Won’t someone please think of the children? Well, we are, so it’s time to start ’em up when they’re young.
Golf Ireland announced a new schools programme which will target over 500 primary and post-primary schools to engage with the programme, more than 1,000 people to be trained in schools and community settings to deliver golf activities, and 200,000 participants over a five-year period in all golf development activities.
If you are of an Irish football persuasion (probably frustratingly so) then you will be familiar with the terms ‘legacy’ and ‘grassroots’ when it comes to Ireland’s EURO 2028 co-hosting and what impact, if any, hosting a handful of games in the Aviva Stadium will have on the future of Irish football as clubs and stadia struggle to avoid crumbling.
The eyes of the footballing world, or at least with peripheral vision, will be on Ireland for those select fixtures in four years’ time but the Euros arrive after a catalogue of elite golfing events have touched down on the island, three were already played this year (The Men’s and Women’s Amateur Championships and the Palmer Cup.)
Over the coming years The Ryder Cup, The Open, The Women’s Open, The Amgen Irish Open, The KPMG Women’s Irish Open, and The Walker Cup will garner the attention of the world.
Rather than wait until these world class events have come and gone, Golf Ireland must be praised for their proactiveness in ensuring that we create a golfing boom in tandem with these showcase events.
Golf Ireland plan to maximise the benefit of these events over a five-year period of investment (2024-2028) across three key pillars; Accessible Infrastructure, Targeted Participation Initiatives, and Awareness Campaigns.
The hope would be that Golf Ireland continue this programme after 2028 and don’t withdraw because the series of big events hosted in Ireland are over.
Golf is also great for kids and introducing it into schools and really getting down into the grassroots levels is long overdue.
What could honestly be more fun for a child than getting a ball into a hole?
Golf offers children the opportunity to learn life and social skills such as resilience, respect, and focus which should promote confidence and independence.
The social aspect of golf should give children a chance to make new friends and it is still a great way to get exercise instead of trying to throw a beanbag into a hoop!
Even if children try it for a term, and decide they don’t want to do it anymore, they will have had a term’s worth of some of those lessons and life skills: whether it be integrity, discipline, work ethic, or the camaraderie.
We cannot afford to wait for children to be of age to join golf clubs because while they may mostly be friendly environments they can be very overwhelming and depending on the strength of a club’s junior sector, it could take you away from your peers and leave you isolated.
Golf of course is in a constant battle with football, GAA, rugby and other sports to get people on board and the desired age profile is getting younger all the time.
Golf clubs could reap the rewards of a countrywide schools programme and give them a better opportunity to encourage primary and post primary children to join their clubs and also to be able to join with a certain level of ability under their belts which could make the transition from school to club to course less intimidating.
Golf Ireland’s decision to implement such a programme is timely.
On Friday just three Irishmen will tee it up at the Final Stage of DP World Tour Q-School. Last year six Irish travelled to Infinitum Golf but nobody came away with a DP World Tour card for this season after two of five won cards in 2022.
Irish golf is struggling to get a cohort of players established on the DP World Tour (or any tour really). Only Rory McIlroy, Tom McKibbin and Shane Lowry finished the DP World Tour season ranked inside the top 114 who kept their playing rights while McKibbin could be PGA Tour bound in the next two weeks which would leave Conor Purcell as Ireland’s only regular DP World Tour pro ahead of his rookie season on Europe’s top-tier.
Our female golfers seem to be booming with Lauren Walsh enjoying a blossoming rookie campaign on the Ladies European Tour and she and Sara Byrne could join Leona Maguire on the LPGA Tour next month if the Final Stage of Q-School goes their way.
Elm Park’s Anna Foster recently won on a mini tour event for her first professional win and she will join new professional Annabel Wilson at LET Q-School while Aine Donegan and Beth Coulter seem destined to turn professional sooner rather than later.
Children are going to be inspired to be the next Byrne, Donegan, Coulter, Lanigan etc and it’s important the momentum in the women’s game in this country continues to steamroll.
Golf Ireland were also granted €1.4 million for the development of a High Performance Centre in Carton House for ‘High Performance facilities for female and male national squads.’
It seems like Golf Ireland are starting to put an emphasis on building from the ground up and they should be commended for this, it’s time to start developing a generation of young players so we can match the numbers of the Danes, the Swedes, the Scots across the global tours, particularly in the men’s game where we have fallen behind.
That’s how you build a legacy, you work towards developing a golfing infrastructure ahead of the Ryder Cup, the Open etc you don’t was lyrical of the benefits and wait until afterwards to see if there’s anything left in the rubble. What comes of the schools programme is more important than how these major events will ‘boost the economy.’
Let the kids grip it and rip it.