A golf coaching community organised and run by Essex-based PGA Fellow Professional and Golf Monthly Top 50 Coach Sarah Bennett has gone from strength to strength since it was first set up in 2010.
Sarah, who is a former Ladies European Tour player, and captain of the PGA in 2022, says that her Golfing Girl programme, which is based at both Lexden Wood Golf Club in Colchester and Three Rivers Golf & Country Club near Chelmsford, has succeeded in introducing hundreds of women of all ages to the game since she set it up some 13 years ago.
Despite talk of the decline in the women’s game Sarah has seen a remarkable and steady growth in the programme, which offers a multitude of events and sessions throughout the year and attracted women from all skill levels and experience, from grass roots beginners to the elite level players.
Sarah, who is also Essex Girls & Seniors Head Coach, and Essex County Golf partnership PGA representative, said: “I regularly coach ladies who travel over an hour to attend the sessions, which offer far more than just the technical side of coaching. One of the ladies who started with me has progressed to winning her club’s ladies club championship, while a very high percentage go on to join their local clubs, which is wonderful to see.”
Sarah had to retire from playing on Tour due to a medical diagnosis that affected her balance, an illness which she still experiences today, and which ultimately set her on the path to becoming a PGA qualified coach. She says: “I learned a lot about myself during my rehab, which has been instrumental in forging my pathway. Coaching people through golf has been fantastic; I love the daily challenge and variety, and I am blessed to start the day doing something I love.”
One of most recent success stories included four players who met during Sarah’s coaching sessions that teamed up to enter a charity tournament, Wendy’s Charity Day, which was raising funds for the treatment of thymic cancer. The team went on to win the event – their first external competition.
The tournament is close to Sarah’s heart, as one her close friends, England Regional Volunteer Manager Wendy Lodder died of thymic carcinoma, a particularly rare chest cancer. Sarah has been raising funds and increasing awareness ever since and has helped raise just short of £50,000 through a collection of efforts which have included running a half marathon, walking 15 miles and holding Wendy’s Charity Day at Colchester Golf Club, where Bennett grew up and is now an honorary member.
Says Sarah: “Before Wendy passed away she told me that she wanted me to put any money towards the research and not, in her words, towards ‘some tables and chairs’. We’re now in our fifth year and we’re nearly at £50,000. There haven’t been any huge donations, nor corporate involvement, it’s just been golf club members and hard-working people who have got behind this. It’s just a lovely story, from a very sad one, of how the golf community has come together.”
She added: “I am delighted at the growth of Golfing Girl, which has extended beyond golf, as many joined me in a recent 15-mile tow path walk in very testing conditions. We will also be heading to the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath in a few weeks’ time, where I will be coaching and on hand to offer advice from a former player which I hope will add some additional interest. I plan to further develop my Golf School schedule with my next trips to Lingfield in Surrey and then to Belek in Turkey later in the year.”
“People come to me for all sorts of reasons,” says Sarah, who has just returned from a week spent offering free coaching at the Swingzone at the Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. “Sometimes ladies have seen their husbands enjoy golf, others want an opportunity to make friends, meet people, to gain some confidence, help them with their health. I always say that golf is for everyone. You don’t even have to be sporty. Through Golfing Girl, my clients have made friends from the group sessions and are now playing all over Essex and abroad. It’s a wonderful network to be a part of and one that I am proud of.”
To find out more, visit www.sarahbennettgolf.co.uk.