Golf Foundation’s ‘Play in May’ campaign goes live

Nick Dougherty and the Golf Foundation’s new Play In May campaign kicked off today, with every golfer in GB&I being asked to support ‘Unleash Your Drive in Schools’ via a special competition.

Thanks to the DP World Tour and Wentworth Club, the Golf Foundation are offering every UK golfer the chance to sign up and ‘Play In May’, for the opportunity to play in the BMW PGA Championship Pro-Am at Wentworth. The competition has 40 places on offer in the Unleash Your Drive Final at Wentworth Club in August, where the winning three players will earn a spot in the Pro-Am event in September.

The #PlayInMay support (a £5 donation must accompany every round played) will help the Golf Foundation’s bid to extend the reach of Unleash Your Drive to every school in the UK. Five years in the making, this mental wellbeing initiative is already creating exciting results since its launch in September 2023, with over 500 schools having joined in so far. Early results have indicated a 19% increase in mental toughness among pupils on the programme.

“Mental toughness is important because all of the research tells us that mentally tough youngsters do better academically, career wise and perhaps most importantly in terms of their overall life happiness and resilience,” Dougherty said at the event today. “We believe all golfers who have themselves benefited from golf would be happy to help us to increase the confidence and resilience of our youngsters through Unleash Your Drive. That is why we are asking them to Play in May and make a small donation to create a massive national benefit for young people and the wider sport. Now we need the whole golfing world to get behind this, and help spread the message to every golfer to get involved. If you’re getting out and playing anyway, why not give to help support the next generation.” 

While the Golf Foundation charity enjoys support from valued core funders and the Home Nations, Dougherty explained that Unleash Your Drive in Schools is a highly ambitious undertaking in terms of scale, and thus the charity needs a little support from all golfers. He is encouraging every golfer in the UK to take the opportunity to get involved in this chance to celebrate the game we all love by getting out to play in May.

At the end of May, the top 30 players on the Unleash Your Drive leaderboard will qualify for the golf tournament hosted by Dougherty on the West Course in August – while there’s a draw for all those who didn’t qualify, both with and without an official handicap. 

To find out more, visit unleashyourdrive.golf-foundation.org