It’s been two months since Golf Ireland launched its independent golfer scheme (iGolf) and it appears it may be a couple of years before we see the impact it has on small golf clubs that rely on membership income to stay afloat.
As it stands, the majority of the 950 iGolf subscribers are coming from more populated urban areas like Dublin and surrounding counties.
Golf clubs are in constant competition with other sports to recruit new members and various start up initiatives have been implemented to great effect to encourage beginners and some nomadic golfers to the game.
iGolf makes business sense when it comes to growing the number of registered golfers at grassroots level particularly for the R&A who are trying to fund their investment in the game from at all levels.
However, rural clubs are fearful that the iGolf scheme will prevent them from having an opportunity to tap into local catchment areas and attract new members.
In response to iGolf, many golf clubs are going to surcharge iGolfers to play in their competitions but Golf Ireland would encourage golf clubs to embrace iGolf, believing a subscriber is far more likely to transition to full club membership to a golf club that is welcoming to the scheme.
“The majority of subscribers are coming from larger urban areas,” said head of projects Brian Quinn.
“The clubs who embraced iGolf are those who did better out of it in terms of getting growth out of it. We would encourage clubs, and engage with clubs who are open to new members and we want to put their offers in front of iGolfers and it doesn’t have to be membership it can be open competitions or trials and Flexi memberships.
“We want to show them that there is real potential to convert from an iGolf membership to your club or whatever club. If that’s a smaller rural club that’s great and it’s a bonus.”
As of the impact iGolf could have on golf clubs going forward, their fears won’t be eased as Golf Ireland believe the scheme will take up to two years to provide a clearer picture of the golfing landscape.
“Golfers are far more likely to become members of clubs. We would love to create growth at club level and that could be attributed to iGolfers becoming club members. It will take a couple of years, it doesn’t happen overnight but that is the goal,” added Quinn.
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