Taranaki golf clubs in the rough
Everyone loves to play golf. Few of us want to belong to a club. That's a problem. Mike Watson reports.
Golfing great Lee Trevino famously pronounced ‘‘you don’t know what pressure is until you play for five bucks with only two bucks in your pocket.’’
Trevino might have been referring to the cut throat world of professional golf but his words could just as easily apply to the pressure golf clubs in Taranaki are under in meeting rising costs against diminishing income, and fierce competition.
There are an astonishing 19 golf clubs listed on the Taranaki Golf website. It’s the very definition of an oversupply and attracting more members to balance the books, and remain viable, is likely to soon become an impossible task for some.
It’s a problem not just facing Taranaki clubs. Nationwide golf continues to grow as a sport, while club memberships continue to plummet.
NZ Golf counts 105,000 golfers affiliated to 390 clubs, with 80,000 casual players registered, ranking New Zealand second in the world, behind Scotland, for the number of courses per capita.
There are more adults per capita (17 per cent) playing golf in Taranaki than anywhere else in the country, according to Sport NZ.
Regardless anyone wanting to play the game in Taranaki has the choice of 19 courses, many within an hour’s drive or less.
They range from the championship rated New Plymouth Golf Club (523 members) at Nga¯ motu, which has hosted four NZ Opens, and offers the ultimate in challenges, to the smaller Pungarehu Golf Club (60 members) with its rural outlook.
Taranaki Golf executive manager Nick Northam says the game in Taranaki faces numerous issues.
Some of those issues, such as steadily declining memberships, affect other sports in the region just as much. ‘‘There is a decline in women golfers especially younger women. And the decline in membership has led to a shortfall in volunteers who are essential to most clubs in Taranaki.’’
Added to these issues is the health and safety legislation which Northam described as a ‘‘potential minefield’’ for clubs.
The quality of the courses is also affected by the drop in members which makes it harder to pay for the extensive maintenance every course requires, even those which use sheep to keep the fairways down.
Worst of all, for golf club members, all of these factors are influencing the rise and rise of a word previously uttered only as a profanity – amalgamation.
Three Taranaki rugby clubs set the precedent when Opunake, Rahotu and Okato united to form the Coastal Rugby Club in 1995.
Coastal have since won the Taranaki premier club championship twice.
In 2018 a fierce debate erupted when New Plymouth mayor Neil Holdom suggested half of the ratepayer-owned Fitzroy Golf Club become a housing development.
The move was soundly defeated before it began, but it didn’t silence future debate on the fate of many golf clubs in Taranaki.
Northam said joining clubs together is not the panacea to golf’s pain.
‘‘Amalgamation is seen by some as a cure all of golf’s ills,’’ he says.
‘‘While rationalisation of golf facilities would be an obvious solution for a number of clubs, it is not so straightforward.
‘‘Golf clubs in Taranaki are autonomous and while they are affiliated to NZ Golf and Taranaki Golf Association, and are required to comply with the conditions of affiliation, they are free to determine how their clubs are run.
‘‘This includes setting membership fees and green fees and neither NZ Golf or the TGA can dictate what clubs must do.’’
Some clubs on the precipice of closing strenuously fend off ideas of amalgamation for a variety of reasons, Northam says.
‘‘They may believe amalgamation is a good idea but not for their club, and nobody wants to be known as the person, or the committee, that closed their golf club,’’ he says.
It is unlikely the game would die in the region if clubs under most threat of amalgamation throw the issue into the nearest water hazard, Northam says.
Nor would the reduction of courses mean long queues of players lining up to tee off on a Saturday morning, he says. ‘‘The game is unlikely to die but there is no doubt that clubs would benefit from looking at their operations and asking the hard questions about their future.
‘‘Taranaki Golf and NZ Golf are more than willing to support clubs in discussing their future with others, including amalgamation.’’
Nor would the reduction of courses mean long queues of players lining up to tee off on a Saturday morning. ‘‘It would probably mean the need to book in a round of golf rather than just turn up to a course for a round. But this is something golfers in other regions are well accustomed to.’’
Northam believes 10 to 12 courses in the region would be sufficient for the current number of players, with Ngamotu remaining
‘‘While rationalisation of golf facilities would be an obvious solution for a number of clubs, it is not so straightforward.’’ Nick Northam, Taranaki Golf executive manager ‘‘We’re losing money and we have to find a solution, otherwise it is impossible to continue the way we are going and rely on subs, green fees, bar and cafe takings.’’ Rob Maetzig, New Plymouth Golf Course deputy board chairman ‘‘Amalgamation will have to happen in five to 10 years with a lot of clubs in Taranaki because many can’t keep running on empty.’’ Kim Lucas, Westown Golf Club president
Taranaki’s premier course.
Westown Golf Club president Kim Lucas isn’t afraid of confronting the dreaded ‘A’ word front on.
‘‘Amalgamation will have to happen in five to 10 years with a lot of clubs in Taranaki because many can’t keep running on empty.
‘‘We can’t relay on subs to keep us going,’’ she says.
A lot of their members are against amalgamation and Lucas can understand that.
‘‘They have put a lot of effort into the club to maintain playing standards.
‘‘They are loyal and not easy to change.
‘‘We’re in the same boat as everyone else with declining memberships but we plateaued last year and gained a few more.
‘‘There’s an ageing membership, and lot more casual players, which we can cope with, but that doesn’t help our income when we have to buy assets such as machinery.’’
Lucas is hard pressed to know why fewer women were playing golf.
‘‘If I knew I would be a millionaire,’’ she says. ‘‘We are focusing on getting more women to play with programmes like ‘‘come and try’’ days to get mothers and women who have retired started, and introduced foot golf – a combination of football and golf, and we have upgraded the practice area.
‘‘But there are so many others sports for young women to play now that golf has to work harder.’’
Like many golf courses Westown employed two fulltime greenkeepers, and two office staff but also had a strong group of volunteers to share the workload.
Amalgamation is not a talking point for South Taranaki’s Te Ngutu Golf Club (271 members), says the club’s first woman president Julie Cleaver.
‘‘Our focus is on retaining steady membership numbers, and building juniors,’’ Cleaver says.
Summer twilight golf attracted up to 80 to 90 players and helped build club morale, she says.
Out east near Tikorangi, the 105-year-old Manukorihi Golf Course (202 members), faced an unusual foe last year when myrtle rust closed the course for five weeks.
The club is stronger than ever after a downturn 15 years ago, club president David Butler says.
It is the burden for every club in trying to attract more members, he says.
‘‘We are all chasing the same purse, it’s a fine balance on what comes in and what goes out and you have to be very careful at what you spend.’’
Butler says funding grants were becoming harder to access with many wanting ‘bricks and mortar’ development over money spent on replacing machinery.
‘‘The last 10 years we have done exceptionally well and we are now freehold and have been able to buy new equipment, and we are planning on a new 10 cart storage shed to cater for older members.’’
A proactive committee became more business focused and sought sponsorship to achieve the turnaround, he says. ‘‘We have new members, many between late 20s and mid 30s, although we are still down on junior members.’’
Amalgamation with the smaller Waitara Golf Club (103 members) had been discussed but no agreement had been reached.
‘‘Waitara has its place as a golf course but it’s sad talks have stalled, and I don’t think it helps them.’’
The view from the club house verandah at the New Plymouth Golf Club’s Nga¯ motu course takes in a panorama of pohutukawa lined fairways disappearing into the distance towards the Tasman Sea.
In spite of its elevated status Nga¯ motu is in as much of an economic sand bunker as its smaller kin elsewhere in the region.
Membership has dropped to 523. The venue of four NZ Opens, Nga¯ motu now offers a 18-hole round of golf for $25, with a beer, or a coffee thrown in.
NPGC deputy board chairman Rob Maetzig says golf club membership in Taranaki faced perilous times.
As a region Taranaki had one of the biggest drops in membership in the country, and the average number of members per club in the region is only 170, he says.
After not reaching a surplus in the past three years, NPGC are asking members what they want in a three-year strategic plan.
‘‘We’re losing money and we have to find a solution, otherwise it is impossible to continue the way we are going and rely on subs, green fees, bar and cafe takings,’’ Maetzig says.
Some of those solutions could be selling off land for subdivision development, installing a driving range and offering the clubhouse for weddings and corporate functions.
Promoting nine-hole golf for women and sharing green-keeping resources are other options. Clubs also need to start talking about ‘‘the dreaded ‘A’ word’’ with more urgency, he says.
‘‘We should all be talking to combine forces for the betterment of the sport.
‘‘We need to more forward and not continually fight a rearguard action.’’