The Confederation of Professional Golf’s [CPG] commitment to work with and support the development of professional organisations and their memberships who provide a skilled workforce for the game – no matter of their size, geographical location, or stage of maturity – sees the Association welcoming 8 new countries to take its collective membership to 40 Member organisations across 5 continents.

A key priority within the CPG’s 5-Year strategic plan – CPG Thrive, is the provision of services to the membership through a ‘oneCPG’ model. This model encourages the continued development of the Association’s Membership as a group of connected and collaborative organisations who provide a skilled and diverse workforce with access to the best possible knowledge and resources to enable the sport to thrive, and is a crucial part of the CPG’s focus.

“It is our great pleasure to welcome Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Georgia, Jordan, Latvia, Liechtenstein and Moldova to the CPG family, as well as congratulating Nigeria and Ukraine on becoming Full Members,” said CPG Chief Executive, Ian Randell.

“Our goal is to continue to foster a strong sense of belonging and togetherness for all Member Countries who, through valuable and shared services, are run efficiently and effectively with engaged PGA Members who are equipped to service golfers and grow the game, whilst also benefitting from the economies of scale and new opportunities that increased collaboration can bring.

“Our Members are our greatest strength and our new membership structure, that includes Candidate, Associate and Full Member Countries, enables us to maintain the requirements and standards of Full Membership whilst also welcoming smaller, less developed golfing countries, who may or may not currently have a fully functioning or recognised PGA, to benefit from the sharing of knowledge and services that we provide for, and through, our collective membership.”

Armenia, Chile, Georgia, Jordan, Liechtenstein and Moldova each join as ‘Candidate Members’ of the CPG, a newly-introduced category in its Membership structure that enables organisations at the early stages of developing an entity for golf professionals, to be able to access benefits of CPG membership and join the collective strength of the organisation.

Bosnia and Herzegovina and Latvia then join as ‘Associate Members’, based upon their further progression and having an already-established PGA and membership, and will work with the CPG to examine the next phase of their development required to become a Full Member of the Association.

The 8 new Members now have access to the CPG’s development framework of services and products and, alongside existing Member Countries, will each undergo a series of workshop discussions to ascertain goals and create a bespoke roadmap for development of their Associations and membership, supported by the CPG.

The Association is also delighted to welcome both the PGA of Nigeria and PGA of Ukraine into Full Membership, having developed their organisations and worked with the CPG over the last couple of years as Associate Members to introduce recognised education programmes for their trainees and membership.