Golf Foundation loses pounds 60,000

Ian Peacock, the Golf Foundation chairman, will tell members at its annual meeting today that there are insufficient resources available to fund its existing programme, let alone expand.

The only national body with the specific responsibility for encouraging and assisting young people to take up golf showed an operating deficit of pounds 60,000 last year, compared to a surplus of pounds 17,000 in 1995.

The Foundation Council supported the funding of the deficit from resources rather than making a cutback in the coaching programme.

"The under-utilisation of many of the new golf facilities, the increasing age of the average British golfer, and the fierce competition from other sports at grass roots level emphasise the vital role the Golf Foundation has to play," Peacock said.