Areas stand firm on opposition to golf merger despite funding threat

THE Area associations holding the key to an amalgamation in Scottish golf have responded to a warning from the national sports agency about funding by insisting they would support such a move in the right circumstances but have highlighted a series of "flaws" in the current proposal on the table.

The dispute between some of the men's Area associations and the Scottish Golf Union has intensified a week ahead of the crucial vote on the proposal to amalgamate with the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association, despite sportscotland issuing a clear warning that public funding of golf could be reduced if the bid is not given the green light. As revealed in The Scotsman on Tuesday, the SGU appears to be well short of the 75 per cent support needed from the 16 Area associations and, until the current proposal is changed, it appears those with an alternative view on the governance of the proposed new body are not prepared to budge.

In a statement issued last night, the Areas Steering Group acknowledged the valuable funding provided by sportscotland and re-iterated its support for the amalgamation in principle but revealed some of the reasons it was concerned about the current proposal.

"The Areas of the SGU welcome any support for golf in Scotland and recognise the valuable contribution made by sportscotland over the past five years," said a spokesperson.

"Like sportscotland, the Areas wholeheartedly support the concept of amalgamation between the SGU and SLGA.

"However, the proposal has a number of flaws not least of which is the failure of the SGU and the SLGA to publish the final version of the Articles of Association on their respective websites, thus failing to keep interested parties fully informed. Other flaws include funding anomalies between ladies' and men's golf, a failure to provide a credible financial plan for the next three to five years, a failure to identify cost savings, concerns over the need for borrowing powers of 250,000, exclusion of current member clubs from membership and flaws in the wording of the Articles of Association. In short, the SGU have failed to convince the majority of Areas that the proposal is fit for purpose."

The Lothians Golf Association has reacted angrily to the SGU questioning why it has arranged a second meeting of its clubs to vote on the proposal after an initial poll was in favour of the removal of a second tier of governance.

"It is certainly not a case of having two bites at the cherry, as is being suggested by the SGU," said president Denys Flaherty .

"At the time of our first meeting, the final proposal had not yet been published and I assured the Lothians clubs that our shareholder would vote in accordance with the view of the majority attending the second meeting.

"The Lothians Executive have acted with the utmost integrity on this matter. I think it is astonishing that the SGU think we should be voting at their egm without consulting our clubs on the final proposal.

"We are getting rushed on this - pressure is being put on us. The SGU are saying they have returns from clubs that indicate 90 per cent support but no breakdown of the voting Area by Area is being provided. Indeed the SGU have questioned the result of the votes of the clubs obtained by one Area given that they appeared to be at variance with the poll that the SGU conducted.

"We will still go ahead with our meeting next week. We feel the amalgamation proposal as it stands is not in the best interests of Scottish golf. If we lose that argument, so be it.

"By the same token, if the SGU lose the vote next week, I would hope they have the good grace to say 'fine' and let's move on from this."