Forget Glastonbury; your ‘Tee‘ in the Park groove this summer comes from the Golf Foundation – and you might hear it blaring out from a few Captains‘ and Lady Captains‘ car stereos over the coming months.
This could be where The R&A meets R&B; the Foundation‘s development team worked with Bristol youngsters to put together the ‘Tri-Golf Rap‘ – music and film footage that celebrates its hugely successful Tri-Golf initiative in schools and community facilities.
The Tri-Golf Rap can be experienced now on the Golf Foundation website – www.golf-foundation.org – and click on ‘Schools‘. It is aimed at entertaining and inspiring youngsters but also the young volunteers who mentor them.
The message of the music is that golf is fun and can be enjoyed by all youngsters. It will be used to promote golf to young people at Tri-Golf festivals and also Golf Roots events throughout the summer. Golf Roots is reaching youngsters in 16 cities and urban areas in 2009.
Tri-Golf is a safe, fun format golf game that is part of a golf revolution in schools. With plastic clubs, soft balls and colourful targets, more than 700,000 youngsters are having a go at Tri-Golf every year. Golf has recently been recognised by the government as the second fastest growing sport in schools. Some 38 per cent of schools now offer golf in the curriculum (as opposed to 23 per cent in 2005/06), and 22 per cent of schools now have formal links with golf clubs and driving ranges.
The figures don‘t lie but the music‘s a lot more fun! Regional Development Officer for the South West Steve Scott-Bowen teamed up with Bristol college rapper George Bullock, the Local Authority and ‘Mat the Hat‘ – an expert sound engineer who has worked with Massive Attack, one of the leading bands of the 1990s, to make the music as part of a community project.
Film footage accompanying the piece was recorded at a recent Golf Foundation Tri-Golf festival, one of many which have taken place this summer to welcome new youngsters to the sport from all backgrounds and abilities.
Brendon Pyle, National Development Manager for the Golf Foundation, said: "While the Rap was a bit of fun in a community project it also came about because of a sense of local partnership, and this is something the Golf Foundation has come to specialise in as the leading golf charity. Hopefully, the rap will inspire young children and also the young volunteers who are helping us to reach more and more boys and girls through golf.
"We work hard with the national golf partnerships of England, Scotland and Wales to grow the game. We have teamed up with 326 school sport partnerships and we work constantly with teachers, volunteers, PGA professionals and sports officers to help make golf more accessible for youngsters everywhere.
"Initiatives like Tri-Golf and our Golf Roots project, which targets hard-to-reach youngsters in 16 cities, demonstrate how we have been able to adapt to offer golf to youngsters in a changing sport, education and leisure landscape. The fact that golf is second only to cycling in terms of speed of growth in schools really is very exciting."
The Tri-Golf Rap will be enjoyed as the Golf Foundation prepares to welcome youngsters from all over Britain who visit The Open Championship at Turnberry. The Foundation is present for the whole of Open week (12-19 July), working alongside the PGA and clubgolf as guests of The R&A, a strong supporter of the charity. An estimated 4,000 youngsters are expected to visit the R&A Junior Golf Centre during the event.
Golf Foundation www.golf-foundation.org