BEST PRACTICE

These pages outline the initiatives and good practice which clubs and facilities have undertaken to encourage more participation in golf.

Chipping Sodbury Academy of Golf, based at Chipping Sodbury Golf Club

By Steve Scott-Bowen, former Academy Director, now Regional Development Officer for the Golf Foundation

In May 2005, Chipping Sodbury Golf Club re-opened our old course on the common land adjacent to the club, redesigning the original holes to form a new community 6-hole par 3 Wissun Course. The course was named after the late Stan Wissun, a local hero in terms of Junior Golf at the club, and it seemed fitting that at the same time I launched my teaching Academy.  During the last 18 months we have gone from strength to strength, forming strong partnerships with Local Authority departments and community groups.  Here are some of our successful activities, initiatives, news and stories:

Regular Academy

Throughout the year we run regular coaching to non-members weekends and evenings.  We structure the lessons in terms of ability rather than age, beginners through to advanced and elite coaching.  We keep the tuition intensive by limiting the group to 8 pupils and have 1 professional plus an assistant per group.  When teaching girls we also have a member of the Ladies Committee on hand to help.  An average of 100 pupils per week is retained throughout the year.  We are an official Golf Foundation Junior Starter Centre delivering the Junior Passport Scheme to Academy members and in local schools and are proud to work hand in hand with The Golf Foundation taking golf into the community, with the ethos of good value grass roots coaching.

Girls Coaching

After starting with just a few girls Academy members, we now have two groups of girls having lessons (beginners and intermediate) and these groups are growing all the time.  As part of the commitment to increasing junior girl membership, the ladies section of CSGC subsidised embroidered ‘Junior Girl’ T-Shirts for sale at a reduced cost to all girl Academy members, giving the girls a sense of unity and team spirit.  It was great to see them worn when Gloucestershire Girls’ Golf came to Chipping Sodbury Golf Club in May this year.

Golf Roots Project

I am proud to instigate and project manage the Bristol Inner City Golf Roots programme, in conjunction with the Golf Foundation and DJ Spoony.  Inner city projects are always a challenge for a number of reasons; however, we enlisted the help of the Filton Golf Academy and fellow professionals delivering coaching to various parts of Bristol which culminated in a festival at a public venue. 

Tri-Golf Course

As part of our Awards for All funding, we built a specifically designed Tri-Golf course on our Academy facilities.  It has 6 holes with tee areas, enlarged holes on the green which include aprons – and one hole where players even have to navigate a hill side lie mound.  Although there are now a few of these courses based at Primary Schools, we believe that we are the first golf course in the county to have a Tri-Golf course at an actual golf club.  We are keen to invite primary schools and other community groups to use this course free of charge using loan equipment from us.  We have also gained access to another funding stream through our links with a local secondary school, King Edmunds Community School, which has sports status.  The project is run by the local authority to promote activities for children before and after school and during lunchtimes and the school holidays, and has provided attractive Factory 11 kit, which we have used to enhance our Tri-Golf course during both our Family Golf Festival and our Wissun Open.

Awards for All funding

Our Awards for All funding also provided vital academy equipment, in the form of junior and adult clubs and practice equipment, and 80 hours of tuition in the form of taster sessions for primary and secondary schools, brownies and guides, and courses of lessons for Adults with Learning Difficulties.  We were supported in our application by the School Sports Co-ordinators (SSCO) programme, who helped us to build strong links with schools.  Through this partnership we ran a Tri-Golf Festival for one family of schools, in conjunction with The Golf Foundation.  These links have evolved into the more formal Club / School links agreements that the Community Sports and Active Lifestyles department of South Gloucestershire Council have recently implemented.   

Family Golf

Funded by the Family Learning department of South Gloucestershire Council I attended several Dads’ Days at local primary schools in 2005.  This led to enrolment of parents and their children on ‘Family Golf’ courses, where while I taught parents their children participated in Tri-Golf activities with a Tri-Golf Activator and we then came together in family teams to play our Academy course.  In 2006 we are continuing these courses, funded by South Gloucestershire Council’s Small Grants scheme, expanding to more schools in the local area.

Active for Life

In June 2006, our Academy hosted the first South Gloucestershire Council ‘Active for Life Golf Open’.  The scheme focuses on physically inactive youngsters and funded free golf tuition for secondary schools in the county.  Schools were then invited to enter a team of 10 students into the golf open who took part in twelve events including putting, chipping and pitching, irons and woods, and playing the clubs 6 hole par 3 course.  As part of the event all participants were given a free polo shirt, an active for life golf ball, a free round of golf on the Wissun course and information on how to contact local clubs.  The winners of the event received a trophy and the team who won the event received a course of free lessons for the whole team.

Family Golf Festival (August 2006)

During the summer holidays we organised a free Family Golf Festival for anyone to attend.  This was funded by the Extended Schools project and attended by over 30 families who enjoyed trying out golf activities along with face painting and a bouncy castle.  They received packs with free golf balls, Academy literature and a free round of golf on The Wissun Course.  We had tremendous feedback from this event and next year hope to include other clubs in our local hub group (Tennis, Cricket, Football, and Rugby).One participant said, ”Excellent organisation.  All the family would love to do it again!”

Wissun Trophy

This is an event we instigated on the Academy 6 hole course aimed at CSGC Junior members of the main Beaufort golf course.  There were various categories – those with handicaps, non handicaps and girls.  We had 43 entries on our first tournament outing and wish this to be an annual event.  We charged a fee of £2.00 each and with donations from members and staff boasted an impressive prize table.

Wissun Open

This event is aimed at non-members of the golf club who are members of the Academy.  The event consisted of a six hole stroke play tournament for the trophy, two age categories (9 and under and 10 and over) 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place in each.  A splash target game, a velcro target game, a putting competition and 6 holes on our recently built Tri-Golf course.  We sent out over 120 invitations to our Academy members, using our database of students, and had 63 entries for our first event.  It proved to be a huge success, and the presentation to follow was fantastic, seeing the club lounge full of young new golfers.

CSGC Junior Committee

In 2005 we also formed a Junior Committee.  This consisted of the club’s two junior organisers, myself as the club’s teaching professional, a parent volunteer, a member of the ladies committee and our junior captain and another junior representative.  We have endeavoured to work together as a team to plan and run new events for our junior section, such as an evening of night golf, an away day to the Welsh Open and a junior Christmas dinner – now an annual event!  We also pooled resources to achieve Golf Mark at our first application, of which we are very proud.