The Daily Telegraph Marriott Golf Roots programme – a Golf Foundation junior development initiative aimed at opening up golf to a wider audience – is now in its third year, and is again proving a great success. So far in 2005, more than 45,000 children have participated in Golf Roots, many of them picking up a club for the first time.
Backed by Sportsmatch – and winner of the Schools’ Sports award at the 2004 – and supported by the PGA European Tour, the funky urban golf programme has now expanded into nine cities across the UK – Colchester, London, Manchester, Newport, Portsmouth, Stoke-on-Trent, Swindon, Telford and Bradford – where it will be visiting primary schools, running schools festivals and attending public events, as well as training adult volunteers to become Junior Golf Leaders.
Children will be given the opportunity to pick up a club to play Tri-Golf – the Golf Foundation’s fun introduction to the game that uses plastic clubs and oversized balls – during curriculum time throughout October and November, when they will also have the chance to take part in inter-school tournaments.
In addition to the schools activity, Golf Roots also gives children and adults the chance to have a go at golf in a relaxed and fun environment by hosting open days in each of the nine cities – where everyone is invited to experience golf with the expert guidance of the local Golf Roots team.
Keith Perry, sports editor, The Daily Telegraph, sees Golf Roots as an ideal way of challenging perceptions about the game. “The Daily Telegraph is dedicated to golf with a team of top writers, as well as our support for professional golf events and our own junior golf programmes. Golf Roots is trying to make golf more accessible to a wider audience by supporting the game at a grassroots level, which we hope will attract more and more young players to the game.”
Alan Parker, chief executive, Whitbread Group, says, “Building on the overwhelming success of the last two years, Golf Roots 2005 is about introducing golf to new inner city kids as well as retaining the young players from previous years. This will be achieved through recruiting local volunteer Junior Golf Leaders to continue working in the inner city communities.”
Sportsmatch encourages sponsorship with matched funding for grassroots projects. In ten years it has motivated 4,000 companies to sponsor sport, generating a total of £78 million and has involved more than 10 million young people. Sportsmatch is funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport through Sport England
For more information about Golf Rootscontact Brendon Pyle at the Golf Foundation on 01929 876 200 or email brendon@golf-foundation.org
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