Goldfields Golf Club, located in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, is the winner of this month’s MyGolf Centre of the Month award.
Goldfields Golf Club first adopted the MyGolf program before the relaunch in July, 2014, and has continued to run the program throughout. Since adopting the program, 12 members of the club have completed their coaching accreditation and regularly assist and support junior golfers.
MyGolf co-ordinator Mark Baroni said the MyGolf program had provided a great introductory framework for juniors to learn the game through accredited coaches and PGA professionals.
Goldfields’ term 2/3 MyGolf program is held each Sunday morning and proves quite popular among the 46 juniors (37 registered MyGolfers). Mark is thrilled to have 15 of these juniors participate in the Goldfields’ regional development squad.
Goldfields will continue to run the MyGolf program during Term 4 and Term 1, 2016, but predominantly on-course. The juniors will able to put the skills they have learnt from the previous program into game-based practice.
“The older MyGolfers will be able to play off the junior tees (yellow tees) and the smaller juniors will play off temporary tees that are marked down the fairways to ensure they are able to have a positive experience,” Baroni said.
The accredited junior coaches at Goldfields have incorporated “athletic development” into their MyGolf sessions after the club purchased an array of sports equipment from a Department of Sport and Recreation grant it received. They use the equipment to break up the MyGolf sessions and make sure it is fun and exciting for the juniors.
“We incorporate silly relays into the warm-up and between sessions to keep the children engaged,” Baroni said.
“The juniors are required to run, hop and skip through the relays using rubber chickens as batons with the emphasis around fundamental skill development, coordination, balance and teamwork.”
Mark said that incorporating skill development in a fun and exciting way would help the children grow and do well at any sport, not just golf.
Goldfields uses MyGolf as the beginning of the club’s pathway for juniors, who can progress from the MyGolf program into club membership and have unrestricted access to senior competitions once they have approval from the junior sub-committee, match committee and course professional.
Mark and the junior sub-committee provide a sausage sizzle after each MyGolf session for the juniors and their parents. They also encourage the juniors and their parents to stay and socialise with other families in the clubhouse afterwards – a great way make friends and keep the juniors at the club.
Goldfields also promotes its own Smarter than Smoking Goldfields Junior Desert Open for MyGolfers. The Open will be held on September 30 and October 1 this year and include nine-hole and five-hole tiger tee competitions.
Congratulations to Mark, the accredited coaches and the junior sub-committee at Goldfields Golf Club on running a successful MyGolf program.
We look forward to seeing your success continue.