Dunnikier Park Community Golf Trustees’ Annual Report

from My first document

by Martin Christie

Our Memberships

Covering the Period:

6th August 2021 to 30th November 2022

24th February 2023

Email address: dpcomgolf@gmail.com

Website: https://www.dpcomgolf.com

Facebook: DPCG – Dunnikier Park Community Golf

Press Officer

Bruce Fegen Email: dpcomgolf@gmail.com

Chairman’s Introduction

The journey towards establishing a charity to encourage the local community to engage in sport (golf) as a way of promoting physical and mental health and wellbeing started back in 2019, with the construction of Fife Golf Trust’s 2019 course at Dunnikier Park.

The 6-hole, 500-yard course, with enlarged holes, was designed and built by Paul Murphy (now Fife Golf Trust’s CEO) and his team, in partnership with Dunnikier Park Golf Club, Scottish Golf, supported by £20,000 funding from Kirkcaldy Area Committee.

The 2019 course was initially earmarked as a golf development centre, for juniors and adults. However, the potential to expand its use as a community asset exploded when Ken Smith, one of our founding group, discovered the game of Park Golf, played on over 1,300 courses in Japan alone.

Covid significantly interrupted progress, however the time was well used doing the groundwork to establish the charity and to make plans for the construction of park golf clubs by the St Andrews Golf Company – the oldest hand-made club manufacturer in the world.

Dunnikier Park Community Golf achieved charitable status on 6th August 2021

The Park Golf project was supported by £10,650 funding from the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund through Fife Voluntary Action and the Scottish Government, in March 2022.

That investment, along with smaller, but much appreciated, grants provided the finance to support a very successful first, 2022 season. Over 400 games of park golf were played by many members of the local community who otherwise would not be involved in sport of any kind. The feedback and the benefits to overall health has been amazing, as you will see in this report. Media interest certainly helped to get park golf more widely known. Such level of achievement would not have been possible without the engagement of the many community groups who are now regular visitors and our friends – together with the support of our partners Active Fife, Fife Golf Trust, Business Gateway Fife, my fellow Trustees, our group of committed volunteers, and Dunnikier Park Golf Club

I thank you all.

Martin Christie, Chairman

Charity Trustees

1. Chairperson: Martin Christie

Retired, chartered accountant. Experienced in leading and managing business transformation and performance improvement

2. Secretary: Raymond Johnston.

Chartered Quantity Surveyor and golf club secretary. Experienced in delivering complex work programmes and all areas of golf club management.

3. Treasurer: Richard Murdoch.

Head of Asset Management at a Registered Social Landlord. Experienced in managing budgets and leading teams to achieve strategic objectives.

4. Kenneth Smith (resigned 23rd October 2022)

Retired project manager and engineer.

5. Iain Evans (co-opted 27th September 2022)

Business Manager, Fife Golf Trust. Experienced in advising businesses, including golf clubs, on governance and business planning best practice.

Trustee Recruitment and Appointment

The concept and drive behind creating a charitable organisation (Dunnikier Park Community Golf) came from members of Dunnikier Park Golf Club. It was therefore fitting that the initial trustees of Dunnikier Park Community Golf drew on that experience. The membership of DPCG’s board will evolve over time. All Trustee positions are up for election each year at the Annual General Meeting. Board members can be appointed to the Board mid-year and the Board was delighted to co-opt Iain Evans to the Board on 27th September 2022.

Ken Smith resigned from the Board on 23rd October due to his plans to move south.

Our constitution allows Dunnikier Park Golf Club to appoint one of its Office Bearers to the Board of Dunnikier Park Community Golf. The constitution provides for up to 8 Trustees. On 30th November 2022, there were 4 Trustees.

Structure, Governance and Management

Dunnikier Park Community Golf’s governing document is its constitution, which sets out its purpose, structure and describes how it will operate. A copy can be accessed here

Our Objectives and Activities

Dunnikier Park Community Golf (DPCG) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (SCIO) registered by The Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) on 6th August 2021.

We are a non-profit distributing charity. Our charitable purposes are the advancement of public participation in sport and the advancement of health.

• To advance public participation in sport in Kirkcaldy and the surrounding area through the promotion, alone or in conjunction with others, of participation in golf and other sporting activities and acting as advisors in relation to the development of golf and other sporting activities.

• To advance health in Fife by the promotion, alone or in conjunction with others, of the benefits of physical activity and provision of assistance in relation to sports-related and healthy lifestyle matters.

To further these purposes, Dunnikier Park Community Golf seeks:

• To support citizenship, community development and community learning through the power of participation in Golf through working in partnership with members of and stakeholders in local communities and professional organisations, to empower individuals to improve their lives and their health and wellbeing. All programmes, projects and initiatives delivered by DPCG will contribute to four key outcomes and areas of focus:

• Raising self-esteem and confidence.

• Building a successful pathway to enjoyable participation in golf.

• Supporting healthier lifestyles, and

• Strengthening community engagement.

• To support, where appropriate, disadvantaged or underprivileged children, young people or adults to participate in community sport and community learning opportunities which foster and develop a community spirit.

• To do all such other things which further the objectivesof DPCG and may be deemed to be charitable.

Making a Difference to the local Community

Since our inception, we have concentrated on attracting people from the local community into sport, as a means of strengthening and improving physical and mental health and wellbeing.

It was important to find a way to ‘break the mould’ – that would encourage people who wouldn’t normally play sport to have a go and start to benefit from playing.

We identified a simple, fun golf game played by hundreds of thousands of people in Japan – Park Golf – a game that only requires players using one (mallet-style) club and a ball.

In addition to Japan, where the game is regulated by The Nippon Park Golf Association, the game is played in countries such as the USA, Korea, Thailand, Brazil, Paraguay, Denmark and Sweden – and now Scotland!

Strengthening Physical and Mental Health & Wellbeing

We successfully applied for grant support from the Communities Mental Health & Wellbeing Fund through Fife Voluntary Action and Scottish Government. We were awarded £10,650, which helped launch Park Golf at Fife Golf Trust’s 2019 course in Dunnikier Park. Donations were also received, ranging from £250 to £500, including support from Arnold Clark, Aldi Sports Fund, two oil companies and Kingdom Housing.

We needed to create an identity for Park Golf in Kirkcaldy, and we chose a Scottish flavour acclaiming Dunnikier Park’s 2019 course as ‘the Hame of Park Gowf’.

Our next task was to open conversations with local community support groups –focusing on adults facing life challenges: social, financial, drugs, alcohol, physical and mental health.

Early adopters were Alzheimer Scotland and over the year we built up a wide, inclusive range of regular visitors having fun playing Park Gowf. Over 400 games were played by groups including Alzheimer Scotland, the Nourish Support Centre, the Salvation Army, Phoenix Futures, Sporting Memories, the Curnie Club, and the Walk and Talk Group from Raith Rovers Community Foundation. Feedback was amazing, with participants describing the experience as Brilliant (89%) or Very Good (11%).

Walk and Talk The Neeburs o’ Geordie Munro

Phoenix Futures The Curnie Club