The expanded three-year partnership comes as clubs that participated in a successful pilot are already moving to make governance training a mandatory requirement for all incoming board members. embedding it into their by-laws and director induction processes as standard practice.

With more than 11,000 volunteer directors serving across Australian golf clubs, the expanded program has the potential to become one of the largest volunteer director and committee development programs in Australian sport.

The new Golf Australia Club Governance Program provides a clear development pathway, from a free Governance Awareness Webinar for over 470,000 golf club members, through to a self-paced online Governance Essentials course, to face-to-face AICD-led programs including the Governance Foundations for NFP Directors course and the flagship Company Directors Course™ and GAICD accreditation.

Education streams are contextualised for the golf industry using real club scenarios and are available at subsidised rates through the partnership.

The program builds on a successful 2025 pilot that engaged more than 775 club leaders from over 360 clubs nationally and helped more than half of participants drive changes at their club as a direct result of the training, 73% reported improved governance confidence and 90% recommended the program.

Clubs making governance training mandatory

Critically, clubs are now going further, with the extended partnership enabling golf clubs to embed governance training into their formal director induction processes and club by-laws.

Devilbend Golf Club in Victoria, winner of the 2025 Victorian Club, Facility or Place to Play (Metropolitan) Award and a finalist for the 2026 Golf Australia National Awards of Excellence, has made governance training a requirement for all incoming directors and plans to formalise this in the club's by-laws.

Tim O'Sullivan, General Manager, Devilbend Golf Club, said the training transformed how the board operates.

“As soon as we did it, we pretty much encouraged all committee members to complete it. And everyone that did said 'wow', they learnt a lot. Our committee meetings are a lot more focused now. It's a lot more strategic, which is how it should be.”

“Now that Golf Australia has formalised the partnership with the AICD, I think that's something we'll write into our club rules. At least the by-laws. It'll be part of the induction for all incoming directors; they'll need to complete the course before they can be elected.”

The partnership follows the recent release of the 2026 National Club Governance Report, which revealed persistent structural governance weaknesses across the industry, including a significant accountability gap between boards and management, persistent gender imbalance, and a gulf in governance maturity between volunteer-run and professionally managed clubs.

At Cairns Golf Club in Queensland, former board director Erina Williams (current Golf Queensland Board Member) said the AICD training gave her the governance language and confidence to help professionalise a board navigating a period of significant internal challenge.

"Our ambition is clear: we want governance education to become standard practice for every golf club director in Australia. This three-year partnership with the AICD gives us the platform, the credibility and the pathway to make that a reality."

“If you've got the education and the language, you can walk into any boardroom and make a genuine contribution, even if you've never been on a board before. The AICD training gave me that. And the club is in a completely different place because of it."

“The AICD course gave me the language and empowerment to speak up. The board was forced to be strategic.”

Williams believes governance training should become a prerequisite for anyone putting their hand up for a board role: “It'll make sure the right people put their hand up, rather than somebody who just wants to get rid of the captain or thinks we need new fences on the boundary.”

Mark Rigotti, Managing Director & CEO of the AICD, said the partnership demonstrated what was possible when a national sporting body committed to governance as a strategic priority.

“The AICD exists to strengthen society through world-class governance. This partnership with Golf Australia is a powerful example of that mission in action, bringing structured, high-quality governance education to more than 11,000 volunteer directors who give their time to serve their clubs and communities.

“Too often, volunteer directors are expected to govern complex organisations without any formal preparation. This program changes that equation. It provides a clear, accessible pathway, from foundational knowledge through to advanced directorship certification, that builds genuine capability.”

“When directors are better prepared, organisations make better decisions, and the communities they serve are stronger for it.”

James Sutherland, Chief Executive Officer, Golf Australia, said the expanded partnership represented a defining investment in the long-term capability of golf club leadership across Australia.

“Australian golf clubs are significant organisations. They manage major infrastructure, and collectively employ thousands of people, serve hundreds of thousands of members and are deeply embedded in the communities they operate in. The people who govern these organisations deserve access to the same quality of education and support available to directors in any other sector.

“The most recent national governance research confirmed what we've long suspected, that structural challenges persist, particularly around role clarity, strategic focus and board capability. But it also confirmed something more important: that when you invest in governance education, things change. Clubs that participated in our pilot are already operating differently, their focus is more strategic, their decisions are better informed, and their boards are more confident.”

“What's most encouraging is that clubs are now choosing to make this training mandatory for incoming directors. That's not something we've mandated, it's clubs recognising for themselves that governance education makes their boards and their clubs stronger. That's the kind of cultural shift that will define the next decade of golf club leadership in this country.

"Our ambition is clear: we want governance education to become standard practice for every golf club director in Australia. This three-year partnership with the AICD gives us the platform, the credibility and the pathway to make that a reality."