A Confluence of Golf Advocacy Groups is Poised to Address the Hard Issues

As a native of Southern California’s Inland Empire, it pains me to see how many golf courses have closed in my home region in the last two decades. Within a 30-mile radius of my childhood home, no fewer than 200 golf holes have closed, despite the fact that the population and golf have both grown over that span. Most of the closures have not been because of the financial health of the game but rather the financial value of the land atop which the golf courses were once located. Daily-fee facilities have become commercial and residential tracts, and municipal courses have gone the way of the repurposing scheme.

Golf’s leadership organizations continue to echo the phrase, “growing the game.” The saying is encouraging, but it’s hard to grow a game without anywhere to grow it. Whether a product of necessity, forward thinking or both, the SCGA dedicates resources to advocacy work exactly because of experiences like that of my native region.

If you read FORE Magazine’s “Core Mission” pages regularly, you understand that golf’s advocacy work manifests in various ways. As we begin the new year, I am pleased to share that the SCGA is becoming less and less an outlier among traditional golf organizations in dedicating resources to actively immersing itself in all those places where golf and public policy intersect.

While the SCGA remains the only amateur golf association in the country that offers advocacy as a function of its membership value proposition, it appears it won’t remain alone for much longer. Other golf leadership organizations and associations have witnessed the value and begun to follow suit.

The California Alliance for Golf (CAG), an advocacy coalition comprised of the state’s leading golf organizations, associations and businesses, recently named former SCGA Public Affairs Director Craig Kessler as its first executive director, albeit in a part-time capacity.

The SCGA first announced the news at its Annual Meeting late last year. Since then, I have been asked to describe the nature of the relationship between CAG and the SCGA. The Alliance is an advocacy coalition focused almost exclusively on policy work at the state level. Its membership includes, the Northern and Southern California Golf Associations, Northern and Southern California Sections of the PGA of America, California Golf Course Superintendents Association, California Golf Course Owners Association, Latina Golfers Association, San Francisco Public Golf Alliance and the California Turfgrass and Landscape Foundation.

As a coalition, CAG has standing throughout the state. As such, it is positioned to function as the unified voice of the game in the state capitol in a way that the SCGA is not.

Until now, the Alliance did not have a staff member tasked with managing the organization — work that includes developing its legislative/regulatory priorities, overseeing the work of its legislative consultant, guiding its membership development and developing a cogent narrative about the game’s place in the lives of California’s residents and communities. This represents a veritable milestone in the life of what all have come to understand is an organization whose work is increasingly important for the health of golf in California.

Beyond California, amateur associations are upping their advocacy games at both state and national levels. The International Association of Golf Administrators (IAGA), an organization comprised of leading amateur associations (the SCGA is a member), has reposed advocacy in its strategic plan and begun pursuing it by building a network of golf associations to collaborate with each other and the IAGA as both engage with policymakers, opinion leaders and media. “This Network” is just beginning its work, but any first step is always the most significant one.

While much has been written about golf’s prosperity in recent years —the game is enjoying record levels of participation and the demographics among participants are expanding, increasing programmatic on-ramps and a social media landscape that places golf content in front of more viewers than ever before — the headwinds facing the game have not subsided. The game is positioned well per certain metrics, primarily rounds and utilization, but the positive statistics miss the obvious ceiling — the golf community cannot continue to expand as golf holes decline.

I share this not to pour cold water over otherwise positive updates, but to convey that those of us who labor at the intersections of all those headwinds are resolved to remain vigilant and steadfast in our commitment to protecting the game’s place in Californians’ lives.

The zeitgeist has shifted. Those organizations that avoid advocacy are fewer. Those that pursue it are greater. That bodes well for the game — and for the SCGA, too

“As a coalition, CAG has standing throughout the state. As such, it is positioned to function as the unified voice of the game in the state capitol in a way that the SCGA is not.”