In their own words: Richard Dixon

The chief executive of Wales Golf, Richard Dixon, writes exclusively for The Golf Business about why the organisation has changed its name 

What’s in a name? Well, for us at Wales Golf, quite a lot, as we enter into our fifth name in just over a decade. We have always had two titles for our activities, but at last it is just one for all.

Until the end of September, we were the Golf Union of Wales (GUW), with Golf Development Wales (GDW) as a separate brand even though we worked as part of the same organisation in the same offices. Before that if was the Welsh Golfing Union (WGU) and Welsh Ladies Golf Union (WLGU).

Internally the performance side and the development arm were part of the same team and worked together when appropriate, but externally there was the perception that they were different.

We wanted to end that doubt, to have one clear ‘brand’ running all elements of amateur golf in Wales. There will also be efficiencies in terms of one website, one AGM, one set of accounts and more.

Golf has a very traditional perception, but we wanted to give ourselves a clear, modern image. Just as the WGU and WLGU merged in 2007 to become the first home union to unite the men’s and women’s games, we wanted to be at the forefront again.

The GUW and GDW were names which grew out of their history, rather than looking forward to the future, all very formal and a bit too wordy. After plenty of deliberation and consultation, we settled on Wales Golf with a logo which includes the ‘WG’ within the design. It should help in terms of the perception of the general public, golf club members and partners.

The official rebranding was launched at the AGM of the GUW in September, 10 years after the merger between the WGU and the WLGU.

Those moves, along with setting up GDW, followed the successful bid to bring the Ryder Cup to Wales in 2010.

It is also the perfect time to change our name to coincide with our ambitious new five year strategic plan, from 2018 to 2022.

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.

In the next five years we aim to see a five per cent increase in golf participation, with 250,000 people introduced to the game.

We aim to boost women’s participation by 20 per cent, with a similar increase for girls and seeing the New2Golf scheme growing to 10,000 members.

Can you spot the ‘WG’ in the logo?

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 the 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 we 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.

To find out more on how the Wales Golf can support your club, visit www.walesgolf.org