By Alistair Collier | The Business of Golf Magazine

INFORMATION BRIEF 144

In July this year, GolfRSA published its summary financial statements and CEO’s report.

Reading through the information raised two questions: How is GolfRSA, the custodian of amateur golf in South Africa, and a recipient of both public funding and compulsory levies from affiliated golfers, measuring up against sustainability scorecards, and in terms of the latter and using a golf tournament analogy, is its performance currently beating par for the course, or outside the cut line?

Sustainability reporting has become standard practice for national sporting bodies, most of whom now structure their disclosure around three familiar pillars — environmental stewardship, social responsibility, governance and financial excellence.

As examples, the R&A, Golf Australia, and Golf England all now build this language into their annual reporting, treating sustainability not as an add-on, but as a lens through which the whole organisation is judged.

Governance: An invisible Chair

The most obvious and striking gap is structural rather than substantive.

GolfRSA’s 2025 CEO Report opens with Grant Hepburn’s introduction and closes with his sign-off, but there is no accompanying statement from the chairperson of the board.

This is a curious omission for a non-profit company, governed by a formal board of directors and chairperson, whose voice is otherwise entirely absent from the document, that reports on the year’s performance.

Good governance conventionally rests on a visible separation between the executive (the CEO, reporting on operations), and the board (accountable for oversight and strategy), and a chairperson’s statement is usually where that second voice is heard.

This absence does not necessarily indicate a governance failure, but it does leave a gap in the accountability narrative, which peer organisations fill as a matter of course.

Financial Excellence: Sound Numbers, Limited Sight

Limited sight, because what is missing is the full picture behind the financials, as GolfRSA publishes only summary financial statements.

The auditors’ own report is explicit, stating that these “do not contain all the disclosures required” under IFRS for SMEs, and the basis-of-preparation note states that full audited financial statements are available only “upon request and signature of the relevant documents” from GolfRSA’s offices.

For an organisation which is funded in part by public money, and in part by a compulsory levy on every affiliated golfer in the country, this context sets a distinctly higher bar for GolfRSA to clear, than it simply providing a summarised financial report, which is downloadable from a website.

By comparison, the R&A, Golf Australia, and Golf England each publish their full audited financial statements as standard practice.

Financial excellence is not just about the surplus line; it is about the ease with which the people who funded that surplus can go and verify the numbers behind it.

Environmental Stewardship: The Missing Pillar

Read from cover to cover, neither the CEO Report nor the financial statements contain a single reference to environmental sustainability, in the sense that the term is used internationally.

This omission stands in sharp contrast to the R&A’s long-running sustainability agenda, and to the dedicated sustainability strategies now published by Golf Australia and Golf England.

For a sport whose social licence increasingly depends on demonstrating responsible water and land use, this is the pillar where GolfRSA’s public reporting currently has the least to show.

Social Responsibility: The Real Strength

This is where GolfRSA’s reporting is genuinely substantive, even if it isn’t labelled as ESG.

The CEO’s report details a real programme of work: the rolling out of an updated safeguarding policy; a formal Women in Golf Charter; continued support for the South African Disabled Golf Association; and a Tournament Support Programme.

A Fair Verdict

None of this offers a harsh assessment.

GolfRSA is, on the evidence of its own reporting, financially disciplined, socially active and demonstrably growing the game, but it simply has not yet adopted a reporting architecture that would let it tell, and its stakeholders see, the story properly.

Three modest changes would close most of the gaps: a chairperson’s statement to restore the governance voice alongside the CEO’s; a dedicated sustainability section (even a single page); and full, and freely available audited financial statements, given the public and levy funding involved.

None of these require new programmes or new investment, only a decision to tell the story that is already there.

Given the substance, which is already in place, GolfRSA is better positioned, than most national golf bodies, to make that step, and doing so would put it, deservedly, in the same conversation as the R&A, Golf Australia and Golf England on sustainability reporting, rather than remaining a step behind them.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to email ajcollier@telkomsa.net or visit the John Collier Golf website at www.johncolliergolf.com