This club is offering free golf to youngsters

A Kent golf club is offering free membership to juniors as part of a drive to encourage more youngsters to play the game.

Broke Hill Golf Club has said the offer has come about ‘after two assistant professionals who came through the junior ranks at the club together decided to take matters into their own hands’.

James Weekley and Ben Flint, who have both been associated with the club since they were 12 years old, encouraged club officials to waive the £230 annual subscription in the wake of a decline in the number of junior members.

As a result, the club is now offering a free junior scholarship to anyone under the age of 18 throughout 2017 with unlimited access to the course, group coaching, discounted lessons and free range balls.

James Weekley, Ben Flint and a junior golfer during a coaching session at Broke Hill GC

Weekley, 22, said: “It’s fantastic that the club have agreed to offer free junior membership.

“Everyone at the club is very supportive of what we are trying to do and we all want to see a thriving junior section. We want to make it as easy as possible for a youngster to come and play golf so it was decided that the best way to encourage that was to make it free for everyone.”

Flint, 22, said: “Myself and James were in the junior section together and we had about 30 juniors at the time. But people get older and if new youngsters don’t come in, it gets to a point where we don’t even have enough numbers for a junior team. So we wanted to do something about it.

“It’s not about finding the best golfers – we just want to see more young people playing the game.”

Weekly group coaching started this month and runs every Saturday, and the Broke Hill professionals are also planning to spread the word throughout local schools with coaching sessions to find under 18s who are interested in trying their hand at the sport.

Jon Pleydell, general manager at Broke Hill Golf Club, said: “We think it’s a great initiative. James and Ben have both been with the club a long time and are passionate about attracting more youngsters to join.

“In due course, we want to see the junior section flourishing and we are sure James and Ben will make it happen.”