In their own words: Nick Pink

Writing exclusively for The Golf Business, the outgoing chief executive of England Golf discusses the recent announcement that all members of affiliated clubs now have personal liability insurance coverage.

Big news to discuss in this month’s column! Here at England Golf we’ve just launched a ground breaking initiative which adds tremendous value to affiliated membership and also addresses concerns about safety in the sport.

As you’ve probably seen from recent news coverage, we began providing every one of our affiliated golf club members with £10m personal liability insurance at the beginning of July.

This is a hugely important benefit and one which makes affiliation to England Golf even more relevant to club golfers. I believe it will also give great peace of mind to both members and clubs to know that this cover is in place.

We can all remember highly publicised incidents of injury on the golf course, such as the one at the last Ryder Cup. But did you know, it’s estimated that each year in the UK about 12,000 people need some sort of treatment after being injured on the golf course? At the same time, we also know that around two-thirds of golf club members don’t have the protection of personal liability insurance.

That’s a serious concern and one we are delighted to address by working with specialist insurance broker Bluefin Sport. As a result we are providing personal liability insurance for golf club members – underwritten by Allianz – in the event that they are held liable for injuring someone or causing serious property damage at a golf facility.

The cover is provided for members playing at any club in the UK. There is no excess in respect of personal injury claims, and just a £500 excess in respect of damage to third party property.

We’re working very closely with clubs to help them spread this exciting news to their members and encourage them to visit www.englandgolf.org/my-account to activate their cover.

This will also give them access to a new microsite which offers full information about the cover, including details of how to report an incident and make a claim. It has a section on ‘Frequently Asked Questions’, together with background on Bluefin Sport and how to contact its team for further information.

As part of our extensive promotional campaign we’ve also arranged for golf clubs to receive posters and social media assets to help them inform their members about the insurance.

As far as golf clubs are concerned, this initiative brings the reassurance that their members are covered in this situation. All golf clubs have to do, to ensure their members benefit from the cover, 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.