NZG will report a surplus of more than $400,000 at its annual meeting in Wellington next month, bouncing back from a $1 million loss the previous financial year.
Chief executive said there was more than one factor in the turnaround but it was no secret the decision to hold the Open at The Hills course for the first time had given the national body a major boost.
‘‘New Zealand Golf tried to run the tournament themselves the last couple of years and the losses were just huge,'' MacGowantold the Otago Daily Times from Wellington.
‘‘The board decided to subcontract the event to Bob Touhy. That brought a real professionalism to it and it put on a fantastic event at no real cost to us.
‘‘Running an international event of this stature is not something you can do part-time out of a sports administration office like ours.''
MacGowan said the costs to NZG of running the Open before last year were about $1 million.
Removing that figure, and adding renewed Sparc investment and some additional funding, had transformed a hefty loss into a tidy profit.
‘‘It's a big swing and the Open was a very big factor in it.''
The 2008 Open is set to move from late November to December, but MacGowan said the exact date would not be known for a few weeks.
NZG and Open promoters were still examining the international schedule to work out where the tournament could fit.
MacGowan does not expect any second-year blues to hit the Open when it is played at The Hills a second time.
‘‘The people we're talking to are certainly telling us it will be bigger and even better, and companies are telling us more people will be going down there.
‘‘There's still an absolute buzz about the tournament and about the venue. Wherever I go, people want to talk about it. A lot of people who didn't go last year watched it on TV and realised what they were missing.''
With the immediate future of the Open secured, NZG's focus is now on arresting the decline in membership of its various clubs.
The organisation released a new strategic plan in December that made it clear it had to think outside the square to attract new members.
‘‘We've just done six months of research to look at why people don't want to join golf clubs but are happy to play casual golf,' MacGowan said.
‘‘The sport is in very good health but people are reluctant to join a club. We're looking at a launch in October of a new scheme to attract more people to clubs.''
NZG will also look at a revamp of its high-performance programme at the same time.
Chairman Philip Hassell conceded the organisation had been weighed down by the financial constraints of running the Open but said the decision to take it to The Hills had proved a masterstroke.
Last November's Open, won by Englishman Richard Finch attracted 35,000 spectators.
