As your link between England Golf and Norfolk I now bring you the highlights over the past 12 months.

Back in March, Margo and myself attended a workshop and one of the major commitments from England Golf was to make savings in the budget of 456K, this included reducing the budget for ‘Get in to Golf’, the Green keepers Training Committee and the grant to the Golf Foundation. They also pledged not to increase the number of staff at Woodhall Spa over the coming two years, in order to make savings.

There has been a review of the Club Support Network which has resulted in the number of regions being reduced from 8 to 5 and the number of Club Support Officers being reduced from 35 to 20. Currently the Club Support Officer (CSO) for Norfolk is Jordan Dymond

England Golf launched the personal liability Insurance Policy in July as part of their affiliation benefits for all golf club members, this provides each affiliated member with £10 million personal liability insurance. Details of this may be found at englandgolf.org/myaccount

Nick Pink the Chief Executive Officer resigned in September, his sucessor will be Jeremy Tomlinson from Acushnet Europe in early January.

England Golf are working hard with partners to protect young people and adults at risk and the ambition is to ensure that affiliated Golf clubs obtain the SafeGolf Accreditation, some County bodies are already working towards obtaining this and the Club Support Officers have the guidance to help Clubs achieve this.

Safeguarding and Club Affiliation, are on the agenda at the General Meeting in December. Any new news will be shared at the Norfolk delegates March meeting.

Affiliation Fees to England Golf will increase to £9.50 for 2020 and one of the main drivers for this increase was to protect the under fourteens funding. This was unanimously agreed at the Spring General Meeting as strong foundations were key to the development of County Teams and subsequently National Teams. To start early and nurture talent is key, this is reflected in our own talent pool of juniors and success of our county teams.

Finally, England Golf is dedicated to the continued investment in the game and the affiliation fee goes a long way to help provide that, investing in Talent Pathways, Support Networks, Coaching and Tournaments. Ongoing Programmes include Get into Golf which was as a direct response to club feedback, to assist in marketing Golf and Golf clubs to new members. Girls Golf Rocks which underpins the Golf Foundation and has seen an increase in popularity of the Sport amongst girls.

Alex Mournian your Norfolk England Golf Voting Member