Competition finale for Largs juniors

20 August 2009

Largs Golf Club was one of the earliest clubs to see the potential of offering clubgolf coaching, soon after the strategy was launched in 2003.

Launched in 2003 following Scotland’s successful bid to host the 2014 Ryder Cup clubgolf is the partnership between the Scottish Golf Union (SGU), the Scottish Ladies' Golfing Association (SLGA), the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA), the Golf Foundation and sportscotland. It is a direct result of the Scottish Government’s commitment to introduce every nine-year-old child to golf.

This month 44 children from the Club’s junior coaching programme assembled for the annual end of year junior competition.  If this is a barometer of the interest the Club has generated in local youngsters then it shows their investment in juniors has been very worthwhile.
 
“We run the competition as the finale to the coaching,” said Jerr Scolin, one of the Club’s 11 clubgolf volunteer coaches.

“It gives the kids something to aim for. We’ve got a trophy at the end of it for the one with the best score and we’ve got a lot of prizes for the different age groups.”

When Largs committed to clubgolf its junior section was modest.  “We started off with a small number of juniors and it’s since then it’s grown to about the maximum number we can take,” said Jerr.

There are no secrets to the Club’s success in attracting and retaining juniors, though a large bank of willing volunteer coaches helps.  

“We find people here are very keen and dedicated to coach the juniors,” said Jerr.  “We don’t have our own practice facilities so our coaching is done at Inverclyde (sportscotland National Sports Centre).

“We have three coaching sessions every Sunday which are attended by around 55 children.  Because we’ve got so many coaches it doesn’t become too onerous on any one coach.

“Some coaches have stayed with us since the start but it’s important to keep looking for new ones and we put four new ones through training this year.”

The Club has also found a way around the challenge of fostering children’s interest at an age where most are too young to be allowed to venture onto the course themselves.

“We’ve created a ‘Sponsored Kids’ category for our five to twelve year olds, the ones we do the coaching for,” said Jerr, who coordinates this membership. 

“The kids can’t play on the course on their own, they have to go along with a member, so the member sponsors a kid and signs them in. 

“As long as the member who sponsors them is willing to take them out they can go as often as they like, 365 days if they want. It’s a great category and you see a lot of the kids from this category out on the course on summer evenings.

“We have 70 Sponsored kids, of which 55 attend clubgolf coaching, which is quite impressive.

“These children pay £20 a year for sponsored membership and £15 for coaching. 

“This allows them access to the course and gives them a taste of the real thing and then they can decide themselves if they want to keep going.”