To many, golf may seem a rather sedate sport. The fairways and putting greens are not seen as the most likely places to inflict or receive serious injuries.
But the Golfing Union of Ireland (GUI) is every bit as keen to ensure that its members are adequately insured as the authorities in contact sports such as GAA and rugby.
Mr Seamus Smith, GUI general secretary, says it encourages every single golfer to carry a personal injury insurance policy.
He cites the case last year where a judge awarded £250,000 (€318,000) to a Turkish seaman who sued a golfer and Greenore Golf Club in Co Louth for the loss of an eye.
Had the golfer in question not been insured, he could have been at risk of losing his home, Mr Smith notes.
The most common injuries on golf courses are tee injuries, where golfers are hit by swinging clubs, and those caused when people are hit by wayward golf balls.
Since last year, the GUI has endorsed GolfSure Personal, a product offered in conjunction with AIG Europe and Coyle Hamilton, which provides golfers with personal liability and accident cover while also insuring their equipment up to a value of £1,500.
For an annual premium of £10 per year, the policy also pays out £100 to anyone who gets a hole-in-one in an official competition.
The GUI is targeting golf clubs to take up the product on behalf of their members. Around 150 golf clubs and societies have done so - some clubs have even made it compulsory for members - and AIG has signed up more than 17,000 golfers since the product was introduced last December.
By this time next year, the company expects to have more than 50,000 policyholders out of the 250,000 golf club members in the Republic, says AIG's Mr Simon Russell.
Other sports organisations are also keen to see their members fully covered.
The GAA, which has operated an injury scheme for its players in one way or another since 1929, added a new voluntary element to supplement the benefits available under its existing injury scheme last year.
For £20 per annum for adults, or £10 for children, cover for medical and dental expenses of up to £4,000 is available, while up to £400 per week is payable from the fifth to the 52nd week after an injury is sustained to compensate for loss of wages.
"We are urging and cajoling people to take it up," says the GAA's legal and insurance manager, Mr Ciaran O'Neill.
To date, however, just 12,000 people, or around 2 per cent of the association's half a million plus players, have availed of the package although the level of benefits available under the existing scheme fall short of the amounts needed for treatment of serious injuries.
"We are bitterly, bitterly disappointed," says Mr O'Neill. "Apathy is one thing but throwing common sense out the window is another."
He says that if there isn't a marked improvement in the numbers availing of the scheme in the foreseeable future, the association may have to consider making the cover mandatory.
"I would appeal to GAA players to play safe, be safe and join the players' voluntary insurance scheme," he says.
Top-up cover levels in rugby, another contact sport, are also surprisingly low.
The IRFU organises a compulsory personal accident scheme to provide cover in the event of death or serious disability, but this doesn't compensate for ongoing medical costs or loss of income.
But only 23 clubs provide extra top-up cover to members and just 16 individuals have organised their own extra cover with the Aon McDonagh Boland Group, the IRFU's insurance brokers.
"No one thinks it's going to happen to them," one insurance source says. "But a guy who breaks a leg could find himself out of work for six months."
