International Pairs and Globalgolfers.com have merged to form the largest grass roots amateur golf company in the world. In an exciting development, the two companies have joined forces to create Golf Frontiers, which will bring all the assets of both businesses under one roof.
For the last ten years, International Pairs and Globalgolfers.com have been friendly rivals in the amateur golf market offering a series of tournaments for golf members and the casual golfer both in the UK and globally.
But at Golf Frontiers they will now operate a coherent long-term strategy aimed at building on their reputation for delivering high quality, unrivalled events to the golf enthusiast across the world.
Ian Mulcrone, managing director of Globalgolfers.com, said: “Both companies have built a strong brand amongst the general golfing population over the last decade. Although we have both been working in parallel markets, both operations have, in effect, been mirroring each other in terms of marketing, admin, sponsorship and general sales.
“Myself and Ross have been discussing the merits of joining forces for years now and never seemed to get round the table to thrash out the pros and cons of merging. However, on a trip to America at the start of this year we managed to have a few days together, and from that meeting, agreed to form the new entity.”
Under the terms of the new agreement, the two firms’ many events will come under one banner including Globalgolfers’ online membership scheme and tournaments and International Pairs’ global competition – the biggest in the world for amateur club golfers.
Golf Frontiers will feature five events: International Pairs club and match play competitions for club members; the Ryder Cup-style Transatlantic Team Challenge for amateurs in the UK and USA; Jamaica Doubles (a simple pairs event) and the Mauritius Open – a pairs tournament targeted towards the corporate sector.
All the events are well established and have the benefit of being partnered with national newspaper support from The Sun, Daily Express, Sunday Express and News of the World.
The new company will have a central administration centre at International Pairs’ Hampshire headquarters, Globalgolfers’ bespoke content management system and a number of other assets, including a combined database of 200,000 active golfers and the chance for people to get involved in Golf Frontiers themselves by purchasing business licences so they can run events and membership in local areas.
Ross Honey, managing director and founder of International Pairs, said: “It’s early days and we are in a transitional period where we are all trying to understand each others methods of working and then applying best-practice systems. But what is clear is the immense capability Golf Frontiers will have in terms of reaching not only the UK golfer but that of a global reach through our licensee programme.
“We are in the process of rolling out a state-wide initiative through our new company based in Denver, International Pairs’ current licensees totalling more than 30 countries and a UK licensing programme which will see 40-plus local and regional operators selling Golf Frontiers at ground level.
“We anticipate that with the growth of the UK market having virtually peaked, the natural progress will be to roll these events out to our overseas partners who can now opt in or out of these depending on market requirements.”
Golf Frontiers www.golffrontiers.com