Affiliation fees debate

I READ both the opinion from Duncan Andrews (The Dunes) and the reply by James Sutherland in the last issue of Inside Golf, on the role of Golf Australia. I would like to give some perspective as an experienced volunteer administrator of a smaller rural golf club. In my mind there are three issues that need to be raised.

Is the funding of Golf Australia by rural clubs equitable?

The Golf Australia fees for clubs in 2023 are $84.90 per member for metropolitan clubs and $67.65 for clubs outside the metropolitan area. This is a flat rate regardless of location, club size, ability to pay or local socio-economic factors.

An elite city club charging, say, $5000 for annual membership, would pay affiliation equivalent to 1.6% of an annual membership. In my area most smaller clubs currently charge around $600 annually, so the affiliation fee of $67.65 represents 11.3% of each membership.

We have been encouraged to develop other forms of membership, such as pay-for-play membership for time-poor golfers. Our offering of $140 per annum encourages them to the game, competes against social golf clubs and develops a pathway to full golf membership. With a fixed affiliation fee, Golf Australia takes 48.3%.

The situation for juniors is even worse. Smaller rural clubs try to keep prices low (my club charges $90 inc. GST) to encourage juniors to the game and compete with other sports. The junior affiliation fee is $48.55, so of the measly amount we can get for a junior membership, 53.9% is immediately stripped off by Golf Australia.

There is also the issue of “double-dipping” where members of city clubs are also members of a rural club. Rural clubs pay another $67.65 for these “non-home” members when they have already paid $84.90 through their city home club for the same service.

What’s the best pathway to develop golf … local or national?

Obviously, the answer is both. However, every year all rural clubs pay a significant sum (around $24,000 in the case of my club) for affiliation. Total affiliation fees from rural and regional golf clubs (“affiliated clubs”) will rise to more than $8 million in 2023. This is a very large transfer of money from local community facilities and needs to Golf Australia salaries, events, elite programs and marketing.

James Sutherland says Golf Australia has a “leadership role in encouraging participation”. They develop a variety of marketing programs for golf development and growth. This is all very well and good if a club has the resources, such as administrative staff and a PGA professional, to run them.

But it doesn’t matter how many Core Strategies, MyGolf, Women’s Golf or TeeMate programs we have if the volunteers in rural golf clubs are so occupied with keeping their courses running and coping with all the governance, OH&S, staffing, administration, competition and local marketing requirements that they don’t have the time. The take-up of many of these programs in rural areas is very low and is often just seen as “marketing gloss”.

Golf Australia’s annual reports show that their employment costs rose by $1.5 million between 2021 and 2022 to nearly $10 million. Elite development program costs have risen from $1.9 million to $3.3 million since 2018.

Apart from the CEO, there are now six general managers of various program areas. One could reasonably ask “is Golf Australia actually growing the game, or simply growing themselves?”

The Golf Australia board is also almost exclusively comprised of lawyers, accountants and company directors, tightly nominated from mainly up-market metropolitan clubs.

Good experience and qualifications are, of course, necessary for good governance. But does this exclusivity lead to a good understanding or empathy for smaller golf clubs?

Many rural clubs weathered bushfires in 2019 and long closures due to Covid-19 in 2020-21. In the winter and spring of 2022, some clubs were again closed for weeks or months due to excessive rainfall, course flooding and waterlogged conditions. All these events cost income and cash flow.

My club was closed for two months in June-July 2021 as we battled to recover from a devastating “mega-storm” that uprooted 80 huge trees across the course, damaged the clubhouse, fences and other facilities.

We had amazing support from other clubs and their staff, all levels of government and Disaster Recovery agencies who helped us clear the course for play.

The one organisation notably absent was Golf Australia. And in a remarkable demonstration of a tin ear, their response this year has been to raise affiliation fees by another 5.5%.

It wasn’t so long ago that they had great concern about the continued financial stress and viability of many golf clubs. Obviously, the concern is now not so great that clubs can’t be drained of a little more cash every year to fund Golf Australia’s increasing operations.

It should be noted that a few years ago the Australian Football League, in recognition of the hardships and decline of rural football clubs and leagues, abolished all affiliation fees. I am not suggesting that Golf Australia go this far, but they could have more consideration for the financial plight of many rural golf clubs than just demanding affiliation fees every year.

My club’s annual expenditure of $24,000 that currently goes to affiliation fees could, for example, run our women’s and family beginner program for over 10 years.

Two years’ affiliation fees would provide the necessary upgrade to our women’s changing facilities. Four years of affiliation fees could fix our ailing irrigation system or help pave our unmade carpark so it doesn’t become a quagmire in winter or the whole clubhouse gets covered in dust every summer.

All critical items that we struggle to afford but would make our offering more attractive to new golfers and “grow the game”. Are these less important than, say, a national marketing program?

How to really help rural golf clubs

James Sutherland states that “there are more than 1600 clubs and facilities across Australia. More than half of these are volunteer run – with no paid administration or PGA professional. We have an important role to support them and their role in the local community”.

Let’s hope that this is more than lip-service and the support that has been sadly lacking actually materialises beyond the common perception of “a handicap and insurance”.

Hopefully the proposed “cutting edge” technological partnership with DotGolf will see some initiatives that rural clubs can really use. However, this digital partnership will only work successfully if rural clubs are involved in the development process and not just imposed with a top-down model.

Smaller clubs need technological help, such as a national integrated membership management system, and methodology for online tournament advertising, entry and management.

Many clubs are still in the age of Excel spreadsheets for membership and paper entry forms for tournaments. A website enabling visitors and travellers to find local competitions would also be very helpful.

Working with other recreational organisations (e.g. bowls and tennis), Golf Australia could research and build a case to all levels of government to improve the poor state of some rural sports infrastructure, especially clubhouses.

There could also be a Golf Australia sponsored advice and problem-solving service for course maintenance, especially for those small clubs that only have part-time or volunteer greenkeepers.

Similarly, assistance with architectural advice to help clubs improve their course design would be a great help. Or how about regional training seminars for clubs on subjects such as marketing ideas, better tournament management or using social media?

I’d invite James to occasionally escape the world of the sandbelt, corporate golf, PGA professionals and elite facilities (that rural golf clubs are too far away from to even use) and visit a few modest volunteer-run rural clubs to find out how the clubs that he has a “role to help” really are faring and what needs they have.

That could be a starting point for making all golf “modern and progressive”.

From Colin Wilson, Trentham Golf Club