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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