Interest in junior golf coming to the fore
By Tim O?Connell
The meteoric rise and subsequent international interest in Danny Lee has given our younger golfers plenty to aspire to recently, but is this translating into feet on greens for our local clubs? For Shandon Golf Club, the importance of keeping junior players in the sport is not lost, and has been hard at work bringing the stars of the future out in the open. Shandon?s General Manager Travis Gawler says he hasn?t seen a diminishing of junior numbers, but is wary of the tendency for younger players to lose the will to play once funding becomes less accessible to them. ?If you look at the stats, once players reach 23 and they?re no longer deemed a junior, there?s a significant dropoff in numbers. ?We?ve been trying to get New Zealand Golf to have it revised to around 27, because until then players are still developing their career, and sorting out their domestic partnerships.? Harnessing the talent pool of youngsters in the Hutt has been the main objective of their junior academy, set up in 2007 by Peter O?Neill through his Port Nicholson Charitable trust. The academy, which currently has 100 children on their books, offers children from 7-15 years an opportunity for top coaching, eventually enabling players to obtain a handicap. Meanwhile over in the northern suburbs, Ohariu Valley Golf Club Manager Richard Ward says the club, which operates as a nine hole facility, still enjoys plenty of junior participation. ?There are a good number of junior players that come out, although we don?t have any formal programme for them as such,? he said. ?We have a team that competes regularly in the local interclub competition, and they tend to do very well.? But while buoyed by the ongoing interest from younger golfers Mr Ward believes the current state of junior golf at his club is neither out of the ordinary nor a reflection of any supposed decline. ?We?re still progressing along as per usual-nothing out of the ordinary.? Nationally, New Zealand Golf has already stated its intention to grow the game at all levels, with the release in 2007 of a three-year strategic plan for 2008-2010. The plan focuses on success in high performance, increasing overall participation and membership for golf clubs.
