Date: September 30, 2012
Author: Sarah Kennedy / Golf Australia
Located in Como, Perth, Collier Park Golf Course has been delivering the program since January, 2011. One of the first centres to register for MYGolf in WA, they now have over 50 participants taking part in the Skills Challenge, MYGolf Tour and other junior events. Collier Park has been awarded the MYGolf Centre of the Month for September due to the way they have embraced MYGolf and incorporated it into their existing junior program. Working closely with Golf WA and the local schools, Collier Park has ensured they have consistent numbers enrolling in their program. The following questions have been answered by Centre Coordinator and ALPG Professional, Emma Stewart. Why do you run a junior program? We run our junior program to give kids the opportunity to learn golf in a fun and enjoyable environment. It is fantastic and rewarding to see the excitement on the kids faces when they improve. We acknowledge that juniors are the future of golf, without the development of juniors the number and quality of golfers will decline. Our passion is to also increase the number of junior girls playing golf. Who runs the program? ALPG Golf Professional, Emma Stewart How you have found the MYGolf program and the benefits? The MYGolf Program has been an excellent addition to our Junior Program. We have seven primary schools in close proximity and the MYGolf Schools program run by Golf WA, has offered more exposure to our sport. Being a registered MyGolf Centre gives the students a local course to learn golf and benefit from the MYGolf National Skills Challenge & Awards Program. All our classes use the Skills Challenge Chart, it is a fun way for the juniors to gauge their own skill levels by setting goals and working towards achieving them each week. Parents love the Skills Program because they can easily monitor their child s progress by referring to the skills chart. The Program is successfully engaging both students and parents. Another key positive about the MYGolf Program is the Smarter Than Smoking MYGolf Tour (run by Golf WA). As juniors improve on their Skills Challenge Chart we encourage them to play the Tiger Tees event in the MYGolf Tour. This is a modified format where they are given the opportunity to play 5 holes once a month at different metropolitan Clubs. This highlights to the juniors how their skills directly relate to playing on course and is a natural progression. Any tips and ideas you can give to run the program successfully? Like anything, consistency is key. For a junior program to be successful you need to consistently have lessons, competitions, skills challenges and fun! The Skills Challenge Chart is used every lesson. We have found juniors enjoy practicing their skills knowing at the end of the lesson they will be given the opportunity to complete a new skill level. Focusing on one skill each week has proved to be the best approach to date. We laminate everyone s chart to protect them and keep all charts in one folder so they re always on hand for challenges in lessons. We use small colourful smiley stickers to mark what level has been achieved. They are a huge hit even for the older juniors! We have recently added the MYGolf Skills Challenges into our order of merit program. If a junior achieves level 5 in any skill they earn points to go towards the order of merit. This has added an extra incentive to focus when doing challenges.