Elie Sports Club Pro takes golf into
local schools

Elie Sports Club is well known for its commitment to juniors. Over 270 children have had golf lessons this year and the season has only just started. Come the summer holidays five classes of golf lessons a day will keep the Club’s two coaches on their toes.

The Club’s junior membership stands at an astonishingly high 300, yet just 20% of them are from the area.

“We’re more of a holiday resort so most of the other 80% are from Edinburgh and Glasgow,” said the Club’s pro, Ian Muir. “But I’m determined to reverse that statistic and get the local community involved in the Club.

“Like with any golf club, if you’ve not got a parent or an uncle or aunt who plays the game then it’s difficult to get involved. So I decided to contact the local primary schools and offer them the facility.”
This Easter, along with his assistant, Ally McDonald , Ian made four visits to all six local primary schools to give lessons to Primary 5 children.

“We started with putting and chipping and gave the children an introduction to all disciplines using Tri-golf equipment,” said Ian, who gave the coaching at no charge.

“We coached between 30 and 40 kids a day and over 180 children went through the four week introductory sessions in the schools. It worked well and the kids really enjoyed it.”

Elie’s push to get its community’s children playing golf coincides with the nationwide programme, clubgolf, which seeks to encourage every Primary 5 child to play golf. Launched as a lasting legacy to Scotland’s successful bid to host the Ryder Cup, clubgolf is a partnership between the Scottish Golf Union, the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association, the Professional Golfers' Association, the Golf Foundation and sportscotland.

clubgolf’s introductory game, firstclubgolf, is normally taught in schools by teachers and classroom assistants so it was a bonus for the Fife children to have four weeks of lessons from a Pro.

PGA Pros in clubs across Scotland are delivering Stage 3 of the clubgolf programme to children who are developing advanced skills. Mr Muir is one of a small, but growing, band of PGA Professionals who are working at the grass roots of the clubgolf programme and his involvement stretches well beyond the school gate. After finishing his four week course he welcomed all schools’ children to the Club for Stage 1 of the clubgolf programme.

“We invited all the children to the Club for the next stage of coaching and 45 are going through the course now,” he said.

“We are giving four clubgolf Stage 1 coaching sessions for £20 and we have also given two girls and two boys from each school a golden ticket, so they get four free coaching sessions.”

At the same time the Club’s annual membership has been slashed from £100 to just £25 to encourage the scheme’s participants to join.

“We’re a 2000 yard, 9-hole course with nice flat greens, shallow bunkers and the rough is low, so it’s an ideal environment to bring in children to golf,” said Ian.

“From Monday to Friday we could flood the place with children. The kids that have joined are starting to bring their pals along which is a wonderful spin off, and there’s a wonderful new buzz about the club.”

The season and his Stage 1 coaching course have only just begun but Mr Muir is already planning ways to reach greater numbers of local children in 2009.

“Next year we will look to fund some volunteer coaches and set up some after-school clubs as well,” he said. “We will be starting an after-school club with Elie Primary in a fortnight’s time to see what reaction we get from the kids.”