GUI & ILGU merger talks

golfwallah

I heard on radio yesterday that the GUI & ILGU are about to enter talks about merging, see also this report in The Examiner.

Seems to make sense in this day and age to have a single body with responsibility for governance of golf in Ireland and follows example set in England, Wales. Scotland is also moving this way.

Should help concentrate scarce resources a bit better and can only bode well for the future, IMO.

SaveOurLyric

Is is intended to change anything in the structure in golf clubs themselves ? As in change the structure of men's and ladies 'clubs' as tennants of a of facility itself ?
What is the aim? Common promotion and marketing?. The wider world wouldn't know of the difference anyway so not sure if there is anything to be gained.
Or is it just a pc gender independent 'equality' push.

Kingswood Rover

Save some money economies of scale and all that, get rid of 2 sexist organizations in one fell swoop bout time i say. Be great to see all those ladies tee boxes go as well with the girls playing of the same tees as the lads.

golfwallah

According to the Examiner article, Pat Finn, general secretary of the GUI is quoted as saying:

“If you were setting about establishing such bodies today, you’d be establishing one, and that’s the logic behind entering the talks.”

Finn highlighted “a very close working relationship” between the GUI and ILGU over the last six years, with both entities sharing a website and becoming founding members, along with the Professional Golfers Association of the Confederation of Golf in Ireland, an industry-wide umbrella group initiated to grow and develop the game across the island of Ireland.

As far as I know, the CGI, set up by GUI, ILGU and PGA takes responsibility for growing and promoting the game, marketing, business training, etc., whereas the GUI & ILGU take responsibility for governance of the playing side of the game.

golfwallah

For link to the joint GUI / ILGU statement on Golfnet, click here.

SaveOurLyric

Is that the golfnet site that has recently been updated ? Looks updated alright. Old one looked like something from 1991. They have now reached website design approximately 1998. Woeful. I hope it isnt an indicator of GUI/ILGU cooperation performance to come.

golfwallah

It's from the Golfnet site alright!

Seems if you google GUI, you get diverted to the Golfnet site. Haven't really looked at it very closely since the change, so can't really comment. The previous GUI site (only updated a year or so ago), left quite a bit to be desired, compared to, say, the England Golf Site, but even so it was still quite useful.

All I can say is I got to know a few of the guys on GUI Leinster committee, while involved on committee and I always found them to be very courteous, competent and helpful, as did other people on our committee. Same applied at any inter-club events I was involved in, even this year.

Most of the folk in GUI / ILGU are volunteers who give very generously of their time - they have very few professionally paid staff as far as I know. So, I'd read the merger as a way of getting more effective use out of the existing scarce voluntary and paid resources, TBH.