The agreement with Titleist and FootJoy includes the supply of golf balls, gloves, shoes and bags for the England Mens Team, England Youth Team and England Boys Team for the 2000 golfing season. Titleist will also be the official ball, glove and shoe supplier to the golf shop at the National Golf Centre.
Mr Paul Baxter, Secretary of the EGU comments, “The EGU are very appreciative of the continued generous support offered by Titleist and FootJoy towards supplying the England International Teams. It is important that the players use the best available equipment when representing their country, and this is most certainly achieved through the quality of the products supplied by Acushnet”.
Mr Ken Graham, Director of Player Promotion for Acushnet also stated: “Titleist and FootJoy are proud to be associated with amateur golf at the highest levels, both the National Golf Centre at Woodhall Spa and all the national teams to whom we wish every success for the forthcoming season”.
Prosimmon Golf (UK) Pty Limited, sponsors of the EGU Associate Membership Scheme are to continue their sponsorship for a second year. Prosimmon have agreed to provide £60 000 over three years to help develop the game of golf at a grass roots level.
The Associate Membership Scheme, now in its third year, has already helped over 7000 non golf club members to take up the game – educating them on the Rules and Etiquette and allowing them to gain recognition of their ability through an official EGU/ELGA Associate Membership handicap.
The overall objective is to help these golfers gain access to golf club membership and current figures show that 40% of Associate Members after their first year have gone on to do so, highlighting the effectiveness of this grass roots scheme.
In addition to support from Prosimmon, the scheme has also been awarded funding for a second year from Sportsmatch – the Government’s Business Sponsorship Incentive Scheme for Sport, which is administered in England by the Institute of Sports Sponsorship (ISS).
Paul Baxter, EGU Secretary: “I am delighted that the EGU Associate Membership Scheme has had such a positive effect on grass roots golf and we aim to continue to help as many people as possible to gain access to this great game”.
The sponsorship money will be used mainly to attract more people into the game through Associate Membership and will also help fund another EGU grass roots initiative called ‘free golf coaching for beginners’. Dates and venues for a national campaign of free golf coaching between June and September will be announced shortly, benefiting thousands of potential golfers throughout England.
Marsh Sport & Leisure in partnership with Royal & SunAlliance has agreed to assist the EGU with the Junior Golf Development Programme in England for a second year. The programme has also received additional support from SportsMatch. The aim is to assist golf clubs coach more young people by helping to fund their coaching sessions.
Commenting on the scheme Peter Roxburgh, Director Marsh Sport & Leisure said, “We are delighted that so many junior golfers have benefited from the coaching programme in year one and hope many more will do so in the second year through the golf coaching grants.”
The sponsorship of the programme will give a welcome boost to the England Junior Golf Partnership’s plans for junior golf in England. The initiative will be delivered by the English Golf Union to encourage golf clubs to develop their junior membership and help deliver a structured Junior Club Coaching Policy.
The proposal again offers a grant of £100 towards junior club coaching and golf clubs applying will also invest another £100 making a total of £200. This will give boys or girls 10 free one-hour coaching sessions delivered by PGA professional coaches.
All golf clubs in England affiliated to the English Golf Union have been invited to apply for the grant on a first come, first served basis and the scheme aims to reach 6000 young golfers at 600 golf clubs in its second year. All golf club Junior Organisers have been notified and asked to promote the initiative within their clubs. The information can also be found on the EGU junior web site. Application forms are available to download.
In year one the funding has been granted to 285 golf clubs (£28,500). The statistical information indicates that 7.5% of their total club membership are junior golfers. The breakdown of this 7.5% shows 93% are boys and 7% are girls. Golf clubs are returning their lesson registration forms and following analysis the EGU will announce how many children benefited from the club coaching initiative in year 1.