AIB has joined forces with the Golfing Union of Ireland and the Irish Ladies Golf Union to find Ireland’s “Golf Club of the Year”. The three partners have created a new awards scheme which focuses on the many non -playing aspects of golf club life that are essential to the long term success of the club. Details of the scheme were announced earlier today.
The AIB Golf Club of the Year awards scheme is open to all golf clubs in the 32 counties. Details of the scheme and entry forms are going out to all clubs this week. In order to enter clubs have to fill in a detailed questionnaire. The information received will be used as part of a preliminary judging process.
The Awards scheme will focus on four areas of increasing importance for the golf club, namely
Junior Golf
The Environment
Communications
Clubhouse/Course Presentation
The awards will be presented on a geographical basis with provincial and All Ireland awards in all four categories. Finally there will be one overall award for the Club, which the judges feel, has performed best across all four category areas; that is the AIB Golf Club of the Year.
The provincial winners will each receive AIB / GUI / ILGU pennants, while the All Ireland Category Winners will receive a specially commissioned plaque and a development grant for €1,500. The overall AIB Golf Club of the Year winner will receive a specially commissioned plaque and a development grant of €6,000. The awards will be presented in the autumn.
Introducing the new scheme Jack Lynch, President of the GUI and Cathy Smith, President ILGU both emphasised the uniqueness of the scheme. “It is an awards scheme most unlike any other we have in that for once the emphasis is not on playing the game but rather on all the other aspects of the game that go into the creation of the golf club, the unit that is at the very heart of our sport,” Jack Lynch, President GUI.
“In this new sponsorship ‘The AIB Golf Club of the Year Awards’ we have joined forces with AIB to seek out those clubs that are making major contributions to our game in many different ways,” Cathy Smith, President ILGU.
Speaking on behalf of AIB, Donal Forde, managing director AIB said, “Over the years AIB has had a close relationship with sport in Ireland. In recent years that relationship has tended to focus on one particular aspect of sport, namely the club. We see the role of the club as being essential to the continued good health of sport in Ireland. And it is that club we now want to honour. Not necessarily the club that wins the tournaments but rather the club that continues to progress and be as good as it can be, the club that plays its part in the development of the local community in general.”
The closing date for entries is 30th July 2002.
Further information from Caroline Reynolds Caroline.Reynolds@ogilvy.com