Golf Australia in collaboration with the State Associations and industry stakeholders has embarked on developing a strategy for a national club support and development program to assist the health and sustainability of Australian golf clubs. The Club Development Support Program, identified as a key priority of the National Participation Plan, will be progressively rolled out from 2013. To assist the development of this important strategy, an advisory group including representatives from the Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association, Australian Sports Commission, Clubs, Golf Australia, Golf Management Australia, PGA of Australia and State Golf Associations has been formed with golf business consultancy WellPlayed (formerly Flow Project Services) being engaged to manage the project. Golf Australia CEO Stephen Pitt said the industry-endorsed program would play an important role in providing expertise and resources to Australian golf clubs. The feedback and requests for advice we get from golf clubs covers a diverse range of issues. With the collective expertise of the industry at hand, the new Club Support and Development Program will make that information easier for clubs to source and use, Pitt said. Healthy golf clubs and a healthy Australian golf industry go hand-in-hand. The advisory group s resources will cover the key areas of club operations and provide clubs, where possible, with the information to adopt industry best-practice in their businesses. The mission of the program is to develop a leading, trusted and sustainable Club Support and Development program to assist clubs in improving their performance and provide valuable golf participation opportunities. The program framework will include a new club health check tool and resources to assist clubs in the areas of governance, strategic planning, marketing, membership attraction and retention, benchmarking, financial performance, education and sustainability. The program will use both existing information developed by the golf industry in Australia and the outcomes from research conducted by a number of other sports in regard to their club development and support initiatives. The strategy is expected to be finalised by mid-2013.
Author: Golf Australia