JUNIOR SUCCESS STORY
Rob Smith pays a visit to Fulwell, a Middlesex club successfully introducing more young golfers to the game we all love
PRuss Groombridge is Fulwell’s junior organiserrior to the pandemic in 2020, many clubs were struggling and the age profile of members was continuing to rise. Post Covid, and flexible working plus a greater appreciation of the benefits of participation have resulted in a significant boom. Many clubs now have substantial joining fees and lengthy waiting lists, but not everywhere. Nor will it last forever, so clubs should not be complacent. One healthy way to acknowledge this is to foster a thriving junior section. Not only will this generate the lifeblood and committee members of the future, but also create a healthier, multi-generation atmosphere.
One club doing very well in this regard is Fulwell in west London, just a mile from the Thames. Its junior organiser, Russ Groombridge, is a keen and very capable golfer who is also an assessor on the Golf MonthlyTop 100 panel. He took over the junior role at the start of 2022 and inherited a healthy quota of 60 to 70 youngsters. However, the section was very passive and probably fewer than 20 had a handicap. Other than two or three single-figure older kids who were very keen and took part in men’s competitions, most played casually and only sporadically.
Fulwell has two important plus points: an attractive, testing and well-bunkered course that is improving all the time, and a large catchment area as it is an oasis in the midst of suburbia. These on their own, however, are not enough. Russ, supported by the club’s directors and management, realised that there was much to do. The groundwork involved liaising with the office to obtain all the relevant information regarding parents and children, and then working on better communication. The parents’ WhatsApp group has grown to almost 100, but he also uses email and the noticeboard to post fixtures and relevant news and to celebrate successes. He has instituted simple, regular, fun events – nine-hole competitions in every week of each school holiday – where he can meet the juniors and their parents. These continue to be very popular and are the core activity for the junior section.
Everyone plays off the forward tees and this gives the older kids some variety at the same time as allowing even the youngest to join in. They are Stablefords, with nearest-the-pins, and there are jugs of squash afterwards along with an informal prize-giving, where everyone who has played receives a golf ball and a packet of sweets or chocolate.
As these became more popular, the next focus was to recruit more juniors and mix up the formats. To attract newcomers, the club ran open mornings and encouraged existing juniors to invite their friends to play in one of the nine-hole competi
