NZ Golf forms industry council to help grow the game

POSTED ON September 26, 2017 @ 6:00 pm

In December 2015, New Zealand Golf and several other golf industry bodies gathered at the Royal Auckland Golf Club to form an initiative with the common goal to coordinate efforts between associations within the NZ golf industry.

With over half a million kiwis picking up a golf club every year at one of the country’s near 400 golf clubs, making the game the leading formal sport practised in the country, the industry saw a need for a common council to unite the industry on agreed industry-wide initiatives.

Following the two successful one-day forums, the contributing organisations sector has now announced the formal establishment of the New Zealand Industry Council (NZGIC).

With NZ Golf trailblazing the format in New Zealand, Australia has successfully used the same model through the Australian Golf Industry Council (AGIC) since 2006, aiming to bring key sectors of the industry together to help grow, support and promote the game of golf.

The NZGIC inaugural meeting in 2015 invited a wide section of New Zealand’s Golf industry including manufacturers, distributors, publishers, and association and club managers.

The first-ever forum was concluded with all stakeholders agreeing the format of the initiative were mutually beneficial for all within the industry. According to the council’s constitution, an annual general meeting will be held henceforth within four months of the end of the financial year.

According to golferpacific, New Zealand Golf CEO Dean Murphy NZ Golf said: “we are pleased the NZGIC initiative has launched and hope that it will bring the industry closer,”

“For some time we have believed that a more united and aligned sector can only be beneficial for us all and I do hope we will make some good progress…”

With an initial Board established with representatives from New Zealand Golf, the PGA of New Zealand, Golf Managers Association of New Zealand, NZ Golf Tournaments, NZ Golf Tourism, NZ Golf Course Superintendents Association and the New Zealand Sporting Goods Association, the Council has been incorporated with the following objectives:

To encourage a coordination and collaboration between organisations in the New Zealand Golf industry;
To provide a forum to bring together all key sectors of the New Zealand Golf industry to work in a coordinated way to grow, support and promote the game of golf.
To coordinate and optimize industry research and other agreed industry projects.
To identify matters that are of common interest to the members and on which broad industry consensus view can be logically achieved.
To provide an effective medium for disseminating relevant communications, news on developments and projects undertaken and or achieved by the New Zealand Golf industry both within and external to the industry and its individual members.

The next NZGIC meeting is planned for Wednesday 27 September alongside the MCKAYSON NZ Women’s Open Championship at Windross Farm Golf Club in Auckland.