Monty honours grass roots heroes at Wentworth

The heroes of grass roots golf were honoured at Wentworth on Wednesday as Colin Montgomerie, president of the Golf Foundation, met with volunteers, PGA professionals, junior organisers, schoolteachers and local authority officers to award some special achievements.

Montgomerie was performing his first official duty for the leading golf charity, whose aim is to make the game more accessible to children from all backgrounds through its 'Golf Roots' programme.

"All European Tour players need a start as a youngster and we are all thankful to a friendly PGA professional, a kindly club member or one of the family who gave their time to encourage us to play," said Monty.

Nine awards were presented on the eve of the BMW PGA Championship and Montgomerie added: "The award winners here today are great examples of this breed of people. Their efforts will help discover future Open Champions, Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup players, but also the many more young people who just love the game, and that's a fantastic achievement."

The award winners were as follows:

Mackenzie Award - North Worcestershire School Sport Partnership (SSP) Gus Payne Award - Royal West Norfolk Golf Club Bonallack Award - Croydon Schools and Addington Court Golf Centre Laddie Lucas Award - World of Golf 'Schools Go Free' campaign, Surrey Critchley Award - Birmingham City Council Gallacher Award - Angela Eadon of Leamington and County Golf Club Sinclair Award - Darren Stratman of Canford Magna Golf Club in Dorset Burroughs Award - Craig Thomas, from The Range, in Essington, Staffordshire Sir Henry Cotton Award, for long-term service to junior golf, was presented to Chairman of Golf Development Wales, Andy Morgan

For more information visit golf-foundation.org