Golf Ireland has only been in existence for two years, but after coming out the other side of the COVID-19 pandemic with the unexpected boost of a 20pc increase in affiliated golfers, its big goal is to get more women and girls playing the game in 2023.

After over a century of administration by the Golfing Union of Ireland and the Irish Ladies Golf Union, the birth of the new organisation has been a difficult one with the centralisation of power at Carton House and the obvious teething problems associated with the new World Handicap System leading to a plethora of frustrations from rank and file golfers across the country.

These misgivings may abate in time, but as Golf Ireland receives one-third of the estimated €7.5 million it needs to run its affairs annually in grants from the Government, the R&A and Sport NI, a clear agenda has been set.

Golf Ireland puts huge emphasis on gender balance and inclusivity as it looks to meet the R&A’s objective to “grow the game”.

This much-maligned phrase explains Golf Ireland’s determination to increase the number of affiliated golfers from the current total of 219,937, which represents a 20pc increase on pre-pandemic figures.

Research reveals that 543,000 people played on a full-length golf course in 2022, so with only half that number paying a club subscription, the governing body here is focused on getting more women and girls into the game.

It’s already exceeding the Government-mandated requirement of 40pc female participation on national governing bodies but with females making up just 20pc (18pc women, 2pc girls) of the 219,000 membership cohort, a huge amount of work needs to be done.

“While we’ve seen in the last year a very welcome increase in participation among women and girls that had been very stagnant in 2020 and 2021, where most of the growth was on the male side, we’ve a lot of focus on that,” Chief Executive Mark Kennelly said at a recent media briefing at Carton House.

“We have 80pc of our membership that is male and only 20pc female, which is not nearly where we want it to be. It’s a good bit better than the neighbouring nations, England, Scotland and Wales (12-15pc), but way behind what has been achieved in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. So that’s going to be a big focus.”

The return of the KMPG Ladies Irish Open with Leona Maguire headlining the field at Dromoland Castle last year was a major boost for Golf Ireland in this regard.

“It’s those softer things as well,” said Chief Operations Officer Anne McCormack. “When you’re hearing a father saying we never thought to bring our daughters to something, that’s a really big shift culturally. You know, we wouldn’t have brought them to the golf, but now we do. And I think that that we need to build on that narrative, and we certainly will be.”

The women’s Get Into Golf programme and other initiatives continue to chisel away at the problem of female participation.

But with many members concerned about the teething problems of the WHS system, Golf Ireland and the R&A have their work cut out to convince hard-core golfers that the system works.

While just 11pc of the 2.9 million competitive rounds played in 2022 were generated by general play scores, performances of an eye-catching nature continue to cause concern.

Yet despite that, Golf Ireland says it would like to see even more general play scores recorded because that facility encourages more people to play the game.

“They are tweaking the system as it evolves,” Kennelly said. “Has it fully bedded down? No, it hasn’t. I mean, only 60pc of golfers have the requisite number of scores (20) on their record.

“But that has grown a lot in the last year and will continue to grow. Nearly 90pc of the scores are being returned in club competition. So that’s still the norm. And even beyond that, the number of people who are regularly submitting general player scores is very, very small. Around 3pc, I think.

“There are people who have joined golf during the pandemic, who have young families. I have two nephews at home who rejoined Killarney during the pandemic, and they can’t give up their Sunday to play in the club competitions.

“They want to have an accurate handicap and play on a Thursday or a Friday night in the summer. So we would like to see more general player scores being recorded because it’s one of the features of the system, which is designed to encourage people to get involved in golf and play golf and have a live handicap even if they aren’t able to play in club competitions regularly.”

Club golf in Ireland is highly competitive, as evidenced by the fact that 5,341 teams played in 23 All Ireland and 20 Regional Inter-Club events in 2022.

But with data in hand, Kennelly is not concerned we have a problem.

“My view is that golf is a game of integrity,” he said. “We are quite certain that the vast majority of people who play golf, play it with integrity because it’s one of the cornerstone of our sport.

“We don’t have a referee with every match and I think the data supports that view. The data does not suggest widespread manipulation. All of our clubs have a handicap committee and they have a role and invigilating handicaps within their clubs.

“There’s a big responsibility on club members and handicap secretaries to do their annual reviews and keep an eye on it. I know there’s a lot of chatter about it, but it is not really supported by the data.”