For Immediate Publication

 THE R&A LAUNCH GOLF COURSE BENCHMARKING SERVICE

 10 April 2008, St Andrews, Scotland:  The R&A has launched a free web based service to registered users of bestcourseforgolf.org that provides a means of data capture, analysis and reporting which will enable golf courses to maintain a record of all their relevant information on playing quality, turf quality and course expenditure.

From this pool of information courses will be able to track their own progress from year-to-year and monitor trends and changes that occur. Each course will also be able to reference its own information against other similar golf courses using comparative statistics.

Robert Webb, Chairman of the R&A Golf Course Committee stated: “This is benchmarking in its truest form and the service will provide complete anonymity.  We encourage use of this service because of the many benefits it will bring in coming years to those managing golf facilities and to the game itself which is under increasing pressure to provide evidence to support its credentials in terms of its performance as a sustainable user of land and its environmental footprint.”

To take advantage of this service, courses should register at bestcourseforgolf.org