Golf NSW has quietly and professionally gone about strengthening the game in our most populous state. The body’s showpiece announcement in the past couple of months was the genius signing of Cameron Smith to the NSW Open field well before he committed to the Australian Open. For context, the NSW Open will be held at rural and remote Murray Downs for $800,000; the national championship at venerable Kingston Heath and Victoria for more than twice as much prizemoney.

Golf NSW chairman Michael Medway is rightfully proud of what Golf NSW has achieved, not just in elevating the status of the NSW Open but across its dominion. Affiliation numbers are up, rounds played are up and junior numbers have risen thanks to nine regional managers running junior and school programs across the state. Elsewhere on the pro scene, the Women’s NSW Open has grown in stature and enjoys LET co-sanctioning, while a Men’s and Women’s World Sand Greens Championships have recently been staged at Binalong Golf Club (men) in the state’s Southern Tablelands, and at Walcha Golf Club (women) in the Northern Tablelands. Both boasted prize purses of $140,000 and were televised.

Golf NSW is now the only state not part of One Golf after Golf WA signed on in late August. One Golf, an idea hatched a decade ago, is a centralised model where Golf Australia and its member associations (the states) work together as a single organisation with top-down control from an operational point of view. The model includes a “centralised revenue process and associated reporting lines, with a single organisational brand to be adopted nationally”.

It’s a great idea in theory. The problem is, Medway believes New South Wales is performing better on its own than the national body, and many agree with him.

Medway is adamant that falling under the national banner would be a huge mistake for Golf NSW and believes at a national level far more could be done to capitalise on the current boom in golf.

Australian Golf Digest editor Steve Keipert spoke with him recently, with Golf Australia providing a response at the end.

Australian Golf Digest: We’re keen to delve a little deeper into where things are sitting in the national landscape. With Golf WA finally coming on board with One Golf, it obviously leaves Golf NSW as the lone holdout…

Michael Medway: It’s not on our board agenda, ever, to look at One Golf for a number of reasons. We don’t need it. We’re financially secure, we’ve got significant investments in the business that are making good returns. We’re also financially healthy. We have great relationships with the NSW Government, which are fantastic supporters of golf in NSW. We’ve got the NSW Open, that’s $800,000. We’ve got the two women’s events that are $500,000 each and co-sanctioned with the LET.

All of that is ticking along. We’ve got the World Sand Greens Championships. We had the women earlier this year and just the other week we had the Men’s World Sand Greens Championship. So we’re doing a whole lot of things in the sport that we don’t see the national body doing.

We have concerns about the culture in Golf Australia (GA). There’s significant staff turnover there. There’s no need for us as a board to continually focus on what Golf Australia is doing in the One Golf space. We’re aligned with the national strategy and our strategy is aligned with the national strategy, and as an organisation we prefer to look ahead, rather than keep looking in the rearview mirror.

Our affiliation numbers are up in NSW (from 158,000 in FY22 to forecast to be more than 165,000 in FY25 – Golf NSW annual report). Our rounds-played numbers are up, 28 percent year-on-year (GA participation report, July-Aug 2024). Our junior membership numbers are currently up more than 40 percent on the previous year. We provide a service agreement to Jack Newton Junior Golf now, so we expanded the Golf NSW resources into Jack Newton, which now opens up marketing, government relations and club support. We’ve got nine regional managers across the state that run junior programs, Lunchtime Launch It programs and Sporting Schools programs.

None of this is happening at a national level. We’re leading the way in delivering all this. We would be crazy to ever open up a conversation about giving the keys to GA.

As a board, we’ve got a significant amount of energy. We’ve got a great board mix of country and regional representation across our 380 courses across NSW and the ACT. Two-thirds of those are regional, so for Golf NSW to have a regional focus is really key. I don’t see any regional focus from GA. It’s very much Sandbelt and metropolitan-focused, but we’re not going to grow the game in metro areas. You know as well as I do, metro courses have got waiting lists.

We’ve got to focus on regional areas to grow the sport, and we don’t seem to be doing that at a national level. That’s my worry in a national focus. It’s run from Melbourne, it’s a central head office, it’s not close. We’ve got great relationships with NSW Government and our government relations lead works very hard on those. Golf NSW’s CEO works closely with ministers as well. We’ve got a director on our board who has had a long and distinguished career in politics, and as an organisation we continually tap into his experience.

Government’s a key supporter and it helps us get results with local councils. We know local councils are looking at golf courses, but being close and on the ground, we can quickly action any concerns/issues. We continually work with councils and show the benefits of golf to the community. In doing so we have achieved many positive outcomes for clubs concerning their tenure and future. If you centralise all that with the ‘mothership’, you lose that closeness and being on the ground, and it’s like you lose the ability to deliver services to your members. That’s what we’re really focused on and that’s what we talk about all the time from a board perspective.

What is Golf NSW’s take on what’s happening at a national level?

I’ve got concerns about the financial stability of Golf Australia. You’ve got an Australian Open now that’s $3.4 million (in prizemoney) that’s locked away for the next two years. Most likely there was a black Sharpie to go through the Australian Open this year if they didn’t get government money. From the outside looking in, the search for government funding seemed to be left very late in the piece.

The Vic Open is a shadow of its former self and appears to be dying on the vine. You’ve got Golf Victoria that are probably in a worse state now with the Vic Open. The mid-amateur championships are now tagged onto the state amateurs because they don’t want to run it separately

If they have to run an Australian Open in two years’ time out of their own coin, that’s $5 million, $6 million to run an event. That’s their cash gone. COVID saved them, really, with the government grants for COVID that they got a couple of years ago. I don’t think the organisation’s that financially secure and there’s no way in the world I would let the assets of Golf NSW just get sucked up.

In the One Golf conversation, why would I pay a service fee to do things that we’re already doing on a very low staff number? There are more than 100 staff in GA now, (including all the state staff) while Golf NSW achieves what it does with just over 30. Why would I pay to do that and essentially lose control?

All the state boards have lost a lot of relevance under One Golf. They get 40 minutes every quarter with the GA chairman/CEO and that’s it. They’re sitting ducks, with very little control of their destiny

I’ve got a board that’s got an energy. I want the NSW Open to be the biggest tournament in Australia, and that’s what we’re working on. Having Cam come this year is great, and that’s the profile that we can create by being ‘outside the tent’.

We’ve got a highly successful high performance (HP) program that continues to produce world class players on both the men’s and women’s global tours. Through the great work JNJG does we have an excellent base and pathway to identify and develop talent. I have questions over national HP at a junior level in particular. We spend a lot of money each year in HP and we’ve got all the kids playing in Ewan Porter’s Next Gen tournaments because there are very few tournaments to play in across the country. Next Gen is a perfect event – the kind of tour that Ewan’s created should be delivered by the national body, but they ‘poo-poo’ it.

What’s your message for GolfWA?

Good luck to WA. It works for their board, it works for their organisation. I have no issues with states going into One Golf. We have always acknowledged that for smaller, lesser-resourced states, One Golf makes sense. If it works for WA and it gets benefits and results for their state, well, excellent; fantastic. But the reality of what we’ve seen in Victoria, Queensland and SA, their state opens are either no longer run or are on life support. There also isn’t a state open in SA or Tassie.

Golf NSW is a major financial contributor to the WPGA Tour in Australia. We currently run eight events for women, six NSW Open regional qualifiers for women at $50,000 each and two LET-sanctioned events at $500,000 each. Without Golf NSW, I would question the viability of the women’s tour in Australia.

From an elite amateur perspective, since One Golf, the Interstate Series has been pared back from eight men and women to four of each now playing, drastically reducing the chance for many golfers to reach their ultimate goal of playing for their state. This also limits their US college opportunities, all for the sake of ‘cost cutting’.

There is no way we would, in a Golf NSW context, see any benefit to our member clubs.I say that time and time again because it’s 380 member clubs across the state that we have to always remember we service. From The Australian Golf Club to Manildra Golf Club – a nine-hole sand-green golf course in western NSW – they’re all equal and we have to service them all the same. I don’t see the national body being able to do that with any benefit and any better service delivery than what we’re doing now, and I know the Golf NSW board are of the same view.

Would we be right in saying about 40 percent of Australian golfers are in NSW?

It’s about 40 percent, give or take. [Editor’s note: the Australian Sports Commission’s AusPlay Golf Report shows NSW as 33.8 percent, although that is based on aggregated data.] That’s in the known market. If you take the not-known market of social golfers and the like, we’re more than 50 percent of the sport. It’s here. We’re approximately 50,000 members more than Victoria, give or take. We’re more than 165,000 registered golfers in NSW. We’re starting to get more women into the game, and that’s a long-tail investment – we’ve been making that investment for a number of years, so that’s now starting to come through. Golf NSW started a ‘Get Into Golf for Women’ initiative, which was subsequently rolled out as a national initiative by GA many years later.

I’d love there to be a benefit because we are aligned in the strategy, we follow the strategy, but in a pure business sense? There’s no benefit to the member clubs. The strategies we’re aligned in – more places to play, tell our story better, all the pillars of the strategy, technology and digital. Our Golf NSW app allows you to check your handicap and check into centres. We led the way in that.

I had a number of meetings at The Open where we’re reaching out and working with other organisations, with Golf England, with Golf Ireland. Our CEO and General Manager – Golf recently accepted an invitation to the Solheim Cup to have a number of meetings with player managers to get better players out for our women’s event and also work more closely with the LET. We’re getting our elbows out because we should do. If we went into a One Golf situation, we’d have our elbows cut off.

You know what? It’s good to be different. I work in technology and Steve Jobs is always of the view, “Think different.” We are thinking different. I can’t say too much, but we’ve got some investment opportunities at the moment that will set Golf NSW up for decades to come. It will set up the organisation to a point where we have proper income diversification. The national body has little income diversification apart from a One Golf service fee and $21.80 from every golfer across the state. There’s a disruptor somewhere around that. As a board, I think they need to be smarter with what they’re doing.I don’t see that energy at a board level. They’re all, “Royal this” and “Royal that”. It just doesn’t work for us.

I’ve got no issues in wearing my ‘black sheep’ socks when I go into chairman’s meetings, because I’m happy to be outside the tent. When I sit in the chairman’s meetings, I honestly think a lot of the state chairs wish they were in my seat and had control of their state again and could do more. Especially Victoria, because what’s happened in Victoria with One Golf, I think it’s killed that state to the extent that it’s lost its identity.

You’ve also got a lot of staff there that have been at Golf NSW for a long, long time.

I’m going to be biased – I think they’re the best in the country. I think how our executives and management team steer our business is exceptional. In saying that, every one of our staffing team are passionate about what they do, and they wear their Golf NSW heart on their sleeve. As a dynamic organisation, we have provided many staff with internal career-progression opportunities which in turn has provided stability within the organisation. As previously mentioned, our closer alignment with JNJG will also provide even further career opportunities and development across both organisations. It’s easy to be a director in a chair when you’ve got such a great team of staff behind you. GA has great staff as well – they’re all good people, the sport’s got lots of good people – but I’m a little bit biased. It’s almost like we get on the tee and we want to drive the green every day.

As I said, the NSW Open’s going to be massive this year. I want it to be bigger, but I want the women’s event to grow as well. We showcased the women last year at Magenta Shores and at Bonville, and we’re at Coffs Harbour next year for the Australian Women’s Classic and we’re going to be at Wollongong for the Women’s NSW Open. That’s going to showcase the LET and the women’s event close to Sydney.

We’ve got a great deal with government, and we want to go from strength to strength. I just think without being ‘in the tent’, we’ve got the ability to do that. We can adjust it and we’re in control of our own destiny. I think all the states have lost the ability to do that. I think they’re suffering.

There’s a real hierarchy to where the state Opens sit at the moment.

This is where I need the PGA to get their elbows out as well, because these professional events, the state opens, are for professional players – obviously amateur players as well – but this is the livelihood for guys like Jye Picken, “Crowey” (Harrison Crowe) or Blake Collyer, Quinnton Croker who’s going to turn pro, Sam Slater, or Jack Thompson from SA. All great young kids on the male scene, but if there’s no state opens, there’s no coin for these guys to play for. We’ve got an $800,000 NSW Open, but we’ve also got six regional qualifiers at $50,000 each that – based on recent form – we should call the Matty Millar Series because it’s been his domain. And Matty’s a fantastic guy, Matty is a great guy. He’s come back from injury, he’s shown his wares and he’s won. That’s great for the sport.

It’s good for golf in Canberra, as well. We’ve been talking about NSW, but we’ve got Canberra and Queanbeyan, so we can’t forget the ACT, but where are those other conversations going with government in any other states? They don’t exist. The centralisation kills that. I don’t think, if I’m perfectly honest, there’s a clear strategy around what the national body’s trying to achieve. Are they there for high performance? Because you look at the GA website, it’s mostly about professional golf yet they’re an amateur body. They’re there for the member clubs.

I think they forget that and have lost their way. You can see that there’s absolutely no logical reason why we would ever get in the tent. We’ll align, we’ll work together and, look, we always do, and we have good robust conversations with them. We always say to GA, “If you’re doing something in NSW, reach out to us and we’ll help you run it, resource it.”

So it’s far from being a complete stalemate then?

For clarity, I think the relationship’s the best it’s probably ever been at the moment. I sat down with James Sutherland at The Open and we’re talking generally and watching the Geelong game on the phone, having a coffee. I’ll message him when his kids perform well on the sporting field – stuff like that. All Golf NSW staff have good working relationships with their respective GA counterparts, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.

If I’m perfectly honest, when I took over as chair, I made it very clear by saying, “Guys, I just want you to know, so you don’t ask – I’m not interested in having a conversation about One Golf.” That was four years ago. I drew a big line in the sand with a big tractor and went, “Right, that’s it.” Then people respect that, and we know where we are. We align, we work together. I’ve worked hard on the relationship with these guys to make sure that we’re not just perceived as difficult to work with as we’ve been painted as before.

We’ll work with these guys, but we can do it with our own destiny. They know where we sit, and we know where they sit, and we work together. I’ll still get the old, “Come and join us, Michael. Come and join us. Be one of us!” in the chairs meeting. I’ll be like, “Actually, guys, 3, 2, 1 back in the room. I’m happy where I am.” So that’s fine. That was good chair respect. We all respect each other’s opinions and positions.

We are getting border clubs approaching us to come and join Golf NSW because they know the services we deliver will help them become stronger clubs. That comes to the board and I’m like, “Come over, come on down, guys,” because the clubs that border NSW on three sides rarely see anyone from the national body. They’re seeing us, they’re seeing our clubs over the road and they’re like, Junior clinics, government support, irrigation programs, club support for agronomy, operational reviews, website builds, marketing plans… We don’t get any of this. When you consider that all those services and more are at no cost to NSW/ACT affiliated clubs, it’s a no brainer.

When Golf NSW introduced an agronomy service for clubs 10 years ago, knowing that golf-course maintenance in many instances is a club’s largest expense, we were laughed at by GA, and that’s still one of our most important services that our clubs need and utilise. That’s a complimentary service and provides full access to two of the most experienced and respected agronomists in the country.

Similarly, Golf NSW provides operational club support, governance advice and even strategic plans can be facilitated through our highly experienced team, at no cost to the club. In many instances these services aren’t provided by the national body under the One Golf agreements, or if they are they come at a cost to the club. We provide more for less cost at the end of the day. Our member clubs get a better bang for their buck in what we spend our affiliation fees on.

Yet even with Golf WA coming on board and leaving just NSW outside One Golf, I imagine the average golfer probably doesn’t care.

They don’t care.

There’s perhaps a sense of, “Hmmm, why has only one state held out?” yet the average golfer at their local club might not understand it.

I make this point to GA and the other state chairs – the average golfer’s interested in two or three things: what time is my tee-time with my mates? At 11:28 on a Saturday. Do they have Great Northern or Resch’s or whatever they’re drinking on tap and they haven’t run out? Are the bunkers done? And that’s it. They’re not interested in the politics of it.

I think the glass is half empty. I don’t think the sport’s in a great shape for the reasons I’ve said. I think we keep drinking the Kool-Aid and saying, “Playing rounds are up,” and things like that, but I think fundamentally, when you lift up the covers, there’s more to do. If you keep drinking the Kool-Aid and saying, “It’s great,” then you get lazy. Certainly in a board context in NSW, I always challenge us to be better and not be lazy, because as soon as you rest on your laurels, someone else will overtake you.

In a national context, we don’t have a sponsor for My Golf; we never have. We don’t advertise junior programs. Woolworths (Cricket Blast) is now sponsoring junior cricket. You’ve got NAB Auskick that does that kind of stuff, whereas golf hasn’t had any sponsors in this space for years. We haven’t got an Australian Open commercial naming rights sponsor.

Then you’ve got people saying you need to change the format. The Australian Open format is broken, it doesn’t work in that you are never going to get the best players from the respective tours playing it at one time of the year. The national body isn’t listening to the players/PGA. If we ever went into the tent and said something wasn’t working, we’ve got no influence.

There’s a lot we can do, and we’ll keep leading the way in NSW. We’ve got a great team here and will continue to do what we do best, and that is service our member clubs and showcase golf as a sport for life.

GOLF AUSTRALIA RESPONDS:

“Golf Australia, the PGA of Australia and the WPGA Tour of Australasia are committed to working together to continue to grow Australian golf.

“While participation levels have never been higher and there is unprecedented interest in the professional game, we still firmly believe that our sport has significant room to grow in attracting more diverse participants and workforce. 

“A once fragmented golf community is more aligned and united than ever in its aspirations for golf in Australia. The strong alliance between our respective bodies is unique, and given the progress of recent years, provides us with great confidence as we accelerate our ambitions to see more Australians playing and engaging with golf.”