St Andrews, Scotland: The R&A and Golf New Zealand have announced the formation of a strategic partnership in the international golf technology solutions provider DotGolf.

The New Zealand-based company was formed in 1999 and is a leading provider of technology solutions for golf clubs and organisations.

The new strategic partnership will see The R&A and Golf New Zealand each take a 50% equity stake in DotGolf.  

Murray Ward will continue in his role as Chairman of DotGolf, with The R&A and Golf New Zealand both having two directors on its Board. The current Chief Executive of Golf New Zealand, Dean Murphy, will step down from that role and become Chief Executive of DotGolf.

The DotGolf technology is already used by national associations in New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, with Australia taking it up from 2024.

The joint investment by the two organisations in DotGolf aims to help the company, which employs 25 staff and is headquartered in Auckland, enhance the suite of technology products it offers and develop new technology platforms that can help attract more people into golf.

The partnership will also develop multi-lingual solutions along with other tools for the utilisation of data and monitoring.

Martin Slumbers, CEO of The R&A, said: “We have a long-term vision for how golf can thrive in the future and a large part of that is based on embracing technological solutions that can bring more people into the game and enhance services to golfers. Golf is a global sport and we believe DotGolf has huge potential to deliver cutting edge platforms and solutions to the industry.”

Michael Smith, Chairman of Golf New Zealand, said: “DotGolf has been a fantastic success story, and we are very proud of our people and the progress we have made in New Zealand and international markets.

“We are delighted to now partner with The R&A to support the future growth of DotGolf. We believe The R&A is the ideal partner given our strong alignment in values, and our shared ambition to support the growth of golf. ”

While DotGolf offers platforms to help clubs and national associations administer handicaps under the World Handicap System (WHS), all accredited independent software vendors will continue to have unfettered access to WHS which will remain platform agnostic.

The WHS is jointly governed worldwide by The R&A and the USGA.