New Zealand and Golf

The good (nee Great) old days of Golf in New Zealand seem to be a thing of memory now and disappearing fast.  This article goes someway to identifying the crisis New Zealand Golf is facing, not only in grass roots, but also flagship tournaments.  So why the demise?

Let's start with the obvious.  New Zealand Womens Open will continue, as they have a high profile player at their disposal that they can use to promote the sport.  Lydia Ko is gold to the womens game and will be for times to come.  So what of the men then?  In the past and stretched over that period we have had top golfers to drive the Mens tournament, the likes of Charles, Nobilo, Turner and to a lesser extent Campbell, but right now there is no NZ male golfer standing up as a Marquee player for a home PGA or Open and that has to be a lose lose situation for NZ Mens Golf.

And sponsorship is also a problem.  Not just of the event, but also supplying appearance money for profile players.  It's fair to say Tiger won't be playing Paraparaumu or Gulf Harbour ever again and many others in the limelight now will give NZ a wide berth as it's not productive from a return on dollar point.  So what of sponsorship and appearance money - where has it gone?  Sadly other sports drive higher stakes for return on the bucks, the likes of Rugby, cricket and more importantly, yachting.  No not grass roots yachting, the big stuff, the Holy Grail, Americas Cup.  The money required to drive that high profile event is huge and a lot of those sponsorships aligned to it are huge and sucking money away from other sports trying to keep their heads above water (small pun) and Golf is one that is suffering.

It's doubtful that the situation will change in the short term, in fact it's probably an omen now by NZ Golf's own admission, that the sport will suffer greatly as good and great players bypass New Zealand for the richer Asian and Australian events in our summer.  Unless, that is, someone here takes a punt and drops a bucketload of cash in NZ Golf's lap for the next five to seven years.

Remember, golf of all sports is truly an international game.  Nearly everyone plays it, nearly every country has players making good coin, and as can be seen in the bigger tournaments there are plenty of internationals now gunning for the big purse and prize in both the mens and womens games.  Except New Zealand.  I think NZ Golf may have been sitting on their laurels for too long hoping things would improve, instead of actually getting proactive and making things happen.  Sure the sponsorship dollar is hurting them, but if a minor sport like rowing can make a name for themselves and succeed, any sport in New Zealand can, it just needs dedication, passion and drive and not just from the athletes.