SGA’s National Day project brings golf to the masses, helps charities

WITH the number of golfers in Singapore falling in recent years, the Singapore Golf Association (SGA) is working on some initiatives that will hopefully address the slide and revitalise interest in the sport.

First on the list is a National Day ground-up project that aims to engage the community and support charities. This event, named Golf Celebrates National Day, takes place on Aug 4 and Aug 5 and will promote golf to the masses by allowing people to play at all 10 local golf clubs.

Each club will dedicate 5 flights on either day to support the event. Three flights will be allocated to the public – those without a golf club membership - and 2 flights will be swapped among members of each club that allows them to play at another club.

The entry fee for both groups will be 50 per cent of the club’s guest green fees. The full amount of the green fees will be donated to 5 charities – APSN, AWWA, Life Community Services, Food from the Heart and Clarity Singapore.

And over the past few months, the SGA also organised “Get Golfing” events where national players spoke about the game at various community centrs and schools.

SGA’s newly-elected president Tan Chong Huat said: “With the loss of 3 clubs - Raffles, Jurong and Keppel - over the past 8 years, there is a drop in the number of golfers holding club memberships. This also translates to a drop in the overall number of golfers here. We want to address this.”

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When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early-2020, golfers were left with fewer playing opportunities. With borders closed for more than 2 years, golfers in Singapore were also frustrated that they could not travel to nearby venues in Bintan, Batam and Johor, with some even giving up the sport entirely.

A 2018 census showed there were some 80,000 active golfers in Singapore, with a separate study stating that about 46,000 people were members of a golf club. With the loss of 3 clubs, that last figure has reportedly dropped by about 10 per cent.

As things stand, a golf club membership still commands a princely sum. The fee for Sentosa Golf Club is a whopping S$500,000 today, followed by the Singapore Island Country Club (S$280,000), Laguna National (S$138,000) and Seletar (S$63,000). The cheapest is the 9-hole Changi Club at S$11,000.

SGA’s Tan said that the National Day event will be the first of many projects by the association to relay the message that golf can be both accessible and affordable.