Alternative To Golf Canada Rebranding Is Program Cuts

You don’t go very long in this business without getting your knuckles rapped for being honest about a topic, so after 32 years, some of the responses to Friday’s blog about the Golf Canada rebranding didn’t come as a big surprise.

You can read that blog and the comments below it here, but it went beyond the smiley faces and party line about the Golf Canada initiative announced last week.

In a nutshell, it pointed out that it was more about fundraising and that putting a new face on what was the Royal Canadian Golf Association is a financial necessity to keep it alive.

Why that is seen as a negative comment by some is a mystery to me because Golf Canada (RCGA) itself has admitted the financial challenges ahead. After years of being seen as an organization for private clubs that is out of touch with the masses who play the game in this country, the need to change that image is huge.

What was the RCGA has seen that need for quite some time now, leading to the Golf Canada rebranding and membership drive that needs to work quickly with bankruptcy in a few years a very real possibility if it doesn’t.

Golf Canada doesn’t want to start cutting programs from its portfolio and, as I said on Friday, many of those programs have merit and contribute to the game. While it isn’t being considered right now, it may become an economic reality if the Golf Canada initiative doesn’t work out as planned.

In that sense, the RCGA/Golf Canada is similar to a government in that if it doesn’t want to cut programs, it has to raise taxes, which isn’t a popular alternative. If Golf Canada doesn’t want to cut programs, it must find new revenue streams and adding new members and selling merchandise is the path it’s chosen.

We’ll see if it works out, but if it doesn’t, Golf Canada won’t have the luxury of jacking up taxes as the Nova Scotia government did with the HST recently, so if the revenue from the rebranding/membership drive/merchandise sales doesn’t meet expectations, programs may go on the chopping block.

Executive director Scott Simmons is adamantly and admirably opposed to cutting programs and knowing Simmons, I believe him, but there may be a certain economic reality, even if such a move results in the inevitable howls of protest. Things needs to change quickly to avoid such action.

Perhaps, golfers/golf facilities will respond to the Golf Canada program if they understand that financial message and care about such programs.

One of the reasons for the expectations placed on Golf Canada and the RCGA before it is that the association lacks definition.

As the National Sports Organization, it’s expected to develop elite athletes. Families expect it to contribute to junior golf through programs such as the CN Future Links and Golf In Schools.

Some feel it’s up to Golf Canada to increase participation and make the game more affordable, when individual green fees are actually the call or private enterprise. It’s involved in professional golf through the CN Canadian Women’s tour and event marketing through the RBC Canadian Open and CN Canadian Women’s Tour.

The list goes on with agronomy and a golf foundation and the association compounds the problem by trying to be all things to all people. The most recent example is a discussion paper released by the Canadian Tour about bridging the gap between the time a young golf professional turns pro and gets to the major tours.

The Canadian Tour is a prime development ground for aspiring professionals and a program to help out young pros is admirable in a perfect world. Golf Canada has made it known that it plans to discuss the matter with the tour and the Canadian PGA, but it isn’t clear what its role will be in such an effort.

Whether Golf Canada has the resources to fund or contribute manpower, given its financial restraints, will determine whether it can play a major role in such an effort if existing programs are already stretching every dollar.

This is what makes the Golf Canada rebranding and membership drive so critical to the organization, but to say it’s anything other than a roll of the dice right now would be naïve considering the uncharted waters ahead for the association. Who knows? Maybe Golf Canada will be flush with cash in a few years.

In the meantime, there should be contingency planning ahead, which brings us to this week’s GNN Poll.

Do you see program cuts as an economic reality for Golf Canada (RCGA) in the next few years?

Be sure to cast your vote on the GNN home page and please feel free to leave your comments below.

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