A Northern double will boost Girls Golf Rocks this year. Yorkshire and Cumbria have joined Durham in the recruitment campaign which got more than 600 girls playing last year.
The number of counties taking part has grown from nine to 15 – all aiming to get more girls playing golf by offering coaching with PGA professionals and using young ambassadors from county squads to show how fun and sociable the game is.
Also joining the programme are: Bedfordshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Staffordshire and Wiltshire. They join Buckinghamshire, Cheshire, Dorset, Durham, Essex, Gloucestershire, Norfolk and Nottinghamshire.
Taster sessions will be held by PGA professionals in March and April, when ambassadors will be on hand to encourage the new girls.
Everyone who takes part in a taster session will then be offered five weeks of group coaching, leading to a fun day with the ambassadors featuring multi-skill challenges and the chance to play on a golf course. During 2016, the nine counties involved attracted more than 600 girls to taster sessions. More than 500 went on to take coaching courses and over 230 have already taken out some type of club membership. This coincides with a growing number of clubs and counties reporting an increase in girls’ membership rates.
Lauren Spray, the England Golf women and girls’ participation manager, said: “Girls Golf Rocks has been an amazing success and we’re looking forward to working with more counties and clubs.”
