England Golf is providing insurance to golf club members

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir July 10, 2019 14:11

Every member of a golf club affiliated to England Golf is now covered by a major new personal liability insurance policy.

England Golf – one of the country’s largest sports governing bodies, which looks after the interests of around 1,900 golf clubs and 651,000 members, is collaborating with Bluefin Sport, part of global insurance broker and risk adviser Marsh, to provide £10m personal liability insurance for all its affiliated club members.

The cover came into effect on July 1, 2019 and is being described as an additional benefit for members.

The announcement comes after a number of high profile incidents, including at last year’s Ryder Cup when a spectator was hit in the eye by a ball, and after a famous case that started in 2007 when a golfer at Niddry Castle Golf Club lost an eye also after being struck by a ball.

England Golf chief executive, Nick Pink, who will be describing the policy in full detail in the August issue of The Golf Business, said: “We are absolutely delighted to work with Bluefin Sport to provide this cover as an additional benefit of affiliating to England Golf.

“The safety of our sport is a concern at every level of the game and this is a very exciting step forward which will provide peace of mind to all our clubs that their members are covered.”

David Christmas, head of Leisure and National Governing Bodies, Bluefin Sport, added: “We are extremely pleased to be working alongside England Golf to deliver personal liability insurance as part of its member benefits. Bluefin Sport already provides specialist products and services for a large number of golf clubs across the UK and we share their passion for the game.”

England Golf is launching a promotional campaign to help clubs tell their members about the offer and encourage them to visit www.englandgolf.org/my-account to activate their cover. Clubs will be provided with marketing materials and social media assets.

All clubs have to do is to retain a list of their members which matches their affiliation fee return. This may be required when insurers are assessing claims and need to check that an individual golfer has a right to the cover.

The insurance is underwritten by Allianz and provided through Bluefin Sport.

 

Alistair Dunsmuir
By Alistair Dunsmuir July 10, 2019 14:11
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4 Comments

  1. Neil September 11, 11:58

    Today I met Daniel Thompson of BlueFin Sport Insurance.

    He tells me the third party liability insurance for all golfers paying an affiliation fee is genuine and there is no catch. Golf England have paid a group rate for every affiliated member.It is not (as we feared) another attempt by Golf England to get their hands on our database of members to market goods from other companies.

    The cover is only for damage/injury to others while playing golf.It does not cover injury to oneself while playing,neither does it cover loss of clubs or hole in one. If golfers want that they should arrange it themselves.
    It is ,just for once, a genuine attempt by Nick Pink to give all members a benefit for their affiliation fee.So we should be grateful for that.

    Reply to this comment
  2. Neil July 26, 10:37

    In reading all about the new public liability insurance for affiliated members Essex County Union office tells us that a member’s details are only revealed when he or she makes a claim, yet the EG FAQs states something like….”To qualify golfers must first register with Bluefin insurance”

    They give a contact website address to which I addressed my query. Not only does the bluefin description use poor English with apostrophes in all the wrong places(usually a sure sign of a scam) My “Firefox”firewall would not give me access. It warned: “Firefox advises you not to proceed to this site it has spyware in place to extract your internet details and passwords which are dangerous for you to reveal” or words like that.

    Who do I believe ? After years of EG trying to get members contact details to raise money for themselves I am understandably cautious.

    Reply to this comment
  3. Steve July 15, 11:52

    The offering of Third Party Liability insurance to club members as part of their affiliation fees is simply a mechanism (again) to circumvent to obligations that EG has on data protection of membership data from MY club to them. These are my members. They provide me with their contact details. EG want those details. So they give free third party liability insurance and in order to get it, each individual member has to register on the EG website. Why? I’ve got a detailed list of my club members, I know who they are and the likelihood is that a tiny number of club members will need the cover provided by the insurance in any year. There is absolutely no way that EG are forwarding on the names and addresses and contact details to the INSURANCE company which is providing the cover, the insurance company will have provided a blanket cover for any affiliated golfer. I know this because I have a policy of my own already in place and I don’t have to supply all my members names and addresses to the insurance company!

    So, they ONLY reason why EG need the individual details is because they WANT them for themselves. By requiring the individual golfer to register through their website, the individual has to agree to EG “T&C” as part of that process AND THAT THEN MEANS THE MEMBER HAS GIVEN EG THE RIGHT TO USE THEIR DATA – circumventing the Golf Club. EG can send them offers directly – including the £60 “be an independent golfer with a CONGU handicap” when it comes to fruition.

    Any Club that publicises this on behalf of EG is simply passing their own members details to a third party.

    Reply to this comment
  4. djm July 11, 11:29

    Just what companies like Allianz need – a steady income from a non price sensitive customer.

    I trust the Golf England Quango are going to put this business out to tender in 3 years time, but won’t be holding my breath…

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