships by establishing this new pipeline of members.

“These are people who already playing golf, that we have no relationship with, and it is to establish a relationship with these many thousands of people.

“And one of the benefits of that is our clubs will be able to connect with them and they’ll be able to make membership offers, advertise Open competitions, and connect with societies. That ability to reach out to subscribers when this scheme gets under way is something we really want to encourage.

“At the moment we know those people are out there and they’re playing golf, but we have no way of connecting with them.”

Kennelly also revealed research data taken from other countries with IG programmes had revealed a positive effect on club memberships from the schemes. In England, where like Scotland and Wales, its IG was launched in 2021, more than 14% of subscribers have already joined golf clubs, while in New Zealand — the earliest IG adopter in 2018 — research shows 40% of their subscribers have moved to a golf club membership.

“They have all come to the same conclusion, with very strong encouragement from the R&A, that this is one of the things we should do to make golf more accessible,” said Kennelly.

“That’s something we would really welcome. We want to create that pipeline of new members for our clubs, and this is just one component of a multi-faceted strategy but it’s one proven internationally to work.

“It brings more people to golf, it gets people playing more and it creates a progression to membership.”

No-one at Golf Ireland is expecting 350,000 to sign up immediately to IG, or that all of that target audience wishes to, but it is an opportunity worth exploring, with Kennelly keen for clubs to embrace that potential benefit to them.

“We’ve definitely learned from other countries that there is a strong progression to club membership from these schemes,” he said.

“They’ve found that once a person obtains a handicap, they play substantially more golf, and that means more green fees for golf clubs, more expenditure on food and beverage and equipment and clothing, but it also means people’s appetite for competitive golf grows once they have a handicap.”