Scottish Golf bidding to raise affiliation fee paid by club members

Scottish Golf is aiming to increase its revenue from club members by £225,000 through an 8.6 per rect rise in the affiliation fee.

Scottish Golf is aiming to raise an additional £250,000 from the money it gets through a levy paid by members of affiliated clubs. PIcture: Scottish Golf

A proposal to increase the levy paid by each playing member of an affiliated Scottish golf club from £14.50 to £15.75 has been outlined ahead of next month’s annual general meeting.

The figure had been frozen for four years by the governing body after an increase of approximately £500,000 from the last jump was ring-fenced to “support the development of key strategic priorities”.

But, as it bids to “continue to make great progress”, Scottish Golf is once again asking for club members to dig a little bit deeper into their pockets.

In a statement sent to affiliated clubs ahead of the AGM on 5 March, the Rosyth-based organisation said: “The company now plans the rollout of a refreshed and ambitious four-year strategy with a mission to ‘Inspire A Nation to Love Golf’ where the growth of the game is at its heart.

“The detailed plans will be communicated to members over coming weeks, however the strategy has been made possible through successful delivery by the management team against previous objectives.”

The statement highlights Open Play, an initiative for independent golfers, now having a member in excess of 2,000 golfers and contributing £78,000 in revenue to Scottish Golf in the last financial year.

Reference is also made to a new venue management system (VMS) that, according to Scottish Golf, has achieved a 30 per cent market share and is delivering savings of around £5,000 per annum on average to those who have adopted it.

A free Scottish Golf App has also been hailed as a success on the strength of it now having 240,000 registered users.

“Scottish Golf faces the same economic and financial realities of all organisations at this time,” contnued the statement. “Double-digit inflation and rising costs generally are estimated to increase the cost to deliver the current service and support programmes by approximately £400,000 in the coming year, although the Board and management team are continually reviewing all major areas of spend across the organisation to limit increases wherever possible.

“Against this backdrop, and recognising an inflation adjusted affiliation fee over the past 4 years would now be £17.34, it is proposed to increase the fee for the 23/24 financial year to £15.75, an uplift of 8.6 per cent but less than half the real inflationary adjustment.

“This increase of £1.25 per capita, assuming club membership numbers remain stable year on year, will generate incremental revenue of £225,000.

“While insufficient to cover the increased cost base, our ambition is to bridge the shortfall with increased commercial revenue streams. It is considered prudent to hold cash reserves to cover at least three months operating costs. Based on the current cost base at Scottish Golf, this equates to £1 million.

“Reserves in the company currently sit at approximately £1.6 million. Looking forward, funding will be required to support a number of growth initiatives to develop the game at a regional and grass roots level, while continuing to support and enable outstanding golfing talent to be developed.

“In the longer term it is the aim of Scottish Golf to generate more significant commercial revenue streams to alleviate future strain on the membership base.”