South Lanarkshire junior golf
strategy a huge success

As the four year South Lanarkshire Junior Golf Strategy, launched back in 2004, nears completion, the area can be very proud of the enormous numbers of children introduced to the game in that time.

South Lanarkshire was one of the first local authorities in Scotland to sign up to clubgolf, the partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, Scottish Ladies Golfing Association, Professional Golfers Association, The Golf Foundation and sportscotland that aims to create the opportunity for every child to experience golf by age nine.

Supported by South Lanarkshire Leisure, clubgolf’s introductory game firstclubgolf has been rolled out through all of South Lanarkshire primary school clusters.

During the last four years, 10,471 primary school pupils (7483 from the targeted P5 age group) in 107 of the area’s primary schools have introduced their children to golf through firstclubgolf, the fun and exciting game which uses multi-coloured modified clubs, rubberised balls and Velcro targets.

Some 670 of these children have taken the opportunity to progress to clubgolf Stage 1 courses at nearby golf clubs. Eight clubs are already supporting the clubgolf programme and 61 fully qualified PGA Level 1 volunteer coaches are working within these clubs to deliver the 20 session programme every year.

South Lanarkshire Leisure has taken additional steps to make the game more accessible to all by delivering junior and adult golf development programmes for the past three years. Over 600 children have taken part in the classes during school Easter, Summer and October week holidays, whilst 279 adults have been active in golf development programmes.

Assisting the purchase of equipment for primary schools, facility upgrades, and developing junior sections at clubs delivering clubgolf coaching is £114,000 of funding from a range of organisations including Awards For All, the Big Lottery Fund and clubgolf.

As the first Junior Golf Strategy nears its culmination, work is underway to ensure the next five years, leading to the 2014 Ryder Cup, are even more successful. The main target is to give 16,851 P5 children the opportunity to participate in firstclubgolf before the Ryder Cup arrives in Gleneagles.

Making that target a strong possibility is recent funding committed by South Lanarkshire Leisure and clubgolf which will enable every primary school to have a bag of firstclubgolf equipment, giving each school more freedom to deliver golf.

In another exciting development, planning is at an early stage to put golf programmes in secondary schools.

“Using the Golf Foundation’s Golf Extreme equipment, we will hopefully manage to support golf activity for youngsters during curriculum time or as an after school activity club,” said Colin Girvan, South Lanarkshire Leisure’s Golf Development Officer.

“This would also be linked to the local golf clubs so that any primary school child not taking up the option of clubgolf Level 1 will have another chance a few years later. It will also assist any players already in the clubgolf programme to practice their skills in secondary school.”