Apollo Bay Golf Club, at the foot of Victoria’s Otway Ranges, is the winner of this month’s MyGolf Centre of the Month award.
MyGolf co-ordinator and president of Apollo Bay Golf Club Kerryn Wagstaff registered the club as a MyGolf Centre shortly after completing her Community Instructor training last year.
“We ran a junior program a few years ago at Apollo Bay, however it never really took off like we hoped it would,” Kerryn said.
Tony Collier, regional development officer at Golf Victoria, sat down with Kerryn and encouraged her to get the MyGolf program up and running at Apollo Bay and use the structured lesson plans and online registration that the program offers.
“We are still halfway through our first MyGolf program and the kids absolutely love it,” Kerryn said.
“The kids loved received receiving their participant packs, especially their very own 7-iron.”
There are currently 29 juniors participating in Apollo Bay’s term 1 program, which is a fantastic effort for the club considering they were expecting up to a dozen juniors.
“We are limited for space at the club and have to close the first and second tee to accommodate the 29 juniors on a Friday afternoon,” Kerryn said.
“The members and parents have embraced the juniors and offer their assistance where possible, which is great.”
Kerryn will look to continue running MyGolf programs throughout 2016, however recognises that a long, cold winter will see a few juniors go into hibernation for a few months on the Victorian coastline.
“I think we will look at moving the program from a Friday afternoon to Sunday morning in future, especially as it will start to get darker a lot earlier,” Kerryn said.
“The structure that the MyGolf program offers, including the session plans in the MyGolf Manual is fantastic.
“We will look to keep the program fun and make sure the kids get to play the course every now and again, which will hopefully keep them interested and active in golf over other sports in the local area.”
Congratulations to Kerryn and her team at Apollo Bay Golf Club for implementing and delivering a successful MyGolf program.
The MyGolf Team looks forward to seeing your programs continue to succeed and grow.
Keep up the great work!