Golf Australia chief executive James Sutherland revealed this afternoon that he has not had a direct conversation with New South Wales premier Chris Minns about the embattled Moore Park Golf Course, yet remains open to a discussion on the matter.
Sutherland was at Moore Park to reveal the updated participation report for golf in Australia for 2022-2023, which showed impressive increases in numerous areas of the game, but Sutherland also shared that Moore Park is now “the busiest golf course in the Southern Hemisphere”.
Minns and the Labor government in Australia’s most populous state unveiled plans last month to reduce the size of Moore Park from 2026 – likely to nine holes – in a bid to ease the housing shortage. Most people within golf were appalled by the decision, including the game’s governing body in this country.
“Golf is a huge sport, it’s incredibly popular and it’s only getting more popular,” Sutherland said today. “To think that there’s contemplation around this golf course – the busiest golf course in the Southern Hemisphere – halving in size, it doesn’t make sense to us. We’re absolutely open to conversations about what the solution may be, but from our perspective it’s only going to create more problems by reducing the amount of golf that’s played here.”
Moore Park hosts 91,000 rounds per year as part of 500,000 annual visitors across the golf course and driving range. With green fees as low as $45, it is an important venue for Sydney golf but in a sense nationally as well. If Moore Park is cut in half, it might begin a snowball effect elsewhere.
Sutherland says that while he hasn’t spoken directly with Minns, he would welcome the opportunity to do so.
“I haven’t specifically spoken to the premier, but we’re in constant dialogue with the [NSW] government,” Sutherland said. “We’ll work with Golf NSW and others to ensure we put our best foot forward in really having a better understanding of where golf is, specifically around this site but also more broadly around the popularity of the game and the growing interest of our sport.
“Public golf is incredibly important and public golf courses around the country are golf’s greatest assets and they should be protected for golfers.
“The contemplation at the moment is that the land is going to be used as public land, which is somewhat surprising because everywhere I look around here there is already parkland. I’m not quite sure what the angle there is; I understand there are housing issues across the country, but from a parkland perspective, right here and now, I don’t see that that’s a problem.
“The utilisation of this particular part of the parkland – the golf course and the golf facility – probably has greater utilisation than any part of anywhere in this two or three-kilometre area.”
Sutherland acknowledged that Australian golf, as a whole, hasn’t done a good enough job of educating the non-golf-playing community and the wider population of the benefits of maintaining green space in urban areas and the environmental benefits that golf courses bring to all.
“Every time we find ourselves in this position, we find ourselves asking the question: why don’t people understand more about golf?” Sutherland added. “The average golfer lives five years longer than the average person. In itself, that’s a reasonably good endorsement for the game of golf, I would have thought – a healthy and inclusive sport that provides not only physical health benefits but mental-health benefits as well.
“That perspective definitely needs to be passed on better than it is. We need to make sure that we’re not just preaching to the converted [and] that we’re talking to the broader population.”
Your correspondent suggested to Sutherland that the best solution might be an 18-hole match between he and Minns where the winner gets to determine the outcome for the Moore Park site.
Sutherland smiled and said: “Bring it on.”
