Dollar Golf Club’s qualified coaches teaching clubgolf. Image by Rob Eyton-Jones.

Dollar Golf Club rebuilding its junior membership

NEWS RELEASE ISSUED BY CLUBGOLF
Dollar Golf Club is pulling out all the stops this summer to rebuild its junior membership. The club has produced some quality players; Scott Borrowman, Kelly Brotherton and Gary Chalmers amongst them. But like many others in Scotland its base of juniors has dwindled in recent years. “We have a legacy bringing on some good kids but until now it’s been focussed on this elite,” said Dollar’s recently instated junior convenor, Donald Malcolm. “There’s almost a lost generation and the break has happened as a result of the old way of doing things, when lots of families played and you had juniors coming through on a regular basis. But now many families don’t have the time to do that or it’s too expensive for them to justify.
“As a result we have had a severe loss of membership; I would be surprised if last year the junior membership was even in double figures. “We realised we had to do something, we need to get some youngsters in.”
This season Dollar’s junior dilemma turned a corner with Mr Malcolm taking on the junior convenor role. He had already seen the success of the national junior golf programme, clubgolf, in other clubs and decided to offer the programme.
“When I started I had no idea about how to get youngsters involved in golf,” admits Mr Malcolm. “But what I have learnt is that clubgolf has a fantastic approach, it is well structured and well run. And having attended the PGA Level 1 volunteer training I have a good idea about what can be achieved.
“The previous junior convenor’s parting advice was to make sure I get at least 10 people to help. That’s what I immediately started doing and I got a tremendous response from members. Four members have now become trained and qualified volunteer coaches, and the plan is for more to become trained. A further six members act as assistant coaches and organise competitions.
“The club has really gone for this and I’ve got a superb team. All of us have been reading the coaching manual and we had a couple of sessions to practise what we had learnt on the Level 1 course.”
To begin generating junior interest the volunteer coaches held junior taster sessions on Dollar Academy’s playing fields. This month they began running clubgolf coaching on the club’s course. “Taking the children on the course for putting and chipping last week really stimulated their interest,” said Mr Malcolm, who has attracted 15 children to the coaching. “This week we played some holes on the course.”
To ensure no stone is left unturned in bringing in more children and encouraging them to become members the club has superimposed an 18 hole clubgolf Stage 1 Mini Course on its existing course. At the same time it has introduced new membership categories which Mr Malcolm feels will appeal to children and families.
“A big course can appear quite daunting to children,” he said. “Our course lends itself to incorporating a Par 3. We have two nine hole Par 3 courses set up which we can play in a coaching and Stage 1 competiton context.
“It will be interesting to see where this leads. It might mean we can have an evening where we play family golf, either over 18 holes or on two nines. It gives us plenty of scope to run activities such as our Texas Scramble on a Sunday afternoon.
“We have brought in memberships for juniors such as accompanied golf where for £80 a year mothers, fathers, grandfathers and guardian can play with them around the course. “We’ve got a very affordable family golf deal, where a couple and two children can play for £350. The council has supported these initiatives very well.”
The club’s junior plan is still very new but already junior membership as already surpassed 40. Some of these children are boarders at Dollar Academy who will therefore not be active at the club during school holidays but there is vast potential to recruit children from nearby schools. For the past four years all 19 Clackmannanshire primary schools have - through their PE network supported by Active Schools - introduced every Primary 5 child to golf through clubgolf’s introductory game.
“We are on a learning curve but what we are trying to do is get to the grass roots and stimulate family golf by involving juniors at a very young age,” said Mr Malcolm.
“We are keen to get the message to children in schools that have been introduced through clubgolf and are interested in getting affordable coaching at a club. “We are also working with our ladies section to have something in place so that mothers who are bringing their children to coaching can have the opportunity to play and go away having had a positive experience.
“We are building for the long term - we have to restore family golf traditions at Dollar.” To find out more about junior coaching at Dollar GC visit:http://www.dollargolfclub.com/


Rob Eyton-Jones
clubgolf Media Manager