The Golf Foundation’s ‘Commit to Junior Golf’ campaign has received substantial backing from De Vere, one of the UK’s world-class golf and luxury hotel groups.
De Vere pledged to ask all its golf members to support the appeal, which is raising funds needed to bring more youngsters into golf clubs, protecting the future of the game. The appeal is aimed at members of all golf clubs.
De Vere owns some of golf’s top courses, including The Carrick at Cameron House, nestled on the shores of Loch Lomond (home of the Ladies’ Scottish Open), Carden Park in Cheshire and Slaley Hall in Northumberland (venue for the 2008 Seniors PGA Championship).
Daniel Hodson, director of golf and leisure at De Vere, said, “De Vere is passionate about golf, and especially the development of new British talent. We fully endorse the Commit to Junior Golf campaign and will be encouraging all our members to contribute to such a worthwhile programme.”
The Golf Foundation is urging clubs to collect an optional £2 donation at the same time as the annual member subscriptions, believing this to be the simplest, fairest way to involve the highest possible number of members. De Vere will ask members for donations within its club subscription letters.
Mike Round, chief executive of the Golf Foundation, said, “The Golf Foundation applauds De Vere for this excellent proposal which could make a real impact for our campaign. Every golf club member we speak to says they would be delighted to set up a system where they can donate £2 for junior grass roots golf. De Vere has created the simple mechanics to create no-hassle donations that work brilliantly.”
De Vere’s gesture gets the fundraising appeal for 2008 off to a flyer. The Golf Club Managers’ Association, the R&A, the PGA and major golf course owner/operator, Crown Golf are all giving strong support for the campaign. Individual golf clubs that have signed up to the initiative include Tiverton Golf Club and Woburn Golf Club.
In order to satisfy the increasing demand for its national initiatives, that are encouraging many thousands of children a year to get into golf, the Golf Foundation needs more funding. Money raised is spent on initiatives like ‘Community Links’ that makes it easier for school golfers to get into clubs and provides the structured learning programme the Junior Golf Passport to help them learn the technical skills and also the positive attributes of golf, such as honesty, perseverance and concentration.
It is estimated that in the last year, the Golf Foundation played golf games with 700,000 children. Recently released government figures for sport in schools in England indicate that over the last four years the number of schools offering golf has increased from just over 3,000 to almost 6,800, and the amount of schools having formal links with golf clubs has also doubled.
Golf Foundation www.golf-foundation.org
De Vere Hotels www.devere.co.uk