A small school 15km west of Ipswich has made a big impact getting its students interested in golf.
Walloon State School has not only engaged 48 children in its after-school MyGolf Sporting Schools program, it has also generated large buy-in from parents, businesses and golf clubs in the community.
Grade 6 classroom teacher, MyGolf School Ambassador and self-proclaimed golf nut Jay Green has delivered the prototypical MyGolf program in the school for the past two terms.
Jay intended to deliver the program just in Term 1, but has been pleasantly surprised at the students’ interest in golf.
“I initially thought I would make the program available for grades 3-6, but when we received so many registrations, I had to run it over two terms to allow everyone a chance to participate,” Jay said.
“Because of large interest levels, I made contact with local business `Golf Gurus’ to help supply extra equipment and they came to the party with five full equipment kits for the students to use.”
Jay has been blown away by the interest in golf.
“The MyGolf program has been able to engage a large number of students who don’t participate in the traditional team-based sports and they have found golf to be a great individual challenge.
“I have seen some outstanding results in not only their skill development, but the confidence levels within a lot of the students has really increased dramatically.”
Jay completed the free Golf Queensland-based offer to become a Community Instructor, allowing him to teach his own programs.
To enhance the program’s quality, he then engaged local golf clubs.
“I made contact with both Rosewood GC and Laidley GC to see if we could take the students to the clubs for the program and they have been more than accommodating to our group,” he said.
“They opened up their clubs and allowed us to use their practice facilities as well as three of their holes to allow the students to get a true taste of playing golf.
“As we don’t have a bus, parents were asked to take their children to the clubs by car.
“This meant the parents were on hand to help their children and work on their skills together.”
After the program’s success, Jay wants to run it across three terms each year at Walloon SS. He plans to run a beginner, intermediate and advanced programs to cater for different skill levels and allow maximum participation.