To: All Members of Killiney Golf Club
Re: Strategic Plan
31st May 2016

Dear Member,

It was decided at a recent Management Committee meeting to undergo the process of creating a Strategic Plan for Killiney GC that will chart to development of the club over the next 5 years.

For most of the last 100 years the club has been very successfully run and managed and demand for membership had invariably exceeded the number of vacancies available. This allowed the club to maximise its revenue as it saw fit and, in applying a joining fee, had the ability to create capital funds to continue to improve the facility.

In recent years the Golf industry and Golf clubs in general have experienced a dramatic reduction in revenues and interest in membership. The catalyst for this change was an economic downturn that commenced in 2008 and resulted in the number of registered players in Ireland dropping by over 25% in a 4-year period. In addition, socio economic trends have resulted in people having less time to play golf, and the emergence of the ‘Nomadic’ golfer and the ‘Lost Generation’ of golfers, will have a lasting impact on the shape of golf clubs in the years to come.

Killiney Golf Club has, like all other clubs in Ireland, suffered financially from this change and gross revenues for the club have dropped by about 23% over the last 8 years. In addition, a combination of age profile and a reduction in the number of applications from the 35 to 50-year age group presents the club with a challenge to maintain services with reducing revenues. This challenges the club to plan for the future based on a new dynamic and it is the focus of the strategic plan to address these issues and plan for the future.

To this end Niall Keyes, Secretary Manager has convened a Strategic Planning Committee to guide and assist him in the preparation of the plan. He has drawn them from a wide range of members and from diverse backgrounds which will inform the process. The members of the committee are, Keara McAndrew, Ronan MacGiolla Phadraig, Ken McCullagh, Grainne O’Donovan and Diarmuid Power. I am grateful to them for accepting the offer to participate on this committee.

The success of any strategic plan recognises the need to engage all stakeholders in the process. As members of Killiney Golf Club you are central to making this plan as relevant, workable and successful as possible. We will be engaging with you in a number of ways over the coming months to ascertain your views and to contribute ideas and solutions that you believe will be of benefit to Killiney Golf Club in the long term. It is envisaged that this work will be completed by 31st October 2016 where it will then be presented to the Management Committee.

If you have any feedback, or suggestions throughout the process, could you please contact Niall Keyes in the first instance at secretary@killineygolfclub.ie and he will feed your ideas into the process.

Yours sincerely,

Brendan Pigott
President