ENGLAND GOLF CONGRATULATES CASEY, DONALD, HOWELL, WESTWOOD
AND THEIR EUROPEAN COLLEAGUES ON RESOUNDING RYDER CUP SUCCESS
English golfers provided the backbone of the Ryder Cup challenge
at the K Club at the weekend. Paul Casey, Luke Donald, David
Howell and Lee Westwood each remained unbeaten in fourballs
and foursomes play as well as claiming victory over their
American counterparts in the singles matches.
The fact that each of these players has achieved success
having progressed through the various stages of grassroots
golf development in England augurs particularly well for the
future.
Paul Casey, currently ranked 17th on the Official World Golf
Rankings, enjoyed a distinguished amateur career in England
as well as in America. He won the English Amateur Championship
in 1999 and 2000. He was also a member of Great Britain and
Ireland’s victorious Walker Cup team in 1999 when he
was only the third player in the seventy seven years of the
event to record four victories without a single defeat.
Luke Donald, now ranked 8th in the world, played his junior
golf at Beaconsfield Golf Club, becoming club champion at
Beaconsfield twice, first winning the championship at the
tender age of 15. Luke was also a member of England's boys',
youth and senior international teams and was a part of two
victorious senior home international teams and one European
boys team.
David Howell, ranked 13th in the world, won the British Boys
Championship in 1993 and also represented Great Britain and
Ireland in the 1995 Walker Cup. The support he received at
his home club Broome Manor is well documented.
World number 50 Lee Westwood also had an illustrious amateur
career, having chosen to pursue a career in golf despite being
a talented footballer, cricketer and rugby player. He won
the Peter McEvoy Trophy in 1990, the Lagonda Trophy in 1992
and the British Youth Championships and Leven Gold Medal in
1993. As early as 1987, Lee triumphed at one of junior amateur
golf’s most prestigious events, the Weetabix Age Group
Championships, which is run by the Golf Foundation.
All this success has been achieved thanks to the development
programmes of the English Golf Union (EGU) that, since 2004,
has been a partner of England Golf along with the English
Ladies Golf Association (ELGA) and the Professional Golfers’
Association (PGA). England Golf is supported by Sport England
and the Golf Foundation.
The partners of England Golf are not resting on these laurels
however. In order to become 'The Leading Golf Nation in the
World by 2020' from grass roots right through to the elite
level, the partners published 'The Whole Sport Plan for Golf'
in 2005. An initiative supported by Sport England and the
Golf Foundation, the plan identifies how England Golf will
achieve this vision.
England Golf’s main objective is ‘Growing the
Game’ and its aspirations are to have more people playing
golf at all ages and of both genders, more clubs achieving
GolfMark, more players joining clubs, more and better coaches,
more support for volunteers and more opportunities for players
to realise their potential.
To achieve these aims, the partners of England Golf have
streamlined golf development programmes to ensure they are
more easily understood by existing and prospective players
of all ages. The EGU and ELGA have integrated and refocused
their development teams to concentrate on club and county
development. The partners are working to establishment County
Golf Partnerships to mirror the national partnership and demonstrate
how the sport can link with the single delivery system for
community sport. Research is also being undertaken to establish
Long Term Athlete Development principles appropriate to golf
in order to further develop the sport’s potential and
ensure the continued success of English golfers at every level.
High profile events such as the Ryder Cup provide a significant
boost to the perception of golf. The sport already has approximately
3 million regular participants and almost 900,000 club members
but there is also considerable room for growth across the
400 golf ranges and 2,000 golf clubs in England.
Golf has considerable advantages over other sports in terms
of attracting participants. It can be played by people of
all ages and both genders, it lends itself to both recreational
as well as competitive sport and it offers an opportunity
in sport for those who might ordinarily stop playing other
sports as they grow older.
Golf also has a well developed and accessible network of
places where people can play and learn the sport. It provides
opportunities for all participants to realise their potential
and, as the Ryder Cup demonstrated, it is also a sport that
can generate extraordinary passion whilst maintaining an unrivalled
spirit of sportsmanship.
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