MALTA GOLF ASSOCIATION LINKS UP WITH THE GOLF FOUNDATION

22/09/2009

During a courteous meeting between William Beck, MGA President, and Mike Round, CEO of the Golf Foundation, held at the Golf Foundation’s headquarters in Hoddesdon, England on Friday 11th September, information was exchanged on the Golf to Schools programme developed by the Golf Foundation in an effort to promote the game of golf amongst school children in Great Britain.

The Golf Foundation’s programme uses Tri-Golf equipment and resources for children between 5-11 years of age and Xtreme Golf resources for children between the ages of 12-19. The programmes are designed to introduce golf to young people, in their school environment, in a fun and safe way. Parallel to these programmes, the Golf Foundation runs a Junior Golf Passport designed to help young players learn about golf in a structured and mapped way. The Junior Golf Passport links the school learning with that of the golf club and helps junior golf committees to manage the progression of young golfers.

The Malta Golf Association aspires to take the game of golf to schools in Malta on very similar lines as the Golf Foundation has been successfully doing in Great Britain. The Tri-Golf and Xtreme Golf resources, apart from introducing the game in an environment well within the possibilities of school administration (indoor games), help children to identify with good Life Skills. Through the golf playing skills of putting, short game, long game and the golfer’s code, the programme encourages the individual’s personal skills of self-motivation, concentration and perseverance as well as those related to others – honesty, respect and co-operation.

The Golf Foundation has generously agreed to assist the Malta Golf Association with all the advice, resource materials and training workshops required to start a pilot scheme in Maltese schools and the groundwork has been laid to enable Development Officers to visit Malta and hold a training workshop as well as a junior golf festival for the identified schools in the pilot scheme.

The project is being coordinated with the KMS (Malta Sports Council) Sport Promotion Unit.