Paul O'Neill

iGolf; much ado about nothing. For those of us working in the industry, the timing of Golf Ireland's recent launch of the new iGolf plan was a no-brainer. A slow news week sandwiched between the President’s Cup and the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in early Autumn is as good a time as any to unveil a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Offering a golfer the opportunity to attain an official handicap index without joining an affiliated golf club is something straight out of the Comedy of Errors. One would be concerned initially at the genesis of the thinking that began the process of introducing a new product to the marketplace that would compete head-on against one of the main revenue streams of all your members. More specifically, the proportion of your member clubs that depend on solid revenue from their Open Competitions and their chance to capture a few nomad golfers each year. If the new product is successful, it could threaten their very  existence, the development of golf in rural areas, and increase the volitivity of many golfers who are still aggrieved with the recent introduction of a new handicap system. Although its actions during Covid came across as an all-powerful governing body whose proclamations had to be always obeyed, it would be more fitting if Golf Ireland understood its relationship with its affiliated clubs. Each club is a unique business entity that must only answer to its members in how it conducts its golfing affairs. Clubs did not have to be told how to carry themselves during the pandemic and whether they accept these new handicapped players into their Open Competitions or even offer them the traditional “Golf Ireland” green fee reduction is a conversation that still must be had. I do not doubt that this debate will take place at the majority of club A.G.Ms. over the coming weeks where members will surely voice their concern at the prospect of competing against golfers who have not committed to the sport in the usual setting which is the raison detre many clubs were formed for in the first place. Golf Ireland should stick to what they are good at, primarily event management, keeping a watchful eye on the traditions of the game, and ensuring where possible that structures are in place that will develop the game to the standing it should have in Ireland – the home of five Major champions in recent years. With no sign of a comment from Golf Ireland about the possibility of sanctioning clubs that don’t recognise this new handicap index, which affiliated clubs will be perfectly entitled to do if directed to by their membership, I feel the noise created by last week’s launch will turn to silence very quickly. Open competitions are on very thin ice at the moment and this new concept is a massive danger to their future. Golf Ireland has a duty of care to the game and its membership; perhaps it should realise this sooner rather than later.

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Is iGolf good or bad for golf? Obviously, I’d prefer to be writing about Rory McIlroy’s victory at Augusta and him finally completing golf’s Grand Slam, but we are where we are. The introduction of the IGolf handicap system by Golf Ireland is the only story in town now and after my initial piece, I feel its only correct to delve a little deeper and see what the next few weeks might bring for clubs who will have to debate the issue with their members. There are three parties involved in the saga (I won’t call it a crisis, just yet) namely Golf Ireland themselves, the affiliated member clubs of the association and the golfing public, some of whom are current members of clubs and others who just play casual golf due to a list of reasons I don’t have time to get into here. The positive side for all involved varies from accessibility to affordability to the bottom line. As one golfer put it to me “this is an ideal opportunity to play in numerous open days, take advantage of Golf Ireland hot deals, and play the likes of Rosapenna, who offer rates of €210 for 3 courses for Golf Ireland members. Also, if you are lucky enough to play a course like St Andrews, you require a Golf Ireland handicap. And having the option to not be a member and have a handicap is invaluable.” Clubs might also fail to see what the big deal is about as they now have potentially an overnight increase in the amount of people “qualified” to play in their Open Competitions thus giving them opportunities to increase this revenue stream. For Golf Ireland the conservative financial projection of an overnight guaranteed €500,000 to their bottom line for the immediate future will be viewed as manor from heaven. The flip side of the coin however makes for some interesting reading also. How will club members feel who over the years and more recently have paid joining fees, about competing with iGolf golfers in Open Competitions hosted by their club? Is there a danger that an iGolf handicapper will be viewed upon like a second class citizen when they sign in at the pro shop or casually mingle on the putting green prior to teeing off the first with three members of affiliated clubs? Will they have a unique category prize and not be allowed post a score for the main competition? Club committees will have to take the long view. If club membership becomes a thing of the past how will the club structure survive with no base membership from which volunteers have always been sourced? Will the certainty that the nomad golfer membership will no longer exist be the first death nail for golf in rural Ireland. Golf Ireland in bringing this issue themselves to Irish golf face the biggest negativity of all. With sentiment about the recent change in the handicapping system still a hot topic – will iGolf cause a revolution?

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Members must play their part. Technically speaking we are entering the last 10 weeks of the golf season here in Ireland. The kids are back to school, the evenings are getting shorter, social media is full of Cups and Shields presentations, and the Golfer of the Year title is all but done and dusted in most clubs. Accounts will be readied for the end-of-year Annual Meetings and there will be a general sense of what members can look forward to in 2025. Having worked at both a member’s club and a resort club, I feel strongly that this “general sense” outlook that an incoming Captain and their team can easily fall into, is a recipe for disaster and can lead to unnecessary stress and more significantly a loss of much-needed revenue solely down to a lack of planning. The members who are happy with the status quo must be challenged at every opportunity because as in most business entities; those who stand still are going backward. The fundamental decisions a club Captain must make revolve around committee personnel, the calendar of fixtures, and most importantly what went wrong in 2024 cannot be allowed to happen again next year. However, what went right must be supported if required and if not required, simply be left alone. For those of us based here in Mayo, we are all too aware of the dangers of poor decision-making and the Titanic consequences that can result if due diligence and forensic financial planning aren’t front and center when major developments are signed off on. Golfers pay their subscriptions for a certain level of service but they must never lose track of the fact that along with the necessity that the club committee must always act in their best interests, they too must play their part in contributing to the success of the club by their positive interactions on all golf related matters, at all times. The areas where members must play a supporting role are wide and varied but they all have one thing in common. Whether you volunteer to paint, plant or help park the cars when the club hosts events on behalf of Golf Ireland or the Irish PGA, your contribution will not only enhance your enjoyment of your involvement in the club but most importantly will further develop the positive standing your club has not only within the golf industry but also within the wider non-golfing community from which future members of your club will come. My opinion about member involvement might seem a little over-complicated, especially for what many will presume that the day-to-day routine that must exist at golf clubs is dull. In rebuttal, I would argue that one only has to scratch the surface of those clubs that are financially sound in Ireland to understand the importance of a forward-thinking club membership. If committee membership is not for you why not offer to plant a few daffodils or paint some club signage over the coming weeks?  

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Fun ⛰️ Bus quiz, Monoploy Deal evening, a group changing room song, The Music Man, meals together and morning coffee walks… all assisted to the challenge of an away interpro game. It’s a shame we only have 2 more sessions and 1 game together. #fun #connection #environment #sport #belonging #relationship #us #rugby https://lnkd.in/eCdCmtFx

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📣New Today By Bruce Callis📣 The End, the Beginning, and the Future of FFS by Bruce Callis - Click the link to read - https://lnkd.in/dfACVzF3

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Following the Festival in March, a significant amount of feedback was received from racegoers that highlighted their growing concerns over the cost of accommodation locally in Cheltenham. The issue was so extreme it created newspaper headlines both sides of the Irish channel. We were left with little doubt that hotel prices had now developed into a major deterrent for people contemplating multi-day attendance at our event. Furthermore, those responsible for promoting Cheltenham and the Borough in general, were concerned about the perception the elevated hotel costs were having on the towns image as a whole. Together, we staged a number of meetings with local accomodation providers, as well members of the hospitality trade. Those who run restaurants and pubs in town were claiming they were seeing business decline as a result of raceday patrons opting to stay out of town, where overnight accomodation could be sourced much cheaper. The Festival wasn’t as good for business as it had been in the past. There was some fascinating and thought provoking debate, and I think discussing the situation so robustly and openly has led to many hotels taking a seemingly more customer centric view in regards to their prices for Festival 2025. The best outcome from all the discussion for me though was the creation of Room To Race, in partnership with Venatour Sports Travel. Room To Race is a “one stop shop” for racegoers wanting to secure accomodation, transport to and from the races, as well as other experience enhancing benefits. It’s a first in British racing, as far as I know. It is pleasing that many of the hotels who were prepared to meet with Cheltenham Racecourse post Festival have signed up to be part of the concept and I am sure those racegoers who opt to book their accommodation through Room To Race in its initial year will reap the reward. The service will only go from strength to strength as we learn what our customers want and need. Room To Race is not the final answer to tackling high accomodation costs, but it does go some way to providing a good solution for our visiting racegoers —- and along with initiatives such as the multi-day ticket offer, groups of six incentive, should bring down the cost of attendance at the Festival for many. https://lnkd.in/eJ8TZ6Rk

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More opportunities in the sports industry.

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Throwback to 2020 when we were promised a full-sized grass sports pitch and a space for the local boxing club when Dublin City Councillors agreed to sell-off two parcels of land at St. Teresa’s Gardens. The plan was for Hines to construct a full-sized GAA pitch for Gaelic football and hurling, which would also have been used for soccer and rugby. Although there are still plans to build a pitch, we cannot keep waiting for years and years – our kids need sporting facilities now. There are already 8,500 kids without a pitch and with the new housing developments, that number will just continue to grow. https://lnkd.in/eHsNr9Kq

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If you haven't already filled in the 2024 Club Safety and Compliance Survey, please take a moment to share your views and help shape the future of club safety and compliance. Links below 👇 #GolfIndustry #ClubManager

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Golf Ireland is delighted to share its year in review for 2024, highlighting significant growth in participation, further investments in clubs and facilities, and some major achievements on the course, both at home and abroad. Research from the Golf Ireland / R&A Golf Barometer quarterly survey highlights that in 2024, approximately 800,000 people across the island of Ireland have engaged with golf in some capacity. This includes traditional on-course play and alternative formats such as driving ranges, simulators, and adventure golf facilities. The survey confirms that over 500,000 adults have played on an 18-hole course at least once this year, reaffirming the sport's consistent participation levels. It also found that 20% of the non-golfing population are interested in participation. Further research conducted by Golf Ireland shows that 43% of the population are interested in golf in some capacity, as a player, spectator or fan. While only cycling and soccer finished ahead of golf in terms of sports participation in Ireland. Participation and Development There was a significant increase in participation in Golf Development activities this year, with numbers jumping by over 10,000 to reach a total of 30,530 participants. The Golf Ireland participation and development team was boosted by the addition of five new Golf in the Community Officers to be followed by a Development and Participation Manager in early 2025. Thanks to funding from the Irish Government, supported by Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland, Golf Ireland now has a team of officers on the ground with the ability to deliver a range of participation initiatives within club and community settings. In November, these Golf in the Community Officers helped to launch a new schools initiative as part of the Golf Ireland Major Events Legacy Programme. Approximately 180 schools participated throughout the year, with almost 17,000 students involved (8,666 girls / 7,929 boys). The organisation is targeting over 500 schools to engage with over the next three years. There was a continued focus on inclusion with a total of 1,254 individuals attending Golf4All awareness days where participants with disabilities were introduced to the game for the first time. To further drive growth in this sector, Golf Ireland provided access to Golf4All coaching programmes and travel bursaries for individual players while 31 clubs availed of Golf4All club grants. An expanded event calendar for golfers with a disability was delivered in 2024 including a new Junior Golf4All event series and eight Disabled and Inclusive Golf Association (DIGA) events, attended by 170 participants. There was funding for NIBGA Blind/Disabled Golf Opens with the ISPS Handa Irish Open for Golfers with a Disability taking centre stage at Roganstown Golf Club. Golf Ireland also supported new players to complete the player classification process to be able to compete in European Disability Golf Association (EDGA) events. W…

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Inter Club match drama is upon us. I always remember the explanation a member gave when I asked them about why they paid their annual subscription so promptly – they wanted to be part of a club set up and if good enough they were excited to be involved in an inter club team. The handicap dilemma that Irish amateur golf currently finds itself in will hopefully not detract from the 2024 version of one of the cornerstones of the amateur game here in Ireland. It is regrettable that there will have to be more attention revolving around the administration of playing and handicap records than the selection of team pairings this year. I have not been involved in this aspect of club golf over the last few years but with my imminent return to a new role at a more members-based club in the coming weeks and months, I’m looking forward to the challenge and assisting where I can. Ignoring the handicap issues for a paragraph or two, the selection of golf teams is unique in sport. The dual format of singles and pairs gives rise to many late nights and attention to detail that Luke Donald, Paul McGinley and to a lesser extent Sir Nick Faldo are all too familiar with. No doubt is some clubs’ spreadsheets containing winning margins, weather conditions and pin placements are all password protected but in all honesty, teams are normally selected based on the combined memory or lack there of about previous campaigns, grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat and nights where dog licenses were the order of the day when teams came home from a car crash in the away leg. The ability to blow one’s own trumpet or your relationship with the team captain is also a very amusing aspect of team selection once you are not on the receiving end of a demotion. Many a player has announced that the fact that they are unbeaten a home consistently over a number of previous campaigns is a good enough reason for automatic selection in the forthcoming season; one may presume that those of us in the cheap seats are happy to see them selected in the hope that the aforementioned presentation of a dog license will never be too far away thus ending this selection drama every year. Regretfully the close relationship of a player with a captain is a slightly darker aspect to the game and this ugly part of an otherwise fun and enjoyable experience can get out of hand very quickly. Every effort should be made by the Club Captain when appointing team captains to have a sense of the dynamic of each team. When hard decisions have to be made especially after semi-final victories, the responsibility should not alone fall on the shoulders of a volunteer to make a change. As always a reminder to support the opposition club when playing an away leg to leave some revenue with the host PGA professional and the caterer. 

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12 months after completing the VSI Executive Education CEO of a Sports Organisation course, this post is demonstration of the connection that remains after you receive that certificate from VSI. I have built more meaningful relationships and had more interactions with my cohort and the extended network established through the course demonstrating the lasting value of a course like this. Other people in the same or similar role in sport will definitely get real benefit from investing their time on this course: https://lnkd.in/dADmXEtZ #SportsBiz #Networking #SportsLeadership

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