KEY POINTS:
Once promoters took over the financial obligations for last year's New Zealand Open, there was every chance New Zealand Golf would turn a profit. After all, the 2006 Open at Gulf Harbour was a $695,472 drain on reserves.
Last year at The Hills, NZG contributed $100,000 to Tuohy
and Associates and let them carry the can. Because of the increased levy each club member pays to head office, and an extra $120,000 in sponsorship income, total revenue for New Zealand Golf last year hit $5m. That gave an operating surplus of $540,000, or $440,000 after the contribution to the Open.
So the reserves, which in 2005 stood at over $3 million before two loss-making Opens, have had money deposited in them again. While the accounts section of the annual report makes for encouraging reading, the membership page does not.
As discussed only two weeks ago, the trend in total members continues down. While the number of affiliated golf clubs rose from 384 in 2006 to 392 in 2007, membership dropped 1.3 per cent to 123,924. Five years ago there were nearly 10,000 more members. The drop is more marked for women, down nearly 3 per cent, than for men, under 1 per cent.
There are some bright spots. There were 3.7 per cent more boys (under 18) than in 2006. The number of women nine-hole members jumped nearly 5 per cent. There was also an impressive 33 per cent gain in summer memberships, although that is misleading because the total still isn't as high as in 2005.
Some figures are frightening. The number of life members jumped 27 per cent for men and a plain silly 46 per cent for women. Every life member is an annual subscription a club doesn't collect. Some long serving members who've given sterling volunteer service should be honoured but I suspect much of this dramatic increase is because some cash-strapped clubs offered members the chance of a once-only lifetime membership fee. It's great for the member but the club's short term gain is long term pain.
Thankfully, there are moves to try to reverse the trend. Over six months, NZ Golf interviewed more than 4000 casual golfers - regular players but not members of clubs.
Most casual golfers are aged between 25 and 44 and members 55 and over. Starting in October, the national body will help clubs in a membership drive, targeting casual players, by suggesting new initiatives designed to make club membership much better value for money.
The drive from head office is to be applauded. I just hope clubs all around the country, including the big operations in this city, are prepared to react to the very obvious trends.
And a nice touch in the New Zealand Golf Annual Report this year - apart from a few cursory pictures of board members and key staff, all the illustrations in the publication are of youngsters. I'm sure it's a quite deliberate tactic to highlight the direction golf must take.
