Peter Williams: Pros must join amateurs to secure more funding

The charmed run New Zealand golf has enjoyed with government funding for its high performance programme is about to come to a shuddering halt. For nearly 20 years, the country's top amateurs have received various levels of public assistance in the Titleist Academy, first through the New Zealand Sports Foundation and in recent years from Sparc.

The most recent New Zealand Golf (Inc) financial statements showed income from government grants at $696,250, while $713,995 was spent on "elite development and events". Since the late Grant Clements began the high performance strategy in the 1980s, millions of dollars have been poured into golf from government agencies.

But this week's announcement from Sparc that 70 per cent of its $33 million for high performance will go to just six codes means golf is now contesting its share of the remaining $10 million with, among others, hockey, basketball, soccer, equestrianism, softball and league.

Sparc's new philosophy is not surprising, even if the choice of some sports (cycling and sailing) at the expense of others (hockey and basketball) can be questioned. Either way, golf was never going to fit the criteria because international results have not been good enough and amateur golf, which is where the money goes, is not an activity "that matters to New Zealanders" like the Olympics or World Cups.

The world has moved on since 1992, when New Zealand won the Eisenhower Trophy. Competitive amateur golf, once an entity in itself, is now nothing more than a stepping stone to the professional game. Sparc deals only with national organisations but New Zealand Golf (Inc) administers just part of the game - that played by amateurs.

So if golf wants to present a unified face to Sparc for elite player development, it has to get players in its programmes contesting a level of golf that might "matter to New Zealanders," in other words, that on the professional tours.

Therefore New Zealand Golf has to bring the NZ Professional Golfers Association (NZPGA) under its umbrella, too. The good news is that last weekend, NZPGA chief executive Garth Stirrat admitted as much and later Stirrat, his chairman Denis Clark and NZ Golf chairman Phil Hassall were seen discussing an agenda for a meeting. Such meetings have not been regular for years.

NZ Golf chief executive Larry Graham talked about golf's "one stop shop" when he came into the job in 2004. He got the women on board but now the potential drying up of Sparc funds should be the catalyst to get the NZPGA into talks, too.

If golf wants to reach the "sport that matters" status for significant government money, it needs players winning important professional events and a bevy of New Zealanders among the world's top 100. That means fledgling professionals have to be supported as well as the top amateurs. Sparc is prepared to invest in professional golfers but under the current administrative split, it can't. So more streamlining of golf's administration must come soon.

Note: In last week's Peter Williams column, we mistakenly referred to philanthropists Dale Carnegie and Nelson Rockefeller instead of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. This was our mistake and not Peter's. We have punished ourselves severely.