KEY POINTS:
Wanted: A visionary, strategist, charmer, salesman, politician and an energetic, thick-skinned golfer to take over as chief executive of New Zealand Golf.
After Larry Graham's resignation, and in a tight employment market where five national sports bodies are searching for a chief executive, the search is on to find the person who can lead the country's largest participant sport into a successful new era.
The issues are enormous. The New Zealand Open has to get back on track and make money. Our elite players aren't making any significant progress internationally at either amateur or professional level, the national administrative structure is unwieldy, tournament schedules are cluttered and club membership stagnant.
Of all the qualities outlined above, the most important is that the new CEO be a golfer. It is no accident that the most successful national sports chief executives in recent times, outside of rugby, have been top players. A serious background in the game, especially one with such a conservative and frustratingly political environment, is a prerequisite in dealing with golf's culture and trying to move it with the times.
The new CEO has to tidy up the ludicrous, and expensive, structure below board level. There is still a national council, so four times a year 31 people gather to provide minimal input into the running of the game. The mere existence of the council is questionable. Its size is absurd.
A new CEO must lead the way in tidying up the tournament schedule. In an era when the top amateurs are either teenagers or in their early 20s, there is no need under-23 or under-19 championships. If the end game is to produce world-class professionals, isn't a week-long national interprovincial teams' matchplay tournament an anachronism? And why isn't NZ Golf embracing the GTNZ concept and avoiding date clashes?
Stagnant membership is a vexed issue which has been addressed by some provincial associations without lead from head office.
The issues are numerous, the answers difficult and the golf politics of region and gender are complex. The task will not be easy.
