Amateur golf in Wales has a new name with Wales Golf taking over from the Golf Union of Wales and Golf Development Wales.
The official rebranding was launched at the Annual General Meeting (Sept 26) of the Golf Union of Wales, 10 years after the merger between the Welsh Golfing Union and the Welsh Ladies Golf Union as Wales became the first Home Union to unite the men’s and women’s games.
Those moves, along with setting up Golf Development Wales, followed the successful bid to bring the Ryder Cup to Wales in 2010. Part of the rebranding as Wales Golf will see Golf Development Wales and the Golf Union of Wales fully united under the new name.
It means that everything to do with amateur golf in Wales will be clearly under Wales Golf, which should help in terms of the perception of the general public, golf club members and partners.
There will also be efficiencies in terms of one website, one AGM, one set of accounts and more.
“Ten years after we merged the two unions to set up the Golf Union of Wales, now is a good time to rebrand as Wales Golf,” explained Wales Golf chief executive Richard Dixon.
“It is also perfect timing to do it to coincide with a new five year Strategic Plan 2018-2022. Golf Development Wales and the Golf Union of Wales were always interlinked and run from the same place, but this move ends any confusion there may have been outside.
“The vision is to make golf ‘Everyone’s Game, Anywhere.’ We aim to create and support an environment in Wales where golf is safe and accessible for everyone to participate, enjoy and progress.
“We hope the name change will be simpler for everyone involved and that clarity will help us achieve our ambitious objectives.
“In the next five years we aim to see a 5 percent increase in golf participation, with 250,000 people introduced to the game.
“We aim to boost women’s participation by 20 percent, with a similar increase for girls and seeing the New2Golf scheme growing to 10,000 members.
“We will continue to work with our clubs to boost their growth on the back of the increased participation, with 50 strong, accessible clubs achieving gold standard, 50 achieving Junior Accreditation and half seeing a membership increase.
“The broad range of activities will continue under Wales Golf. We will continue to organise and run a broad range of championships in support of Golf For All.
“We also have ambitious targets in terms of producing top quality players to compete at the highest levels.
“By 2022 we aim to have eight winners of major international amateur events, a top 10 finish in the World Amateur Team Championships, a top three finish in European Team Championships and five players in the top 100 of the World Amateur Golf Rankings.
“Finally we need to engage more with every golfer in Wales. All these objectives include annual targets so will be able to monitor our progress on a regular basis.
“We all believe golf is such a great sport for life that this is an exciting time to push everything forward under the banner of Wales Golf.”