One Governing Body possible next year

The Leinster Golf ADM at Castleknock Hotel recently

Plans to create One Governing Body (OGB) for golf in Ireland are progressing slowly, Leinster Golf told delegates at the annual meeting this week.

A Joint Discussion Group formed by the GUI and the ILGU has met 23 times since November 2015 and following a series of consultations with working and discussion groups, an “Emerging Proposal” was presented to the boards of both organisations a month ago. 

Work on redrafting this proposal is on-going but it is expected that once complete, the proposal will then be sent to the provincial branches for feedback.

While all plans are tentative at this stage, it is hoped that this proposal will then be presented to clubs and eventually put to a vote by the EGMs of the ILGU and GUI in the second quarter of 2018.

If it is approved, clubs would be affiliated to a limited company to be named “Golf Ireland”, which would be based at Carton House.

The meeting heard that if this goes ahead, there was a “probability” that ILGU headquarters would be sold to save on costs. 

The new organisation would be divided into four administrative regions which have yet to be finalised. 

All clubs would automatically become members of Golf Ireland without any need to change their constitutions.