England Golf award Warwickshire funding for development

England Golf has awarded the Warwickshire County Golf Partnership £25,000 over the next three years to support the development of golf within the county.

The Warwickshire County Golf Partnership was formed in January 2008 and is an alliance between the Warwickshire Union of Golf Clubs, Warwickshire Ladies County Golf Association and the Warwickshire PGA, with a mission statement of “Developing and encouraging golf in Warwickshire”.

Over the next year the Partnership will receive the first £10,000 towards the implementation of its countywide development plan, which has objectives including increasing the overall number of people playing golf in Warwickshire by 3% by promoting golf club based Free Golf Coaching sessions. The partnership aims to get 20% of clubs accredited to GolfMark by 31st August 2011 and also help to increase the number of active members of affiliated clubs where vacancies exist.

Richard Flint, EGU/EWGA Golf Development Manager, commented, “The Warwickshire County Golf Partnership are looking at a variety of different ways to fulfil their aims and along with recruitment and retention actions, they will be supporting player development programmes, coaches (volunteer and professional), providing training and recognition for volunteers, promoting good practice and supporting both affiliated and non-affiliated facilities.”

John Stubbings, Chairman of the Partnership, added, “The Partnership is looking forward to working with all golf clubs and facilities in the county to help promote the game of golf and improve the standard of play and is grateful for all the support received from the golf clubs and volunteers”.

The Warwickshire County Golf Partnership is currently one of 28 county partnerships that are developing throughout England. Their aim is to bring together the three main golfing organisations, the EGU, EWGA and the PGA, with support from the Golf Foundation, and utilise their combined knowledge, experience and resources to support and expand golf within a county. To date, almost £500,000 has been committed to develop golf through County Golf Partnerships.

County Golf Partnerships are an initiative that have been introduced via England Golf’s ‘Whole Sport Plan’ for golf and are an integral part of England Golf’s vision to ‘Grow the Game’.

More information on County Golf Partnerships can be found on the 'For Golf Clubs' section of the EGU website, and then click on 'Info for Counties'.