Robbie Clyde reveals plan to steer Scottish Golf into calm waters

Governing body’s CEO says ‘transparency’ is key in biggest membership sport in Scotland

Close to where HMS Queen Elizabeth is undergoing propeller repairs in Rosyth, Robbie Clyde is getting to grips with steering an organisation that has often been viewed as operating in choppy waters. In his first seven months as Scottish Golf’s chief executive officer, Clyde has been working hard to make the governing body more “transparent” and “accountable”. By putting his cards on the table, the project director for the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles is hoping to receive backing from golf clubs to move ahead with a proposed strategy that has a vision to grow women and girls’ golf at the heart of it.

“It is the biggest opportunity, not just for growth in golf but also for the development of golf long term,” said Clyde, speaking exclusively to Scotland on Sunday in Scottish Golf’s headquarters close to Rosyth Dockyard, of the female side of the game having been identified as a key aspect of what he is aiming to deliver in his new role. “Women and girls’ membership of golf clubs in Scotland is 12 per cent. If you compare that to all other sports in Scotland at membership levels, the average sits at about 34 per cent, so we are way off the mark. That is something we as a governing body should be addressing but, equally, it’s not just because it’s the right thing to do.

“It’s because it would provide for our clubs who are looking for growth, looking for new members, who are looking to address the challenges they’ve faced in recent years. We had good membership growth during Covid, but, if we are to stabilise and then accelerate on from that, women and girls – and, in fact, families in general – is where a good proportion of that growth needs to come from. Look, while it is a challenge, it’s also our biggest opportunity for the future. We’ve got very clear targets for increasing female membership over the course of the next three years in line with our strategy.”

Scottish Golf CEO Robbie Clyde chats to spectators during the final round of the Helen Holm Scottish Women's Open at Royal Troon last weekend. Picture: Christopher Young/Scottish Golf

Club membership in the home of golf had been declining until 2019 saw an increase for the first time since 2015 before the figure rose again the following year as golf was an option for people during the Covid pandemic at a time when they couldn’t attend football, rugby or other sporting events. Nine clubs saw an increase of over 100 per cent in their membership numbers during that time, but, with things having settled down again, where are those all-important figures now?

“We are pretty much static,” reported Clyde, who spent 30 years working in the private and public sectors across sports, major events, tourism, international trade and manufacturing before taking on a job that had been filled by Blane Dodds until he was lured to the Tennis Scotland CEO post in 2017 by his strong background in that sport then Andrew McKinlay until he moved back into football in 2020 to become the Hearts chief executive. “The latest membership figure is down by less than 0.1 per cent. The intention and plan and targets and objectives are to sustain that stability and then to step on. It has to be about future growth as well.”

With that in mind, Scottish Golf is planning to support its member clubs through the appointment of new regional development managers across the country, the aim being for the person in five separate regions to become a “first point of contact” for clubs then, if required, implement the wide range of golfing and business expertise on hand back at those headquarters in Fife.

“In terms of how we deliver our support to clubs in a country that is as geographically diverse and remote and rural as Scotland is, it’s clear that there are members of Scottish Golf who feel distanced from the work that we do,” said Clyde, who was the head of EventScotland before picking up the reins from Fraser Thornton after he served as interim CEO for a spell last year. “We spent quite a bit of time as a leadership group and as a board looking at how we deliver what it is we do across all our different departments and how do we get that more clearly and directly to those clubs. It was fairly self-evident that meant we need boots on the ground in those regions to be able to do that.”

Exactly how many boots that will be is dependent on a proposal to raise the per capita affiliation fee paid by member clubs by £3 to £17.50 at next month’s AGM. As has always been the case as far as that levy is concerned, a potential increase has raised grumblings among some club golfers, but on the back of eleven regional forums earlier in the year that focused on “bringing it back to brass tacks”, Clyde believes progress is being made in an attempt to have better “collaboration” across the entire landscape in Scottish golf.

“I can’t understand why we’d want to be anything other than transparent,” he declared. “We are the biggest membership sport in Scotland. We have 566 member clubs in every single community the length and breadth of the country. We are nothing as a sport without our clubs and our courses. But we also know that probably 80-90 per cent of those clubs are looking for new members and new people to come into the game. Our No 1 stated objective is to continue to develop the pipeline of people across the country. All of the things we are proposing are there to support the growth of the game. To support our clubs so that they are in a much better position to be able to grow themselves and to be able to face the challenges and also embrace the opportunities around women and girls’ golf in particular.”

HMS Queen Elizabeth will be long gone from Rosyth before it will be possible to tell if Clyde has steered Scottish Golf into calm waters, but, along with his staff, he is certainly passionate about trying to help grow the game in its birthplace. “Look, I’m more than a glass half full person,” he said, “and I wouldn’t have taken on this role in what, of course, is our national sport if I didn’t believe and see that it’s a massive opportunity for the game to step up, move on and grow.”