Safety system for golf clubs launched
24th January, 2012 by Jenny Yu
A risk assessment system that should make golf clubs safer and prevent them from being sued by injured golfers has been launched.
The BIGGA / GCMA Safety Management System, originally set up in 2007, has been completely revamped to make it more user friendly for clubs.
The web site covers every aspect of risk that affects a golf club, and all key employees are encouraged to use it.
Covering greenkeeping activities, the maintenance facility, the golf course, the kitchen, the clubhouse, the pro shop and fire safety, the facility, an industry standard for health and safety which follows guidance from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), details low, medium and high risks, and provides templates for staff to assess the risks connected to their roles.
At the end of last year a golfer sued a fellow golfer and Niddry Castle Golf Club for £397,000, split 70/30 in favour of the golfer, when he lost an eye after being struck by a golf ball hit by the fellow golfer.
According to Brian Butler, health and safety adviser to the Golf Club Managers’ Association (GCMA), if the club had used the system then the accident may not have happened and the club would not have been sued.
“There is a zero per cent chance of the club being sued if they had done this,” he said. “The attitude that ‘there’s never been an accident here before so everything will be OK’ is not sufficient.
“But this isn’t really about absolving blame, this is more about stopping accidents from happening.”
If Niddry Castle had used the system it would almost certainly have identified, through answering its questions and the assessment of risk, that there was the need for relevant signage at specific locations on the course warning golfers to be aware of flying balls. The lack of a proper risk assessment and relevant signage was cited by the judge as reasons for why the case against the club was successful.
The system is free for all members of the GCMA and the British and International Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA). GCMA members need to log on to the library on the GCMA’s website to find the system.
