Conservative by nature, Phil Aickin's latest action as the country's leading golf administrator has the hallmarks of a radical.
At his own instigation, Aickin is to vacate the chair as the New Zealand Golf Association's chief executive in August when he will be replaced by Hillary Commission official Peter Dale, who
has been appointed for two years.
But Aickin will remain on board as the association's operations manager, a sideways shuffle that will not impact on his income.
Dale's tenure as chief executive with the commission ends shortly, when the Government puts the finishing touches on its ministerial review of sport by overhauling its funding agencies.
Announcing the changing of the guard at the association's annual meeting in Wellington yesterday, Aickin said the staff restructuring was purely for practical reasons.
He had grown frustrated with an administrative structure which was too limited and inflexible to take advantage of opportunities which presented themselves.
"We have a sport which is perhaps the most-used game in the world for the benefit of entrepreneurs, corporates, raising funds and so on," Aickin said.
"I identified that we needed someone to take advantage of the entrepreneurs who were making proposals to us."
In a sense, he will return to the role he performed as general manager for six months before the death of previous chief executive Grant Clements in August 1999.
Dale, whose role with the Hillary Commission means he has a good understanding of the association, is now in Canada.
"I'm really excited. It's wonderful to get an opportunity to get into a sport which is actually at the very top in New Zealand," he told the annual meeting in a pre-recorded interview.
"It's a real go-ahead sport and in world terms it's one of the real growth sports. I'm delighted to be involved at the strategy end.
"Phil will be the ops manager and will make sure the game of golf is in really good shape.
"My job is to develop a strategy to secure the future of golf.
"I am very keen to build the strength of regional and local golf and to use the association as a service centre for all golfers."
Aickin's adjusted role will be less deskbound and similar to what he was doing before Clements' death.
- NZPA
