Cornwall Golf Union
CGI's Deliver for Duchy
CGI Mick Fox with Golf Access Director Simon Wood
In March 2024 Cornwall pushed to become one of the first counties in the country to embrace the Community Golf Instructor (CGI) programme run through England Golf.
Cornwall Golf recognised the qualification would be a game changer for golf development. The relationship between our development officer Richard Bunch and the England Golf Workforce and Volunteer team in just 12 months has proved a huge success. We have held two CGI courses in Cornwall to date in March and July 2024 and a further one planned for March 2025. Cornwall has 25 CGI's working in Clubs, Schools and other community projects. Through last summer we were introducing and delivering golf instruction to over 700 children and young people each week.
The success of CGI's is typified through the excellent work being delivered by Falmouth member Mick Fox. Mick was one of the first CGI's to qualify in Cornwall and the contribution he has made to golf development has been truly amazing. Mick has always been a strong supporter of Junior golf in the county and he continues to deliver fully embracing his new skills as a CGI.
Already at Falmouth he has run 4 "Get Into Golf" 5 week courses, with 10 participants on each course.
22 of these went onto the Golf Access programme funded by the CGU. Mick organised a one hour tee time slot with the club each Sunday so the golfers didn't feel pressured by other golfers on the course. 7 of the 22 were girls who are all still playing. 9 of the group are now working towards attaining their first WHS handicap.
9 of the group have been passed onto the Asst Professional Rob MacGregor which is generating income for him. They are having private lessons on a weekly basis.
Mick organised a junior open day at Falmouth Golf Club where they could try out putting, chipping and hitting shots in the nets. The club provided a goodie bag for each of the 38 children that attended that day. This was funded through the clubs junior section.
In addition to this Mick organised a Golf Access open day inviting golfers from Budock Vean, Mullion, Tehidy, and Carlyon Bay to compete against the Falmouth Golf Access team.
There is more with a Junior Christmas Turkey Trot which involved all his new Golf Access players. They had 58 players including mums and dads with 102 eating Christmas dinner. They had every tee sponsored, a raffle and an auction raising a total of £1390.00.
It doesn't stop there for Mick with more courses planned starting near to Easter. In the meantime he has been running an after school group at Mawnan Smith Primary School where he works. 4 of this group have already signed up for his easter courses.
The result of this hard work is that five of the Dads from his group have started playing and joined as members at Falmouth so they can play with their children.
Lesley Upperton - Budock Vean
In addition to the above the good work being done by Budock members Lesley Upperton and Denise Power both newly qualified CGI's needs to be recognised.
The club has now 25 junior members which they work with each week. They have grown their numbers by holding a junior open day which 20 children attended.
.They have also held
2024 I held 2 "Get into Golf" courses for women and 7 ladies attended. They have had success with ladies joining the club and one of which has been a new girl. In addition to this they have organised a lunch to introduce five more ladies to the club and the game.
Lesley and Denise are starting a new ladies beginners course starting on 1st March 2025, with 6 confirmed attendees.
As you can see from the two studies above the work of CGI's is clearly having a positive affect on activity and getting people of all ages interested in playing golf. There was no structure to develop the game in this way 18 months ago. You can clearly see that CGI's are having a positive impact. Think what such activity could do for your club in generating memberships and supporting your clubs own workforce.
For further information please contact the development officer Richard Bunch at development@cornwallgolfunion.ork.uk
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