Grassroots Must Be Encouraged To Grow

During my 10 years in Dubai I have seen and have personally been involved with a number of fantastic junior development schemes that have made great headway in establishing the framework for the growth of junior golf in the UAE.

I feel very strongly that junior golf is the future and a key fundamental element towards growing the pool of local golfers to service the vast number of courses that are currently on drawing boards around the UAE.

The UAE Golf Association has been instrumental in successfully putting in place the building blocks to attract children into the game, by means of the new YMG (Young Masters Golf) development programme. But how much more do we (as golf ambassadors, instructors, club managers) need to do?

There are currently 470 children between the ages of six and 10 that are registered on the YMG course and receive the very best tuition from UAE PGA professionals.

There are 200 children registered between the ages of 11 and 15, but as few as 32 between the ages of 16 and 18.

The trend is obvious to see. grass roots golf is thriving, the number of young children that are being given the opportunity to experience and learn golf is exceptionally healthy, but why such a dramatic decrease in numbers as children get older?

An even more alarming statistic is that there are only 60 juniors in the whole country that hold an official handicap.

It is clear to see that accessibility to practice facilities, the will of the children to learn and the dedication of the UAE Golf Association to develop the game at grass roots is strong, but what are the golf clubs doing to harness this potential? The answer is clear – not enough.

It is not just a matter of blame, there are some key factors at work here, the main one being the new weekend change introduced last year.

Children now share the same weekend as the rest of the Dubai workforce, whereas in the past schools had Thursday off and tournaments were much easier for clubs to accommodate.

The new weekend change has also created a weekday golf decline. Golfers are finding it more difficult to slide out of the office for a ‘quick knock’, which has adversely affected the clubs’ revenues and made it essential for clubs to fully utilise weekend golf, in order to produce the returns that the stakeholders are demanding.

Jules’ Gem - Tip Of The Week

“There is no simple solution, but it is essential that all UAE golf clubs look to the future and continually aim to develop their future golfers and create the additional framework for continuous junior golf development.”