Club golfers set to pay more to Scottish Golf

The affiliation fee paid by club members to Scottish Golf could be set for a considerable hike as chief executive Blane Dodds bids to address the sport's home having 'fallen behind' other countries in terms of investment.

Scottish Golf chief executive Blane Dodds is proposing an increase in the levy on golf club members. Picture: Craig Watson

Dodds is also exploring the possibility of introducing an international affiliation fee for club golfers around the world, believing Scottish Golf and its member clubs are missing out in some respects on the huge amount of money brought into the country by the sport.

Dodds, who took over the reins from the long-serving Hamish Grey last August, has been outlining a new four-year strategy for the amateur game’s amalgamated governing body in Scotland to more than 200 club delegates at nine roadshows around the country over the past three weeks. That exercise coincided with confirmation that sportscotland’s funding for Scottish Golf is being reduced from £1,025,000 in 2016-17 to just £665,000 for 2017-18, a blow caused by what is believed to be a £13 million reduction in backing for Scottish sport from the National Lottery and the Scottish Government over a two-year period.

The folly of relying on that funding had been highlighted by Douglas Connon during his spell as Scottish Golf Union chairman and, over a three-year period starting in 2010, the affiliation fee that is included in a member’s club subscription rose from £7 to £10 – an increase of 42 per cent.

It is now up to £11.25, but Dodds reckons it is time for that to be more reflective of what some other countries raise from their per capita fee in order for Scottish Golf to feel it is operating on a level playing field rather than seeming as though one hand is tied.

In Ireland, for example, the affiliation fee is €26 per year while it is €52 in France, where the national federation provides financial support right through to when players make Tour level, and as high as €78 in Switzerland. In England, the sub to the national body is £8.25 but members also pay an annual fee to their county.

With 211,000 members at 587 clubs, Scottish Golf boasts the biggest membership base among sports in Scotland and, using those roadshows to try to galvanise delegates and get support for his strategy, Dodds looks set to propose a per capita charge increase at a special general meeting later this year.

“France is investing £20m a year, whereas our investment is £3-4m,” he said. “I think the annual sub has got to go up. It’s got to. It works out at 94p a month. If we talk to golfers directly, the feedback is that, ‘we don’t mind if it’s 
a £5 or £10 hike’. Some golf club members are maybe a little more reticent about it, but the message is that we are all part of this great industry and do we want to get more resources in? That’s the key to this.

“Amalgamation is done, and that’s great, but we need to move on, and we’re getting left behind. We need more resource to invest into what we want to deliver, which includes better programmes.”

A new customer relations management system is one thing he is hoping clubs will embrace while a national tee time module aimed at generating money for clubs rather than outside agencies is also part of the strategy.

“At the end of the four years, it would be great to double our turnover and also to see an upturn in club membership because, from that, different things like participation and performance programmes would be able to kick in,” 
added Dodds.

“If the golf community, having heard all the arguments and our proposed strategy, turn round and say it doesn’t want to bring in more money, we will deliver according to the resources. We are saying that we believe there is an option to change that for everyone’s benefit. That’s the message we are trying to get across. I think we all deserve more than what we have at the moment.”