The Jamaica Golf Association took a major step forward to developing the sport with the launch of the National Schools Programme for Inner City schools in mid February after years of being unable to move forward due to  the lack of an accessible learning facility, funding, golf course availability and the challenge of building interest on the part of the schools.    

The construction of the Cable and Wireless National Golf Academy by the Urban Development Corporation with substantial financial contribution from Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews (R&A), signaled the era for change and the Association has taken full advantage of this.    The Academy serves many functions but one of its’ primary objectives was to assist with shedding of the stigma of the game as an elitist sport while attracting new aspirants to the game.  

The sport received an even bigger boost in August of 2004 when Jamaica was selected to host a Tiger Woods “In the City Clinic & Festival” event, again sponsored by Cable & Wireless Jamaica Ltd.   This three day gala targeted several hundred children from the Inner city and from this very valuable event has arisen the means to start the National Schools Programme.    

PROGRAMME OUTLINE

The Schools Programme is designed to facilitate the introduction of the sport to 18 schools in the Kingston area and will be centered at the Cable and Wireless National Golf Academy.      It will then move to St. Catherine, Manchester, St. Ann, Montego Bay (western region), Hanover and Westmoreland.       Twenty four students, ages 13 and Under, from six schools, will participate in the initial module of the programme.     These six schools took part in the Tiger Woods Clinic, namely Tivoli Gardens High, Trench Town High, Charlie Smith Comprehensive, Vauxhall, St. Annes and Denham Town High.    By the end of 2006, it is expected that all interested schools across the island, including Prep Schools will be enrolled in the Programme.   At the end of each year, the programme will culminate in the Cable & Wireless Interschools Championship, in the format of a Drive, Chip and Putt Competition to be held at the Academy.  

At the end of each module, the best two students from each school will be selected for an Advanced Developmental phase which will include further training       
and golf course playing time.                                                                                   

ENDORSED  BY THE GOVERNMENT

At the launch to announce the Programme, the Hon Portia Simpson Miller told an audience, which included Cable and Wireless's senior vice president - mobile, Ian Neita, Minister of Local Government, Community Development and Sport, Senator Bruce Golding,  JGA President Gordon Hutchinson, Vice President David Mais, and teachers and students from the participating schools, that  "We are marking a milestone in the development of a sport which offers much to our young people.  I feel immensely proud that the sport of golf can now be offered to our young people regardless of their economic status”.

Senator Golding also endorsed those sentiments "When I was growing up in Jamaica, I associated golf with the rich and the famous and the infamous and the people who had more leisure at their disposal than work to do. That is why this initiative on the part of the JGA is so significant because it is an outreaching from the golfing community ... this is a reaching out between uptown and downtown and a coming together of people towards an endeavour which will provide enjoyment, but I think much more than that can become an important agent of social change."

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