Senior Pro's Provide Golf Tips for our Aspiring Young Players
Young Sport Unlimited participants on the Day
The recent European PGA Seniors Championship held at De Vere Slaley Hall, Northumberland provided the perfect setting for 20 young people from across Northumberland to learn a few top tips from the players themselves, in a number of organised clinics, just a pitching wedge away from the main action of the tournament.
With years of experience between them and an array of worldwide tournament victories, players included Giuseppe Cali, Doug Johnson, Jim Lapsley, Andrew Murray, Glenn Ralph, Bertus Smit and Kevin Spurgeon who were all on hand to provide tips on a variety of golf shots including both the long and short game.
Organised by the Golf Foundation, young people were selected from Northumberland Sport’s ‘Sport Unlimited’ programme, an exciting national programme, targeting ‘semi-sporty’ young people as part of the Government's government’s drive to get more young people involved in sport outside of school between the ages of 10-19 years. Young people attending the clinic were from North Northumberland, Morpeth/Ponteland and South East Northumberland Schools.
Elliott Ball, one of the young participants on the day from Amble Middle School said, “It was a really great new experience, especially having the opportunity to meet the professional players. I will definitely be looking to play more golf at the end of my 10 week Sport Unlimited golf programme.”
Tour player Andrew Murray said: “It’s very important to encourage youngsters and these clinics are also very enjoyable for us too. Golf has offered us a great life and if we Tour players can put something back and help to inspire a new generation of golfers then we are only too happy to help the Golf Foundation in this way.”
Tour player Glenn Ralph said: “It’s great that experienced players like us can help youngsters who are so new to the game. It’s like starting with a blank canvas and that’s exciting.”
Neville Duncan from Northumberland Sport said: “Northumberland has seen over 3,000 young people participating in Sport Unlimited activities across the county since the programme began in September 2008, with over 87% attending regular sessions and being signposted to further opportunities in their local area, which is a significant achievement. This year, young people will be given the opportunity to attend over 90 different activities representing over 20 sports."
"Golf is one of these sports on offer and by working with the Golf Foundation we have now been able to reward those young people that have a 100% attendance at the sessions provided. I would like to thank our local sports development partners who have helped to organise and liaise with schools and parents to ensure these young people could attend. I would also like to say a big thank you to the young volunteers from Chantry Middle School who provided support throughout the day to the Golf Foundation.”
John Wood from the Golf Foundation said: “We were delighted with just how much commitment the players put into these clinics. They’re clearly all passionate about wanting to help these youngsters and they offered some great advice. They were so enthusiastic it was actually difficult to call time on each session! We can’t thank them enough.”
Northumberland Sport will continue to work closely with other sports and organisations to offer similar incentives for young people. In addition to these incentives all the young people who take part in activities across Northumberland during 2009/10 and attend a minimum of 6 sessions are being entered into a draw to win a Nintendo Wii or IPod. This is just another way we are trying to encourage young participants to attend enough sessions to inspire and motivate them to continue in the activity following the end of their chosen programme of activity.
