Pros go back down to the grass roots

Jun 24 2009 by Tim Taylor, The Journal

NO doubt Sir Henry Cotton, the first golfer, and only golfer, apart from Sir Nick Faldo, to be knighted was looking down approvingly on Ian Woosnam at Slaley Hall yesterday from a well manicured fairway in the sky.

Three times Open champion, Cotton was one of the main driving forces behind the formation, in 1952, of The Golf Foundation, a British charity dedicated to bringing more young people into the sport.

Now, 57 years later, the foundation works in partnership with the golfing bodies and visits 5,000 schools each year, with more than 700,000 children benefiting from their initiatives and resources.

Woosnam, the former world No 1 and an ex-US Masters Champion, is at Slaley to practice for The De Vere Collection PGA Seniors Championship, which starts tomorrow with another Ryder Cup winning captain, Sam Torrance, also in the field.

Yesterday, Woosnam, former Ryder Cup golfer Costantino Rocca and another top pro, DJ Russell, conducted a clinic in a Newcastle School Sports Partnership Tri-Golf event for pupils from Wingrove Primary School, in Fenham, organised by the Golf Foundation.

Tri-Golf enables primary school youngsters to get to grips with the game using plastic clubs and sponge balls and Woosnam said: “This is what it’s all about – getting right down to the grass roots of the sport. The kids enjoyed every minute of it judging by the way they were laughing and smiling and I reckon there could have been a potential Tiger Woods among that lot.”

Jack Scorer, 11, said: “It was fantastic. These sessions through the school have been the first time I have had a go at golf and I am going to give the sport a try – it’s fun.”