An innovative scheme to re-introduce junior golf into a Middlesex club has gotten the go ahead after reaching its £15,918 funding target.
Brent Valley Golf Club, which plays on an Ealing Council-owned course, is creating an ‘academy’ for children aged 14-16 and is partnering with four nearby secondary schools to give 16 pupils, who wouldn’t otherwise get a chance of playing of the sport, the opportunity to join the club via a structured one-year outreach programme.
Each selected boy or girl will receive a new set of clubs, a year of professional coaching and be part of the Brent Valley junior team.
The Middlesex Golf Union have leant their support and pledged £2,000 in funding while online retailer golfonline.co.uk has offered £1,000 and Ealing Council has stumped up £6,400. The rest of the cash has been pledged by individuals while Everyone Active, which operates the course, is committed to giving each of the selected youngsters a season’s pass.
The idea for the scheme came from the club’s Welfare Officer Richard Gray, who has seen Brent Valley’s once-strong junior section disappear altogether.
“We hope the initiative will bring through some undiscovered golf talent and create closer ties with our local community,” said Richard. “Plus, we believe such an initiative can only grow the game and widen its appeal amongst our community.”
The volunteer-run club will be running trials in schools and invite children to join based on enthusiasm and talent and will also be looking for a broad section of youngsters from different communities.
The scheme’s approach has certainly ticked all the boxes for the Middlesex Union, which has been “fantastic” according to Richard. The club has also just received its SafeGolf accreditation from Golf England.
Middlesex Golf’s Operational Manager Darragh Coghlan added: “We were so impressed with the innovative and forward thinking approach of Brent Valley that we had to lend our support to the initiative
“It can only assist in increasing opportunities for kids to find our game in the county.”
During the crowdfunding phase the idea received the backing of local pupil Saskia Owen (Bush Hill Park), who earlier this month reached the final of the Middlesex County Championships aged just 13.
She has acted as an ambassador and agreed to visit the participating schools to talk about the benefits of playing golf.