The England Golf Captains programme has chosen to support the Golf Foundation as its nominated charity this year. The programme is now encouraging its membership to back the Golf Foundation with fundraising donations and thus play a key role in helping to secure the future of the game.
The message is that support from more captains can help the Golf Foundation – the junior charity that was founded by Sir Henry Cotton in 1952 – to ensure that more young people from all backgrounds can enjoy the benefits of golf. This includes reaching 500,000 boys and girls each year through the sport, starting in schools and communities, before encouraging more young people to play at club level and find a game for life. Last year, for the first time, over 50,000 youngsters were introduced to a golf club through the Golf Foundation’s programmes and 3,400 became members.
Contributions via annual ‘Captain’s Charities’ will mean more young people can experience golf thanks to the proven programmes of the Golf Foundation such as Tri-Golf and GolfSixes League, thus protecting the game in the years ahead. The Foundation stresses that all donations are welcome; whether the Foundation be adopted as a Captain’s Charity for the year, or as one part of such a donation.
England Golf is being highly supportive in this communication through its captains’ programme, which includes a series of eight regional captains’ golf tournaments before a Grand Final later in the season. England Golf is also spreading the message to members of the captains’ programme in newsletters and via social media. A dedicated website page explains the initiative.
Vanessa Bell, Head of Fundraising for the Golf Foundation, said: “We are hugely grateful for any donations made from golf club captains. We are also very much aware that captains have local and national charities they wish to support and, of course, we want them to continue to do so. However, we also want captains to play as much a part, as they feel able, to inspire and encourage the next generation into the sport, so any contributions they can make are welcomed.
“As the Foundation has worked with more and more golf clubs in recent times to help grow their junior sections, we want to highlight to captains that their support can play a huge role in our work and can make a direct impact on the clubs we support. We would also like to thank England Golf for the understanding of its team in the importance of this message to clubs in this country.”
Sam Czornyj, England Golf Membership Marketing Manager, said: “We are pleased to continue working closely with the Golf Foundation and to offer our captains this opportunity to support grass roots golf. We hope that the England Golf Captains will get behind this fantastic cause.”
(Image courtesy of Leaderboard Photography)