Golf Foundation President Nick Dougherty hosted an afternoon celebrating the great and good of grassroots junior golf at Wentworth Club, on the Wednesday afternoon of the BMW PGA Championship.
Over 100 guests gathered in the ballroom of the historic clubhouse, after spending the day watching celebrities and superstar golfers take to the course side by side.
It was the other end of the game that was being celebrated here. After receiving some incredible nominations for the five awards, the judging panel invited the winners to receive each award from Dougherty and share their story of impact over the past 12 months.
After launching Unleash Your Drive in Schools at Wentworth in September 2023, it was fitting to celebrate the impact of the initiative first up. The mental wellbeing programme has seen over 1,000 schools register their interest, and St James the Great received an award for their work over the first year.
The school have had over 100 pupils on the programme, and PSHE lead Michelle Reagan shared stories of youngsters using mental toughness tools in class and at home. A choir of 10 of the golfing youngsters also welcomed guests into the event before sharing their own mental toughness highlights with Dougherty.
The Community Project of the Year award went to Bring It On Brum, whose work with the Golf Foundation has seen four years of impact introducing golf and mental wellbeing to children from deprived areas around Birmingham. The joint initiative has seen golf introduced to more than 2,000 youngsters across 28 local youth and faith groups and culminated each year in a celebratory festival bringing more than 100 participants together.
The third award of the evening was the Dinah Oxley ‘Young Spirit of Golf’ award, named after the former British Girl Champion and member of the Curtis Cup side.
It celebrates a youngster who has lived the values of the Golf Foundation, and showcased what golf should be about – George Hughes was the deserving recipient, who had the room in tears with his moment in the spotlight. Through a series of charity initiatives and challenges, seven year old George has raised £100,000 for the Freeman Heart And Lung Transplant Association since his father passed away during a heart transplant in 2018.
Junior Club of the Year Royal Dornoch celebrated the work they have been doing in the local area, where it is estimated that they reach more than 50% of the primary age children. The club put on 75 regular golf sessions in local schools, and more than 100 juniors take part in activity at the club every week, showcasing the school and club link that the Golf Foundation are striving to introduce across the home nations.
Finally, the evening was rounded off with the presentation of the Sir Henry Cotton award, named after the founding father of the Golf Foundation and former Open Champion. The award is given for a lifetime achievement in the game, celebrating someone who has had an effect on youngsters over an extended period. Mark Johnson has done just that at Styal Golf Club near Manchester, where he has helped countless children to enjoy golf and its wider benefits for the past 25 years, including helping one boy with autism for the last few years and making a massive difference to the boy’s resilience, concentration and confidence through the game.
“It’s special,” said Johnson after receiving his trophy. “A lot of the time it can be a thankless task, even if the smiling faces at the end of the day are great, so it’s nice to be acknowledge and it is really appreciated. Seeing the life skills the youngsters have developed over my time doing this has been amazing, and I’ve lost count of how many kids I’ve seen come through our programmes and go on to a career in golf, as well as becoming doctors, lawyers and working in all areas of life. That’s an amazing feeling.”
“It’s been hard picking out just five stories,” added Nick Dougherty, “but we’ve managed to do so. There have been so many amazing stories of impact this year, and the significance of celebrating these incredible people is that they’re choosing to use their time to make a difference, but also showcasing exactly what we’re about which is using this great game of ours as a vehicle to make lives better for children. We’ve had a great time here celebrating the people that are doing just that, helping to express the message we are trying to tell. We’ve seen huge growth in exposure and some great results over the last year, and these are the people at the forefront of doing just that.”
To find out more, visit www.golf-foundation.org
All photographs shown in this report © Matt Greaves