By Alistair Collier | The Business of Golf Magazine
Dear Club Manager, Director of Golf, Course Superintendent,
Why not celebrate WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY on Thursday 5 June, and congratulate UMHLALI COUNTRY CLUB as South Africa’s TOP CLUB in the country, for environmental compliance, social responsibility and good governance (ESG) for 2024-25, along with Reading Country Club and De Zalze Golf Club for their Special Mention Awards?
In the 18th Edition of the John Collier Survey, we refer to environment, social responsibility, good governance and financial sustainability (ESG) reporting by a company chaired by one of South Africa’s most generous golf benefactors. Furthermore, just last week Africa’s leading entertainment platform, MultiChoice, which provides, inter alia, extensive coverage of golf, published its ESG Report. Why do these companies voluntarily publish their comprehensive ESG Reports? It is because they acknowledge that ESG commitments are not an add-on but are fundamental to who the company is and how they do business. In this regard while golf receives extensive support from these and other organisations how does the golf industry itself measure up in terms of sustainability-ESG status reporting?
The process in assessing sustainability-ESG status for South African golf, is that once the data has been collated from the surveys received from clubs, the 18th edition of the John Collier Annual Survey was published in March. The data was then revisited, to ascertain which club had submitted the most comprehensive sustainability-ESG report.
We have formally acknowledged Umhlali Country Club, as being the recipient of the John Collier Substantiality-ESG award for 2024 / 2025, as the National Top Club in South Africa, with Reading Country Club and De Zalze Golf Club receiving special mention awards.
Furthermore, the top clubs in each of the 14 Golf Union Provinces, are recognised as leaders in sustainability-ESG. The club winners per province this year are:
Following the notification of the National Top Club Award, the special mention clubs, and the provincial winners, each participating club in South Africa has been sent a letter of recognition, with congratulations on their sustainability-ESG reporting status, as being either gold, silver or bronze level.
The research indicated that 14% of clubs in South Africa are recognised as achieving gold sustainability-ESG status, which is an increase in the number of clubs achieving gold status from the previous survey period. Of the 30 golf clubs achieving gold sustainability-ESG status, we noted that 7 golf facilities are new entries, however 3 golf clubs dropped out of gold sustainability-ESG status, achieving either silver or bronze status.
We also saw an increase in the number of clubs achieving silver sustainability-ESG status, which reflected some 24% of the survey sample, or 52 golf courses in total.
62% of clubs in South Africa achieved bronze sustainability-ESG status. This was a marginal decrease in the number of clubs achieving bronze sustainability-ESG status (138 in 2024 and 137 clubs in 2025) from the previous review period, but still a creditable achievement. The marginal decrease can be ascribed to the fact that while several clubs improved their reporting status this gain was offset by some clubs falling back.
Not forgetting the pivotal role, which the different provincial golf unions play in the success of golf clubs throughout South Africa, from a golf union perspective, we identified the top golf union’s clubs’ sustainability-ESG status. To calculate each union’s final status, we awarded points based on each of the participating clubs’ sustainability-ESG level scores, with 3 points for gold; 2 points for silver and 1 point for bronze. This points system enabled us to calculate an average sustainability-ESG level for each golf union.
The winner for the 2024 review period is the Boland Golf Union.
From a sustainability-ESG status perspective, our overall assessment is that there is a positive trend developing within South African golf with an improvement in the national sustainability-ESG status level from 29% to 32%. However, there is still a great deal of work that needs to be done in terms of sustainability-ESG reporting by South African golf clubs. In support of this an important reference resource would be to refer to the 18th John Collier Annual Survey as well as the MultiChoice ESG Report. The interesting point about sustainability-ESG reporting is while transparency is paramount, the principle of proportionality is central. No matter the size or resources available there is a place for environmental compliance, social responsibility, good governance and financial sustainability-ESG reporting by all golf clubs, provincial unions and Golf RSA.
If you have any queries, why not contact the John Collier Golf through our website or via email ajcollier@telkomsa.net?
Yours in Sustainable Golf
JOHN COLLIER
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