Back in April, national junior charity the Golf Foundation was forced to postpone this summer’s ‘GolfSixes League 2020’ due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, good news for the registered golf clubs in the UK and Ireland means that boys and girls can now expect a safe return to fun competition on the fairways.
The Golf Foundation, working with its major supporter The R&A and England Golf, Scottish Golf, Wales Golf and the Confederation of Golf in Ireland, is launching a new ‘intra-club’ (internal, within one club) competition series for the remainder of the year – as opposed to the ‘inter-club’ league format between neighbouring clubs which was planned at the start of 2020.
This will allow juniors to enjoy the team, competition and social benefits of the ‘Sixes’ format now that organised golf is possible again. For logistical reasons, this opportunity only applies to those clubs who registered for the original GolfSixes League 2020 earlier in the year and is designed to support and reward these invested clubs.
This ready-to-play intra-club format will offer all the resources needed to run regular competitive team golf for junior sections. These are available to clubs via the Golf Foundation website, including detailed guidance, marketing posters, and scorecards.
As from the very start of the Lockdown period, the Golf Foundation has made the safety of all the priority, which is reflected in Foundation guidance to clubs on safe competition, and also coaching, which can be viewed at https://bit.ly/2P2G8MR and https://bit.ly/2OMAFJz respectively on the charity’s website.
Golf Foundation Head of Development Martin Crowder said: “By staging the format in the one-club setting, many of the great benefits of ‘Sixes’ activity can now be enjoyed safely. We are delighted that so many golf clubs from our postponed GolfSixes League have expressed an interest to play the intra-club GolfSixes League, which underlines just how much the children and their families loved our 2019 series, and also the demand that there is for this fun six-hole club team event.”
The intra-club format is designed to support the emerging, non-handicap player, or 37 and above.
The events can still focus on the popular benefits of the original series, playing six holes in pairs, in the highly inclusive Texas Scramble format, accumulating points for their team of six. However, to try to include as many from the junior section as possible and to alleviate the challenge of having any uneven numbers (i.e. not multiples of six) there is also guidance on running the original scoring format in pairs.
The Golf Foundation would also like to reassure all GolfSixes League registered golf clubs that the full inter-club GolfSixes League, featuring 98 leagues and more than 400 clubs, will be back in 2021. All the golf clubs who signed up this year will receive the full support to run this popular series next year.
See more on the Golf Foundation’s work at www.golf-foundation.org