Golf clubs globally face a complex governance challenge in 2025—not because they lack dedicated volunteers or professional management, but because the essential ingredients of board effectiveness are still too often overlooked. Role clarity, culture, capital and continuity may sound intangible, but their impact is real, measurable, and in many cases, limiting.
1. Role Clarity: The Foundation of Effective Governance
Before culture, capital or continuity can deliver results, a board must first understand where its role ends and management’s begins.
Our 2025 research shows this remains the biggest governance issue in Australian golf clubs. Directors too often blur the lines between oversight and operations—frequently stepping into management territory, issuing instructions to staff, or focusing board time on day-to-day matters. These behaviours not only distract the CEO/GM and senior team, but also undermine the strategic focus a board is meant to provide.
Only 75% of directors and just 63% of GMs believe directors clearly understand how their role differs from management. This means 37% of GMs think their boards are too operational—down from previous years.
The consequences are tangible: slower decision-making, demotivated staff, and a board preoccupied with short-term issues instead of long-term direction.
The best-performing clubs are actively shifting the board’s mindset from “Doers” to “Stewards.” That means investing in induction, reinforcing the board’s governance role in charters and codes, and holding each other accountable for staying out of operations.
One club implemented a “Strategic Filter” for all board papers, ensuring every item required a decision linked to strategy, risk or performance—not routine operations. Another paired each director with a board mentor to reinforce governance boundaries early in their term.
Ultimately, clarity around role isn’t about control—it’s about focus. When directors stay in their lane, the entire organisation moves faster, with greater alignment and confidence.
2. Board Culture: The Underrated Catalyst of Governance Performance
A board’s culture shapes how decisions are made, how conflict is handled, and how progress is sustained. Yet in many golf clubs, this culture is undermined by a mix of historical legacies, personality-driven dynamics, and a lack of structured behavioural norms.
Board Surveys’ 2025 research reveals that only 68% of directors and 57% of GMs feel their board works constructively as a team. Confidentiality breaches, personality clashes, and hidden agendas are frequently cited by general managers as barriers to cohesion. Even among high-profile clubs with global reputations, boardroom dynamics can resemble internal battlegrounds more than collaborative leadership teams.
When board members bring personal interests or outdated power structures into the room, it creates an “us versus them” mentality—often pitting board members against each other or against management. The result? Distracted focus, micromanagement, and a board that fails to add value beyond routine governance.
At a prominent Australian golf club, for example, a skills audit revealed gaps not only in expertise, but in the ability to listen, collaborate and adapt. By shifting director recruitment away from popularity and toward contribution, the club repositioned its boardroom culture as one of inquiry, inclusion and long-term value creation. This isn’t just about “being nice”—it’s about operational effectiveness and reputation protection.
Good board culture doesn’t just happen. It must be deliberately built, reinforced, and modelled by the chair and senior directors. Structures help—like codes of conduct, charters and term limits—but so does consistent, reflective dialogue. Culture, in this sense, is governance’s invisible engine.
3. Capital Strategy: Long-Term Sustainability Starts Today
The myth of financial health in golf clubs often stems from strong short-term results: balanced budgets, healthy cash flow, and member satisfaction. But beneath the surface, most clubs are failing to plan adequately for long-term capital investment.
And long term capital planning is more important for golf clubs than for many other sporting clubs and organisations because golf clubs are much more capital intensive.
Only a minority of golf clubs surveyed have a functioning 10-year capital plan, and many rely on reactive funding models to replace assets or invest in facilities. As a result, critical infrastructure deteriorates, member experience lags, and clubs miss opportunities to modernise.
Despite this, over 75% of survey respondents said their club was “performing well”—highlighting a disconnect between operational confidence and capital reality.
Golf governance requires a mindset shift from “Are we OK this year?” to “Will we thrive 10 years from now?” That means developing and regularly updating:
- A full asset register with condition-based assessments
- Long-term replacement schedules
- Clear investment priorities linked to strategy
- Member communication frameworks to build support for future spending
Many of the larger and more internationally recognised golf clubs have taken deliberate steps to embed capital planning into their governance DNA. Not only do they track asset depreciation, but they also integrate capital reinvestment goals into their board, CEO/GM and organisation performance reviews.
Why does this matter for governance? Because boards that think strategically about capital are less reactive, more future-focused, and more credible in the eyes of members and management. And when difficult financial decisions arise—such as investing in sustainability or digital infrastructure—they are made with a roadmap, not a rear-view mirror.
4. Continuity: Why Stability Is the Quiet Superpower of Great Boards
Every governance body needs fresh thinking—but high turnover, unclear succession, and contested elections weaken a board’s ability to lead consistently.
In 2025, the average Australian golf club saw a 24% change in board composition after its AGM. For one-third of clubs, full board elections occur annually, risking a complete refresh of leadership with no carryover of institutional memory. Board turnover figures are not just academic numbers – they directly correlate with governance quality. The higher the turnover the greater the disruption to the operations of the golf club.
Among clubs where the board chair changed during the year, GMs were 50% more likely to report negative governance outcomes. The lack of continuity impacts not just strategic execution but board-management relationships, cultural coherence, and even risk management.
The best-performing clubs are those that treat succession planning not as an election cycle ritual, but as a long-term leadership pipeline. That means:
- Defining required skills and attributes for directors
- Conducting regular skills gap analyses
- Using governance committees to nurture future board talent
- Embedding staggered terms and limited tenure to promote renewal without instability
- Using a Nominations Committee to help identify suitable board candidates
Some golf clubs are starting to use a “Board Talent Program” to mentor future directors and ensure a blend of experience and new perspectives. The result can include more stable leadership, reduced factionalism, and improved member confidence in board decisions.
Governance frameworks—however robust—are only as effective as the people applying them. Continuity supports better conversations, stronger relationships, and more informed judgement.
From Role Clarity to Continuity: A New Vision for Golf Governance
Role clarity, culture, capital, and continuity are not side issues—they are the main story of golf governance in 2025. They define whether a board leads or lags, whether it inspires confidence or breeds frustration, and whether the club adapts to modern expectations or remains stuck in a cycle of reactive leadership.
Globally, golf clubs are realising that governance isn’t just about rules—it’s about readiness. Not just about checking the boxes, but building a culture that asks bold questions, plans further ahead, and maintains momentum across leadership cycles.
Golf governance is evolving. The question is—will your board lead the evolution, or be left behind?
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