Some 800 schoolchildren have been introduced to the game of golf in the past year thanks to financial contributions from local businesses, according to Bermuda Junior Golf Association (BJGA).

BJGA chairman Quinton Sherlock jr announced yesterday that sponsorships worth, in total, $70,000 had made it possible for the sport to be "more affordable and accessible" to all of Bermuda's children.

"We at Bermuda Junior Golf Association would like to first thank Alan Thompson and Bob Wilson of Butterfield Bank, Zane DeSilva of Island Construction, Herman Tucker of Bermuda Security Group, Vince Ingham of BELCO, Gerald Simons of Argus, Wendell Brown and George Grundmuller of Phoenix Stores Limited as well as Kevin Petty and Bushara Bushara of Belmont Hills for all of your generous support of BJGA," said Sherlock.

"Last year (2007) we set out to reach new heights within our association. It is the support of this sponsorship, which allowed us to pursue our objectives."

Sherlock explained that because of donations, BGJA membership had risen to over 100.

"Our number of female members has risen from one to 13," he said. "The weekend novices programme began the year with over 70 members and at least 20 of whom have since been promoted to our tournament players' division.

"Currently, approximately 23 percent of our members attend Government schools compared to approximately five percent of last year's membership, indicating the broadening of the membership's background. Membership fees have been reduced within the Tournament Player Division from $275 to $200 and within the Novices Division from $270 to $45."

Sherlock said the plan to make golf more inclusive among children began with a BJGA strategic planning committee meeting in November, 2006, between himself, Curtis Ballantyne, Rawn Rabain, Braxton Stowe and Simon Van de Weg.

"The main focus of discussion was to focus on the accessibility of the sport to the community," added Sherlock.

"At that time, the association had approximately 40 members in total. This membership included only one female and a handful of novice participants. With this is mind, this committee set out a number of initiatives to expose a wider cross-section of Bermuda's young people to golf and to furthermore increase our overall membership.

"To accomplish such a task, we looked at reducing costs, making available quality coaching, entering schools across the Island to teach golf to students, offering free, girls-only golf clinics and to establish novice programmes within BJGA that catered both to boys and girls."

He said that after the commitments of financial support were received, their initiative went into full swing in the spring of 2007 with the launching of a number of free golf clinics for girls aged between seven and 17 at the Port Royal Golf Course.

"The objective of these clinics was to assess the interest in golf among local girls," said Sherlock. "Approximately 30 girls came out and received instruction. Many of those who participated went on to join our girls' novice programme in September, 2007."

Darrin Lewis, Acting Education Officer for Physical Education and Health at the Ministry of Education was instrumental in assisting golf's introduction to the school sports curriculum at Berkeley Institute, Bermuda Institute, Whitney Institute Middle School and Spice Valley Middle School.

"This initiative, which ran for approximately six weeks, saw over 600 students receive golf instructions during their regular physical education classes," explained Sherlock. "Students were taught the basic fundamentals of the grip, stance, swing and putting during these classes."

For five weeks from September, 2007, over 250 students received golf instruction at the Island's public Middle Schools. The exercises were made more rewarding as the students were using 'Starting New At Golf' (SNAG) equipment - hitting larger balls towards targets with larger clubs.

After four weeks of lessons with their coaches, two Middle School students per year level were selected to represent their school in an Inter-School competition.

This event saw all but one school compete at each year level. T.N Tatem won the M1 division, Dellwood Middle School won the M2 division, and Whitney won the M3 division. At the end of the day, Dellwood were declared the overall school winners.

"As we move forward into the second year of our initiative, we seek to offer further instruction to PE teachers that will allow them to teach the basics of golf using the SNAG equipment," said Sherlock.

"It is our intention that golf becomes a regular part of their PE curriculum. We intend to improve our novices programme by implementing rules/etiquette seminars and testing. "

We also have beginner equipment sets that are available to our members. To continue our efforts to attract more female members we intend to approach BHS to offer the SNAG experience to their students," he said.

Those interested in contacting the BJGA or learning more about its programmes can visit www.bjga.bm.