Part 2:
History
NewClub Golf Society was officially founded and incorporated in 2017.
Before that, our history started with our co-founder Matt Considine and his unique journey to-and-from-and-back to the game of golf.
Matt grew up in Akron, Ohio, playing a combination his home course, Portage Country Club, a classic Langford and Moreau, the courses at Firestone Country Club, a long-time professional golf staple, and Akron’s municipal golf course, J.E. Good Park. His talent kept him in competitive golf through childhood and led to a collegiate golf career at his hometown, the University of Akron. But, as happens to many, Matt soured on golf when it became so much about score and individual outcome. Instead of completing his college years as a golfer, he journeyed to Ireland (his family’s ancestral country) to study abroad. Golf would find him anyway.
His Irish friends convinced him to join the golf society despite Matt leaving his clubs stateside, but the experience would change him forever. The eye-opening way golf societies in Ireland (and the rest of the United Kingdom) approached golf, through camaraderie, match play, and a multitude of welcoming clubs and courses, Matt knew golfers in the United States needed the model. Golfers needed a way to connect their happiness with the game far beyond a scorecard and pencil.
In 2015, Matt returned to the U.K., this time to the home of Golf in Scotland. He took in his experience fully through a new lens and solidified his belief in society golf. Sure, it was about the quality of the golf courses, but it was also about the healthy golfing lives of everyone in their local communities.
“We met teachers, bankers, architects, and grocers. Police officers, accountants, and a fisherman. I was fascinated with how much of their town was represented. In addition to honorary members such as Arnold Palmer, Bobby Jones, and Sandy Herd, The New Golf Club of St. Andrews has been a place for hundreds of years where citizens of the town, any resident in good standing with a passion for the game can call their golfing home.”
It was these experiences that sparked the idea of NewClub, leading to the founding of the company and our first Chapter in 2018.