Robbie Clyde vows to improve Scottish Golf's engagement with member clubs after EGM snub

Update on affiliation proposal will be delivered at Regional Forums in January

Scottish Golf CEO Robbie Clyde has decided to re-introduce a series of Regional Forums around Scotland before the 2024 AGM. Picture: Scottish Golf.

Scottish Golf’s chief executive officer, Robbie Clyde, has vowed to step up engagement levels with stakeholders after around 300 member clubs failed to cast votes at a recent EGM.

The disappointing response has led the governing body to re-introduce a series of Regional Forums around the country in January, when an update will be provided on the affiliation fee paid by club members.

A proposal to increase that from £14.50 to £15.75 was on the table heading into this year’s AGM back in March only for a vote on that to be postponed. It had been hoped that would then take place in September but nothing materialised.

“At least 300 clubs didn’t vote at the EGM,” said Clyde of the matters, which mainly involved Articles of Association, on the agenda for it. “So we are looking to get better engagement with clubs and relevance, making sure we communicate what we do and clubs really see what Scottish Golf is doing to support them and strengthen them. That’s not a short-term thing. It’s something that I am going to continue to work and work and work to improve.

“We had some Roadshows in September and October and now we are instigating the Regional Forums that used to take place. We are going to be doing that in January just to really move forward with the engagement with clubs and Areas and Counties.

“There will be six of them and, at that point, we will introduce consultation around the affiliation fee and we putting some proposals to members so there is plenty of time for them to consider what that might look like in advance of the AGM, which would normally be in March and that’s what we are planning for.

“The approach we will be taking for that, learning from last year, are that we will put proposals on the table in those Forums so there is plenty of time for everyone to consider what the implications of that might be and for them to decide whether they want us to do that or not.”

Before the EGM in Stirling, delegates were offered the chance to attend a Workship on Women and Girls in Golf, an area Clyde is keen to develop at a time when Gemma Dryburgh is flying high in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings after helping Europe retain the Solheim Cup in Spain in September.

“We had 80-90 people in the room and they really talked quite openly about the challenges and barriers but also provided really good examples of things that are happening,” he said. “It is going to be a really big part of what we do. Not just for next year but forever. We need to move the dial and there was really good commitment from within the room to do that.”

Since taking up the reins at the start of September, Clyde has been meeting with the various bodies now also involved in delivering the game, mainly at a junior level, in the home of golf and is taking action to try and get everyone moving in the same direction.

“In 2024, I’m going to be setting up a Performance Advisory Group, which will look for people outside Scottish Golf with experience in performance and are involved directly in performance on a regular basis to advise on these types of decisions going forward,” he said.

“So it’s not just Scottish Golf that’s making decisions and we are working with the whole performance community to make sure we are making the best decisions, whether that’s about events, selection, anything to do with performance.

“We have spent a lot of time out and about over the last few weeks. We’ve been speaking to the foundations, to Paul [Lawrie], Stevie [Gallacher] and Catriona [Matthew]. It’s something they’ve said would be really helpful, just to get everybody all facing the same direction when it comes to performance. With a new head of performance coming in, that will be a key part.

“It’s just a case of really tightening up our performance strategy and assessing what it is we are trying to achieve and getting things moving much more clearly and consistently across performance.”