NOT OUT

The Golf Foundation has been giving children their first taste of golf for seven decades, but its plans for the future remain as ambitious as ever

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Children have none of the preconceptions about golf that many adults share – they just want to pick up a club and hit the ball. The Golf Foundation is the charity that has helped young people to do this since 1952. Talk to its committed team and you soon discover they share much the same philosophy as the kids: it’s simply a great game to enjoy, and it should be enjoyed by everyone who wants to try it.

Sir Henry Cotton, who won three Open Championships either side of the Second World War (1934, ’37, ’48), said of junior golf: “We should give the game, without compromise, without intimidation, without prejudice, to as many as we possibly can.”

Cotton, along with Jack Burroughs of British Steel Golf Shafts, Walker Cup player Gerald Micklem and other allies, helped set up the Golf Foundation 70 years ago to put golf in schools. This year, the charity’s team is celebrating this legacy at selected festivals throughout the season, including fundraising activities, while hosting a unique celebration event at London Golf Club in October.

On its website, the charity is also asking readers to ‘Share Your Story’ about any personal links with the Foundation over the years, while this year the ‘Golf Is Ours’ campaign has been launched for all schools to bring golf into their teaching in a variety of simple ways.

Back in Sir Henry’s time, the Foundation started by experimenting with taking golf into six schools in 1952. By 1970, golf was played in 1,290 schools and in the era of the ‘School Sport Partnership’, this figure had risen to 44 per cent of all schools in 2010 (over 9,000).