The Mt Osmond Golf Club had been running junior clinics, but after Golf South Australia approached the club to be a host venue of the SA Primary Schools qualifying rounds, club officials thought it an opportune time to become a MyGolf Centre.
And for the club, located just 15 minutes from the Adelaide CBD and with glorious views of Mt Lofty Ranges, the decision has proved a winner.
“We ran our first program every Thursday in Term 4, 2015 and it was very successful,” said co-ordinator Jenny Butcher, who is also a Community Instructor.
“We started some club junior activities and numbers started to grow, but some kids didn’t have gear, so to be able to supply the kids the participant packs with a golf club is a huge bonus,” she said.
“Also to be able to expose the kids to the national program is great.”
The coach of the program is PGA professional Ian Pritchard, who has been the PGA professional of the year in SA for the past two years. Ian is supported every week by Geoff Wagner.
Butcher, herself, is the 2014 SA Golf Industry Metropolitan Volunteer of the Year.
“We were supposed to finish our Term 1 program now, but will continue on the next few weeks because the kids love it,” she said.
“We have two six-year-olds in the group and even a four-year-old who can hit it 70m. They’re all having a lot of fun learning the basics. They all enjoy it – and the variety, too.
“We set up short games and have prizes for them and go through the challenges. The boys love to hit big shots. We just try and make it fun for them.”
Mt Osmond will run a school holiday ambrose event, using its “orange” short course, giving the MyGolfers their first on-course experience.
“I will involve the ladies from the club so there are enough walkers in each group to assist the kids as much as possible,” Butcher said.
“We will be running our program every Thursday from 4-5pm during term 2 and we expect it to be full again.”
Congratulations to Jenny and the team at Mount Osmond Golf Club on running such a successful MyGolf program.
The MyGolf Team looks forward to seeing your success continue.