As part of its mission to grow female golf participation, women’s coaching initiative love.golf has demonstrated its ability to cross borders and cultures, enjoying a successful launch in the nations of Spain and Andorra.
The love.golf approach, which focuses on learning golf on the course with a group of peers, rather than through technical lessons on a driving range, was piloted in October last year to a ten-strong group of highly qualified Spanish coaches at Centro Nacional de Golf in Madrid (pictured above).
President of the PGA of Spain, David Pastor De La Puente, and Head of Education for the PGA of Spain, Jose Perez, as well as Jon Rahm’s personal coach, Eduardo Celles, are among the ten coaches running the programme across Andorra and Spain, where female participation has been in a steady decline since 2010.
Perez said: “The programmes have kicked off across the country and are going phenomenally well. Our coaches are discovering a whole new way of seeing coaching and are excited about the future. The feedback from the women participating has also been incredibly positive. I think it is clear that love.golf will be a great success here.”
One Spanish participant commented: “Honestly, I did not think that I would like it so much! Going out to the course early in the experience makes it very fun. You are more relaxed because you don’t have to take on so much information all at once. Instead, you get in touch with what the sport really is and just get hooked!”
The love.golf initiative, which is supported by the PGAs of Europe as a Golf Development Partner, has gained wide recognition for successfully challenging traditional perceptions and rewriting the standard model of women’s coaching. With methods based upon industry-leading research by Syngenta and academic study by Alastair Spink, love.golf removes many of the perceived barriers for women entering the sport, resulting in an engaging and unintimidating introduction to golf.
Alastair Spink, head coach and founder of love.golf, said: “The attitude of the Spanish coaches has been inspiring. They are focused, committed, and genuinely excited about the opportunity that the programme presents for Spain and Andorra. The success there speaks to the universality of our approach, and I look forward to piloting the programme in other nations in the near future.”
At the heart of the love.golf initiative is a progressive plan to grow and sustain female participation globally – a mission reflected in the pledges it made in support of the R&A’s Women in Golf Charter. In the coming months the programme will continue its global progression, venturing across the Atlantic to deliver a pilot to PGA Professionals in Canada.
For more information about love.golf, visit love.golf